Q: "Do I need a personal brand?"
A: This is a trick question.
A while back, one of you asked me what I thought of this Lithub piece.
In it, a literary writer I’ll call “Mr. Lithub” takes a long time to get to the point that he doesn’t think authors should feel obligated to cultivate Personal Brands. He tells them:
[In the matter of personal branding, a healthy] attitude, to paraphrase Fugazi, is to look at the reader (or “the public,” if you prefer) and say, I don’t owe you anything. Just the book. Just the words. A work of art should be its own explanation.1
Mr. Lithub says this in the last paragraph of his piece. Before that, he spends approximately 40 paragraphs meandering: critiquing Liz Phair, Disney Adults, Britney Spears, Sheila Heti, and of course—completing the #VersoCore Bingo Board with its central square—“late capitalism.” He also manages to drop that he hung out with two members of Sonic Youth once.
Here’s what I think of Mr. Lithub’s essay, dear reader: I don’t hate all of it.
He argues, for example, that authors shouldn’t conflate their worth as a person with the success or failure of their art, and I agree HARD with that one.
As for his ending, however: [smug little smile] I think it’s a bit ironic.
If you read Mr. Lithub’s essay, you’ll see it’s a protracted exercise in personal branding. The constant references to his eyewitness participation in Gen X DIY culture. The numerous reminders that he’s familiar with Semiotext(e) and can totally quote Bakhtin, but he makes learning fun by referencing Marvel movies and Selena Gomez. What is he doing here if not selling himself?
Mr. Lithub’s essay is completely of a piece with the rest of his brand: his essay collection for Graywolf; his literary novels; his other articles; his teaching work; his choice of speaking agent; his headshots; his choices in website design—I could go on and on and on. He strikes me both exacting and deliberate in his self-presentation as Slavoj Zizek 2.0: an ambitious public intellectual with one foot in the academy and one in pop culture.
Mr. Lithub has in fact been incredibly successful in his self-presentation. Here’s how I know: despite a consistently soft sales track in Circana, he keeps getting book deals with major commercial publishers. As an agent, I know this has to be at least somewhat thanks to his cohesive, impressive, wildly disciplined personal branding.
I am going to stop being a bitch now and emphasize that THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH ANY OF THIS.
I am genuinely impressed by Mr. Lithub. I love the kind of cultural criticism in which he appears to specialize, believe it or not.2
God bless anyone who is writing anything serious against the vapidity of fascist art, culture, and thinking in the year of our Lord 2024. And you know what? Mr. Lithub wouldn’t be getting all of those book deals if his writing weren’t just as compelling as his résumé.
I’m just super annoyed by Mr. Lithub’s take on personal branding in that essay, is all. Because it’s disingenuous.
As for the rest of you:
For God’s sake, do as Mr. Lithub does, not as he says.
If you are an author trying to make a somewhat survivable living through a book deal or series of book deals with a reputable for-profit publisher—hell, even one of the tonier nonprofits—you absolutely need to think about your personal brand. Do not “resist” this for any reason, even and especially if you think it’s beneath you.
PLEASE.
Walk with me; I’ll explain.
What is a personal brand?
When those of us who support authors for a living tell you that you need to care about your personal brand, what is it we’re talking about?