First, consider your context. Fast food chains promote vigorously, as do soda companies, porn vendors, alcohol labels, and your local casino or lotto. And you’re perplexed about promoting something that might actually help someone?
Then consider the amount of work you’ve invested in this thing. Hours, right? Hours upon hours. If you’re going to spend that much time on something, don’t you think it might be worth having a few people read it? I mean, yes, you got it out, and that does serve a purpose, but unless we’re talking about your personal journal, you wrote this for other people to read. That’s the whole point. Don’t waste the effort you invested in creating it by failing to invest at least that much effort in promoting it.
And how will you get better if you don’t get feedback from people who read your stuff and tell you what they think? Sure, you should do this before it goes to print, but the more feedback the better.
No one is going to do it for you. Your publisher if you have one has a budget that it will use to the very best of its ability. But bestsellers rarely, if ever, become bestsellers because the publisher made it happen. Much more often it’s because the publisher deftly supported an author who hit the ground running and didn’t stop until the world heard what she had to say.
Finally, consider the fact that if people read it, you get to keep doing more of this thing. If not, it becomes that much harder for you or your publisher to stay motivated. One of the most anguishing realities in publishing, and I speak for a lot if not all of us on this side of things, is the awesome books we publish that never get much of a hearing. It’s heartbreaking (to say nothing of the financial loss, which just adds insult to injury). So heartbreaking, in fact, that we publishers want to avoid the experience if at all possible.
You don’t have to be a skuzzball to promote your stuff. You can have some class. Remember, this isn’t really about you or your ego. This is about helping people, it’s about the fact that you care and you want your readers to leave your book or blog better than they came to it. The great thing is, you don’t have to guess what bloggers you respect are doing. You can visit the twitter feed of Jon Acuff or Michael Hyatt or Rachel Held Evans or Chris Brogan or Mary DeMuth, and you can see exactly how they avoid coming off as used car salesmen. It’s safe to say they don’t because they wouldn’t have the following they have if they did.
Get out there.
Please, for the world’s sake: Get. Out. There.
13 Responses
Chad, thanks for entering into the publishing conversation with such bravado.
Well, thank you for inspiring me to do it! I’ve learned a TON from the The Books and Such blog (http://www.booksandsuch.biz/). Thanks, Janet. Your comment means a lot to me.
Chad, “skuzzball” crackkked me up! Thanks for tackling this issue with humor and grace. We often wonder how much self-promo is just too darn much. I, personally, get turned off by the “me-me-me” folks who wear me out with dozens of auto-tweets a day and offer nothing of additional value to the writing community. I think there needs to be a gentle give-and-take relationship with our followers, being ever-mindful of the fact that HOW we approach self-promo speaks volumes about our character. I love to encourage/inspire folks, and I often RT my older blog posts that seemed to strike a chord with folks. I try not to overdo, and I love RT’ing others who have great content to offer, too. Loved your examples of those who do an awesome job with this!
Well said, Cynthia. It is a dance, isn’t it, this business of promoting but not too much, pitching but not over-pitching. So much depends on motivation, I think. Good words. Thank you.
Chad, thank-you. I don’t do well with this, always afraid of coming off arrogant. Yet, you are right. A lot of time goes into this and it’s not arrogant to want others to hear it. Thank-you for the encouragement. Be Blessed!!!
Most definitely!
So glad I found your blog. I’m an encourager. I especially encourage others to write admirable and excellent things for the younger generation to read. Sometimes I find myself, the encourager, in need of encouragement. Thank you.
A thousand welcomes upon a thousand more, Sally!
Chad, great encouragement. I have time set aside the next two days to do some promotional work on Reckless Faith and this was a great push forward for me. Thanks for your thoughts and the great work you are doing! Kevin G. Harney
All right! THAT’s what I’m talking about! I’m looking forward to seeing Reckless Faith (http://www.kevingharney.com/) get out there and make a dent in people’s lives.
Great encouragement, thank you. I really struggle with this, but that helps to remember that I am contributing something of value and worth.
You bet! And the best way to make it more valuable and more worthy is to send it out there and see what comes back!