Writing is a writer’s job. The rest of it is optional and depends on your personality, aptitude, and energy.

To claim that “promotion” is “part of a writer’s job” is to assert that shy people, disabled people, or people who are just plain constitutinally disinclined to self-promote have no business trying to be writers. And if this were actually the case, we’d lose some very valuable writing.

Patrick, I’m interested in your take on this because you are an editor in the vanguard of the field, and yet the received wisdom seems to be (to my casual eye, anyway) that if a writer doesn’t self-promote, s/he can forget about getting anywhere. How do you find that supporting the writer’s ‘right to not self-promote’ plays out in practice?

I was also struck by Vera Nazarian’s poignant description of her own hard efforts and their apparent futility. Another question might be, how effective is self-promotion? For that matter, how effective is official promotion? Word of mouth can’t be manufactured…can it?

I’m prone to interupting people. This is because this is the conversational style I was raised with, and so is a deeply ingrained pattern and hard to set aside. My whole family does it, and don’t consider it at all impolite or offensive. Having discovered that it makes many people outside my family uncomfortable, I do *try* to remember not to… although what usually happens instead is that I interupt, catch myself a little way in, and say “sorry, please continue what you were saying about… ” This astounds many people who consider interupting a sign of inattention or disrespect; they are expecting neither the apology or the fact that I remember perfectly well what they had been saying.

Based on what has been said above, I’m guessing this trait is going to be the number one most likely way for me to be percieved as being “too pushy”, and it’s kind of nice to know that at least its something I’ve already identified and am working on…. but just wait until first book excitement throws all of my good intentions completely out of my head. ::sigh:: I suspect I’m going to need that “free pass”.

I have only ever once been offended by an author’s self promotion. This person went around bragging about how aggressively he was promoting his book, suggesting everyone should hire good looking girls to stand in convention hallways and push their books, like he did, and telling stories about how he bribed a pilot to do sky-writing for him. By the end of that weekend I knew nothing about the book itself other than that it was military science fiction, and I really wished that I could remember the title so that I would never pick it up by accident.

I felt insulted that anyone would assume I would be dumb enough to buy a book I knew nothing about just because of a superficial and glitzy promotion campaign.

I suspect that glitz would be much less offensive to me when it isn’t combined with superficiality. If the models he had hired were dressed up as characters *from* the book, for example, that would actually have been kind of cool.

I think we’re all agreed about the slack for first-time novelists. Perhaps we should make them badges or temp tattoos to wear that loudly proclaims said firstnovelness? That way everyone would know to be kind.

As for people getting shirty about you waving your first book around when it first comes out – sheesh! What killjoys! Are we all supposed to just sit on it? Should first novelists maintain a dignified silence? What a waste of pure joy. You offended types – go kick a puppy, why dontcha? or wear black to a wedding and refuse to get up and dance or eat any cake… I say, Go out and be glad! And invite others to join you there!

Of course, all the people I think are obnoxious seem to sell a lot of books . . .

Whereas they prolly think they have reached that happy place of doing the amount of self promotion that they’re happy with. Which just proves your point.

In other words, the same clue that’s too subtle for some of your readers will invariably be too obvious for others, and vice versa. So you’re always at least a little bit screwed. The only two things you simply mustn’t do are:
(a) worry only about being too obvious, because then you’ll be too subtle for practically everyone, and
(b) worry only about being too subtle, because then you’ll be too obvious for practically everyone.

And of course the correct balance is what you’re comfortable with, and not some platonic ideal. The same more or less goes for self-promotion.

Of course, all the people I think are obnoxious seem to sell a lot of books . . .

Vera: It does suck. Cold calling is the worst, especially without the backup of a known brand name publisher. You’re not even slightly pathetic you’re brave and determined.

Punkrocker1991: Got that everyone? Send books to TiconderogaOnline!

Anghara: I don’t know anyone who likes cold calling. I hates it! Well, except this one time when me and Scott and Holly Black and Cassandra Claire and Theo Black did it as a mob. Suddenly it was fun. And mostly because I would talk about Holly’s books, Scott would talk about mine, and Holly about Scott’s. But normally uggh. I detailed a yukky cold call experience in my post on Writer Humiliations. And, of course, cold calling is at the heart of Vera Nazarian’s experiences.

Scott W: I love that movie! And Jacquelin Susann. I’d love to hire her to promote me. Or, you know, Bette Midler . . . who has the advantage of still being alive!

Stephanie: If a writer hasn’t learned basic manners then, yeah, they’re attempts at self promotion ain’t going to be pretty. I am starting to notice that some of the egregious folks aren’t actually naturally bombastic. They’re doing what they think they should be doing and buggering it up because they’re not naturally outgoing. Best to find the kind of promoting that suits your personality. Course figuring that out ain’t easy.

Cheryl: Really? People still believe that? Huh. Some very fine under the radar books make it onto shortlists of (popularly voted) awards but only if they’re out there being read can they possibly win. And their chances of being read are greatly increased by all the things you mention. Why is that hard to understand?

