Shameless Self-Promotion

“If writing and publishing a book is like giving birth to a child, then book marketing is like rearing it.”

-Heather Hart

For many years I wrote stories mostly for the fun of it. It was more than merely an avenue of escape; it was also one of my favorite ways to amuse and enjoy myself. Now that I have been publishing my work, I have found that the joy of writing is magnified ten-fold by the joy of the acceptance of what I have written. The pleasure of receiving good reviews far surpasses monetary rewards.

However, you might write the best book ever written, but if no one knows about it, it will never be read. A few days ago, I saw a post on Facebook by another author who referred to it as “shameless self-promotion”. I strongly disagree with this. It is simply “promotion”. Being an author is the same as being the proprietor of any small business. If you owned a hardware store, or a building company, or a restaurant, or if you were a web designer, or even an attorney, you would advertise to get customers or clients. Marketing your art is no different, and having reservations about doing so, for whatever reason, is self-defeating.

You’ll never experience the satisfaction of appreciation if no one is even aware that your work exists. If you believe it is worthy, then show it off so we can all enjoy it.

Tom