The Writers Guild of America, west, recently featured an article online quoting psychotherapist Rebecca Roy:
“The same thing that makes each of you great as writers – self criticism and self doubt – is what gets in the way of self-promotion.”
She was part of a panel about empowering writers to self-promote in the digital age. They advised having an online presence, at the very least a blog, and to try out Facebook, Twitter and the other social media.
Publicist Henri Bollinger also advised writers not to be shy about approaching the press, saying, and Hollywood Reporter Film Editor Gregg Kilday said, ““The writer often has the best story to tell, and thus the most to offer the reporter.”
Based on my experience (with lots of trial and error), I think the key is to figure out what your main message is and then stick with that one. If you try to get publicity for several things at once it doesn’t work.
(There’s lots of good information about self-promotion in Marketing for Entrepreneurs – which is what writers are – published by Pearson and available from Amazon and other online and offline booksellers. Why not order it via your local bookshop?)
