• The Do's and Don'ts of Self-Promotion (Michael J. Seidlinger, Marketing & Publicity, Authors Guild, 1-31-17)
People best connect with the work of someone they can relate to. Moreover, readers stick around and follow an author if they develop a stake in his or her career. By being involved in a community, you are able to see things from all sides. People will get to know you as someone dynamic and genuine. You will be far more successful promoting your work when it doesn’t feel like a sales pitch to both you and those that might be there to listen.
• For Whom the Shill Toils (Paul Devlin, Book Blitz, Slate, 10-13-06) A book of Hemingway arcana, Hemingway and the Mechanism of Fame: Statements, Public Letters, Introductions, Forewords, Prefaces, Blurbs, Reviews, and Endorsements (2006), demonstrates that when self-promotion is done by a marketing master, it can approximate art. Unlike, say, his retiring contemporary and chief competitor William Faulkner, Hemingway had many of his exciting exploits recorded by press photographers. He got in on everything, even the D-Day invasion. He was always showing up in some high-circulation magazine like Life with a big fish on the hook or hunting rifle in hand. His visage was (and is) immediately recognizable. And he had no problem letting that familiar visage appear in ads, for which he also wrote the copy.
"Though the editors clearly feel a duty to the historical record, what they do not acknowledge is that literary self-promotion has had a long and rich history in the United States. Unlike their European counterparts, who could rely on the patronage of kings, nobles, or government-funded churches, American writers have long had to keep an eye on money, marketing, and “self-legendizing.”
• 13 Tips for Promoting Yourself Without Sounding like a Jerk (Darren Rowse, ProBlogger, 7-30-2020)
Among them:
1. Do good stuff. Make sure your content is worth finding. If you’re a blogger, you need to be blogging well. If you’re blogging on a specific niche, you need to understand it and have something worthwhile to say about it.
2. Don’t think of it as self-promotion. Think of it as promoting ways you can use your talent, knowledge and expertise to help other people.
4. Be a learner, and share what you’re learning.
5. Tell stories.
6. Let people interpret the facts for themselves. Include facts in a story rather than lead with them. But if people ask you point blank about your credentials, feel free to use the facts on their own.
10. Let other people promote you.
11. Build meaningful relationships. When you have the opportunity for some one-on-one time with people, make the most of it. Engage with them, listen and respond to their questions, and be genuine. Etc.
• What Your LinkedIn Profile Should Look Like (Kristen Bahler, Money, 1-17-18) Be social: Accept connection recommendations. "Nail the voice." Add some personality to your professional story (don't sound like a résumé). Engage with others. Keep your profile alive.
---Beginners Guide to LinkedIn (MOZ) Keep your company page up-to-date. Use the products and services spotlight. Establish yourself and your brand as a thought leader, an authority in your area of focus. Don't overdo self-promotion; build customer advocates. Complete your personal profile thoroughly and honestly. And so on.
• How Writers Build the Brand (Tony Perrottet, New York Times, 4-29-11) Amusing essay on author self-promotion from Herodotus on, including Balzac, Colette, Guy de Maupassant, Gerald of Wales, Ernest Hemingway, Georges Simenon, Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, Virginia Woolf, and Grimod de la Reynière (who carried promotion to an extreme). Stendhal is quoted as saying, “Great success is not possible without a certain degree of shamelessness, and even of out-and-out charlatanism."
• How Colleen Hoover Rose to Rule the Best-Seller List (Alexandra Alter, NY Times, 10-9-22) With legions of devoted fans and a knack for high-voltage emotional drama, Hoover has sold more than 20 million books. And she’s done it her way. (Alexandra Alter, NY Times, 10-9-22) With legions of devoted fans and a knack for high-voltage emotional drama, Hoover has sold more than 20 million books. And she’s done it her way. Her success has upended the publishing industry’s most entrenched assumptions about what sells books. Her devoted fan base has given her a degree of control over her work that is unusual in publishing. She got her start self-publishing and has continued to do so on occasion, but has also struck deals with multiple publishers, sometimes selling print rights and keeping the e-book rights. She’s written romances, a steamy psychological thriller, a ghost story, harrowing novels about domestic violence, drug abuse, homelessness and poverty. Though her books are hard to categorize, most of them have an addictive combination of sex, drama and outrageous plot twists.
• The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week (Joan Stewart's tips, tricks, and tools for free publicity) Lots of material here! Sign up for tips.
• Building Your Author Platform (a section of its own, elsewhere on this website)
More to come.
Feel free to comment, particularly if something you've done to promote yourself or your work that really paid off.
Tell us how and why (and how long it took before you knew it worked).
-- Pat McNees