The secret to self-promotion

Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and promoting your book on the Internet
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materurbium
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The secret to self-promotion

Post by materurbium » June 20th, 2011, 11:23 am

Hi y'all. I'm new to this forum. Greetings from Prague.

I've been following Nathan's blog for a little while. I'm a writer like most of you probably are, and I've brought this up the topic of self-promotion in other forums. But I'm curious to know what experience any of you have, and what you consider important with regards to self-promotion. Here's what I think is key:

I understand the temptation to self-promote at every turn (and I agree with it to a certain extent). But aren't we missing the point here if we think that writing two or three lines in a comment reply and then pitching our site or book link will bring the readers we want?

I think it comes from short-sighted goals on our side. We think the goal is to sell books. But the real goal is give readers (whether they're reading our comments or our books) something of value. Every time we write we are competing for a reader's time and attention. When we educate or entertain, people pay attention. If not, they're on to something else. Think of all the web sites you visit regularly. They give you something of value. That's why you go back to them. And these are the readers you want for your books. Readers like yourself. Sometimes I think we expect readers to act differently than we do.

The point is this: Anything you write is an advertisement for you as a writer. Every comment, tweet, or blog post has an impression on readers, so make it good. The best promotion you can do to get others to look at your books is to write well and have something to say wherever and whenever you write.

Materurbium
www.materurbium.com

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knight_tour
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Re: The secret to self-promotion

Post by knight_tour » June 20th, 2011, 12:18 pm

I love Prague. It's the most beautiful city in the world, in my opinion. I'm moving to Budapest this summer.

I think that pure self-promotion will tend to bore readers. You need to provide interesting information or stories for them instead. I'm not the best to respond to this, however, as I still don't draw meany readers to my blog despite doing it for three years now.

Claudie
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Re: The secret to self-promotion

Post by Claudie » June 21st, 2011, 12:43 am

knight_tour wrote:I love Prague. It's the most beautiful city in the world, in my opinion. I'm moving to Budapest this summer.
My sister is visiting it at the moment. I hope she brings back a gazillion of pretty pictures and weird tales (she has a talent for finding weird tales).

On the topic proper...

I think readers can tell if you are only somewhere for the self-promotion, and they get annoyed with it (which is counterproductive). It's okay to link to your blog or book, especially in a non-intrusive way (such as signatures on forums) or in places where you know the readers are looking for you (say, on Twitter (but don't spam their feed with only links. I hear they don't like it much either).

The trick, I think, is to make yourself easy to find with such links. Then you start participating in the community. I don't do a lot of self-promotion. I'm here to be a part of the online community, to learn from it and hopefully teach it something. I'm here to support fellow writers in any way I can, because their brilliant minds constantly help me along my journey. That's what I think about when I comment or post. That's what really matters: the community.

When you are open and interesting, people come to you. Self-promotion, to me, is a question of giving to the community. It'll give back, without you even asking.
"I do not think there is any thrill [...] like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success... Such emotions make a man forget food, sleep, friends, love, everything." -- Nikola Tesla

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