Self promotion

I’ve been thinking a lot this week about self-promotion – having set up this blog and a shiny new facebook page! Being an author, it’s very much about you as the product/brand – there’s no business name to hide behind. I read a rather good blog entry this week on Pen Names and I don’t know if that might make things a little easier by giving you a degree of separation – so you can see your author persona as a different person.

Those who know me will be aware that I’ve never been the most self-confident of people so I find ‘bigging myself up’ rather intimidating. Two different people this week (and they’re very smart people so I need to listen!) have pulled me up on the way I put myself across – things along the lines of ‘would anyone mind please liking my page, I’ll try not to bore you too much’. Hmm, I suppose I can see their point! I think there’s a tendency to worry that you’re being arrogant or big-headed by considering yourself and your work to be good – but surely there’s a difference between that and having a bit of self-belief. After all, if you don’t belief in yourself that it’s highly doubtful anyone else will!

This contract has given me a bit of a boost in that respect. The thought that someone else does think my work is readable, even sellable, is something that I wouldn’t have thought would happen for quite a while yet. So, you may all feel free to kick me if I start putting myself down again (not too hard mind!) and I shall try harder to be more positive and have a wee bit more belief 🙂

2 responses to “Self promotion”

  1. Samantha Veerasamy Avatar
    Samantha Veerasamy

    Hi shelli

    Do you what, reading through your post, you have pretty much described me to a T!!

    I do like the idea of using another name for my writing (though I haven’t decided what yet) I like the idea of distancing my true self to what I write.

    I think you are doing just fine 🙂 believe in yourself, you’ve done really well! X

  2. Hi Shelli, a pen name gives you the perfect opportunity to establish a confident, marketing-savvy alter ego. If you need help with self-promotion, pop over to my marketing blog – marketingforromancewriters.com. You’ll find lots of interesting promot tips there. Good luck!

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