I think it should always be shameless to promote your good work.
As a self-published, indie-author authorpreneur, writing is the second and most involved step of the story and the business.
The second step, you might question? Of course. That’s because the first step is conceiving the idea. Human beings have thousands, if not tens of thousands of thoughts per day. Most of our thoughts are quite mundane, from “I’m hungry” to “I have to pee” and the like. Some are more momentous than this. Then, a few are creative ideas that we might or might not provide an outlet for.
I’ve had plenty of story ideas that have never left the idea phase. Many were never written down in any way. Others were started, some petered out and went nowhere, others got to a point where I stepped away from them for one reason or another. Then, others became stories I chose to tell.
When I was 9 years old, this began with my illustrated, 50-page sci-fi story Wildfire. At 13, it was my first-ever typed 36-page sci-fi story, The Secret Computer World. At 18, I wrote a technothriller short story called Secrets Withheld. Apart from sharing their titles here, nobody will ever read these.
Thanks to Amazon, self-publishing has become an increasingly viable option. This allowed me to become a self-published indie author. However, that’s still only the beginning of the story.
To become an authorpreneur, and make a business out of writing, there are steps past the first – (conception) and second (writing). They include editing, professional editing, acquiring cover art (unless you can do that yourself), formatting, and the other steps for publishing an eBook and paperback.
Self-publishing is in no way the end. That’s because sales and marketing are on the authorpreneur, too.
Sales and marketing are a huge part of authorpreneurship
You get the idea, turn it into a book, edit it, send it to an editor, make or get the cover art made, do the formatting for eBook and paperback (or outsource that, too), and then publish.
Payday, right? Yes, but no.
Who the hell are you? Unless your name is Neil Gaiman, Arthur C. Clark, JRR Tolkien, Anne McCaffrey, or any other well-known sci-fi or fantasy author, you’re a name in a crowded market.
For every traditionally published author, I would bet that there are at least 10 self-published authors. Probably more than that. Traditionally published authors get a degree of support from the publisher. They handle many aspects of marketing, sales, appearances, signings, and the like.
Self-published authors must do their own marketing, sales, and setting up appearances at cons, signings, and the like. This is why I call the business authorpreneurship (a word I cannot take credit for creating, but gets the point across well).
Hence, a major part of this job involves a degree of self-promotion. This, however, can be tricky. That’s because there’s a sweet spot to be found between not enough promotion, shameless self-promotion, and egotism/narcissism.
The upside and downside of self-promotion
I’ve frequently referred to my self-promotion as “shameless self-promotion”. Yet I’m realizing that making this sort of statement is problematic. That’s because there should be no shame in self-promotion.
The idea of shame is borne of people we’ve seen out there in the world self-promoting to the point of egotism and narcissism. You see that, and it gets implied that shame for such blatant self-aggrandizing is something they should feel.
Is it true? Maybe. Yet who are you or I to judge? Sure, there are individuals of ill-repute I can readily point to who are shameful for their obscene and dangerous narcissism and such. Can I be compared to them? Again, maybe, but maybe not. Mostly, this is something for me to be cognizant of and work on.
Self-promotion for an authorpreneur is the primary way you get noticed. If I don’t tell you that I’m putting a book out into the world, who will?
How this is done varies. Some avenues are better than others. There are ways to do self-promotion that are largely free, such as social media posts, emails, word-of-mouth, and certain author programs such as workshops, library programs, and the like. Then, there are self-promotion options that cost money. Advertising, hiring a publicist or marketing expert, giveaways, special promotion options, and so forth.
The upside is you have full control over your self-promotion. This is also the downside because, in both instances, all accountability is on you. Self-promotion is done how you choose to do it.
More upsides than downsides to self-promotion
When all is said and done, it’s easy to argue that there are more upsides than downsides to self-promotion. That’s because you can choose what avenues to take, mediums to use, and various actions to create your promotion just as you create your book or other artwork.
You don’t have to accept some sort of promotion you would never choose for yourself. The vision for how it works is yours, not your publisher’s or anyone else’s. The wheel is in your hands, and you get to drive.
The biggest downside to this is that it can be really intimidating. There are a lot of options available, and you can spend a ton of time and money and get little to nothing in return. The more I think about this and write about it, the more I can equate it to throwing darts or shooting archery. At least in the beginning, you’re likely to miss more often than strike the bullseye.
However, you can redirect when you miss your target. Or choose a wholly different target. The choice is yours. That, to me, is a huge upside to self-promotion.
Finally, you could come up with something nobody else has done before or take something others have done and improve upon it. Since you’re the boss, you can hire and fire yourself as necessary. Self-promotion can be as much or as little as you desire it to be.
Where’s the line of too much?
That’s going to differ from person to person. Selling your art is a form of selling yourself. That can be massively uncomfortable. It can make you feel dirty and cheap, even when you have the best intent.
If anything you do to self-promote is underhanded, takes something away from someone else, or cheats a person in one form or another, you’ve likely crossed the line to narcissistic self-aggrandizement over self-promotion. If it makes you feel a bit uncomfortable because it takes you outside of your comfort zone – but isn’t underhanded like the above – you’ve likely not crossed the line.
You alone know where that is. But be careful not to let fear of crossing out of your comfort zone lessen your work on self-promotion. It’s not easy and can be a real challenge. But to be a successful business, you need to put yourself out there. Entrepreneur, authorpreneur, or whatever your business approach, nobody will pay for services or buy your stuff if they don’t know about you.
You are worthy and deserving of letting the world see you as the brightest, shiniest, most empowered you that you can be.
Speaking of self-promotion…
All that written, I’d like to conclude with a self-promotion. As of the day of publication of this article, I’ve published my first book since 2021. It’s the fifth and final novel of my Void Incursion sci-fi series, Check and Mate. Coming soon to platforms in addition to Amazon. Please read, review, and tell your friends.
Please keep doing your art, whatever it is and however you promote it. The world needs all the creatives it can get.
Thanks for reading. As I share my creative journey with you, I conclude with this: How are you inspired to be your own creator – whatever form that takes?
Please take a moment to check out the collection of my published works, which can be found here.
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