Richard B: Cause, of course, the difference between the spammers and the non-hand-sulliers is that the spammers affect us and the too-good-for-commerce folks don’t. They’re just buggering themselves up.

Chris S: And that’s exactly why—as much as I can—I try to get ARCs into the hands of all the best booksellers. Preferably by hand. Plus hanging out with booksellers is fun, once you get past the dreaded cold calling part.

I used to think that I longed for the 18-month book tour problem, but now I’ve seen some friends go through it. Uggh. I’ve never seen writers so unhappy. By the end of the tour they haven’t written in months, seen their family anywhere near as much as they’d like, or eaten healthy food, or gotten any exercise. But it’s the not writing that kills them.

Ben Payne: Oh sure the best should out. But I’ve seen too many amazing books fall between the cracks. Or worse still not get published in the first place for me to truly believe that quality will out. And (as we discussed at the Aurealis Awards) opinions sure do vary on what quality is!

Well, thank you. I’ve had a bunch of folks write me to say that I was charming at that WisCon. (Though all friends and they would say that, wouldn’t they?) But I did piss some people off and it’s good to think about why and how to avoid that in future. And yet, as you say, there’s really no way to please all the peoples all the time.

Justine: I’ve seen authors at cons who talk about their own work, but who do it with such infectious entusiasm that it’s hard not to be drawn in… of course it helps if such authors are intelligent and funny.

I can’t imagine you self-promoting badly… you always seem to conduct yourself with style and wit… but hey, you can’t please everyone… you’re always gonna rub *someone* up the wrong way… *shrug*… they’ll deal…

Truth is, for a new writer*, ‘invisible’ is the more serious problem. If people don’t know your book is out there, they can’t buy it. But trumpeting the name of your book at every opportunity isn’t the best way to raise your visibility: being interesting is. To continue the simile started above, the best way to help your child become a good person is not to lecture her on how to be good, but to try to *be* a good person yourself.

The internet is even more key to this than conventions. It’s your own space, so no one can complain how you decorate. Heck, we’re there in the first place because we want to know about you and your books. The more interesting the site/blog, the more often we’ll come back. If a site/blog becomes a self-promotional monologue, well, maybe it’s time to see who John Scalzi is skewering today.

On a practical note, it’s always a good idea to target booksellers. And I do mean target, as in ‘aim with care’. As a specialty bookseller, I’m irritated to receive promo for books way outside my specialty. But an attractive postcard with cover art, some smart copy, and a web address will get at least a few minutes of my attention. And those few minutes can make a difference in how many copies I order, and how many customers I hand it to.

ARCs can be very effective, too. Recently, I got an ARC for Naomi Novik’s HIS MAJESTY’S DRAGON (aka TEMERAIRE). After reading it, I doubled my original order, and have been talking it up to customers ever since. Anticipation builds buzz; buzz builds sales.

I agree with everyone upthread who said that first-timers should be given a little slack to go overboard. C’mon – everyone deserves to be excited about something that cool.

*self-promotion pertains mostly to new and low-to-midlist writers: when you’re Susanna Clarke, your main worry is surviving the 18 month book tour, which is a whole ‘nother problem

Push it far enough and relentless self-promotion just becomes spam: it imposes a cost (of time and attention, which is a real cost) on folks who aren’t the audience for the product in question. Which again goes back to your mention of relevance, and the different expectations we have in different real-world and cyberspace settings.

And yeah, I’ve met artistes who don’t want to sully their hands in commerce, who think that that should be Someone Else’s Job. Those folks are foolish too, but not nearly as annoying as people who can’t shut up, to the exclusion of all else, about their latest creation.

It is all romantic nonsense, of course, but people get very attached to it.

I asked one person (who’s a very nice guy and very shy about his work) about how his writing was going, and another woman in the group interrupted him after his first line to tell me how five different editors have all said she’s their favorite author right now and she can get published even when she just whips out a story without thinking about it…Bad. Very bad. But I had a really nice time talking to Freda Warrington at a party, and when she mentioned something about one of her novels that related to what we were talking about, I thought: Ooh! Must read that. And then the conversation moved on to other topics, but I bought her novel the next day, and felt even better about buying it (besides the fact that it was a good book) because she was such a nice person and I was happy to be supporting her even in just a tiny way.

Then you won’t feel so bad about your own.

And, Vera….? You are known out there. By Name. People like Charles de Lint and Patrick Nielsen Hayden invite you for guest singing spots at their impromptu convention concerts (yeah, I was in the audience at the WOrld Fantasy Con at Tempe). *I* know your name. And where there is one, there are others. Be comforted – it’s a long hard road but you have friends on it.

But seriously, when it comes to self promotion I’ve unfortunately got too much English stock in me, and find myself frequently apologising for being recognised for doing good work. Some days I hate talking about what I do, and would rather people go and read it and work it out for themselves. Check out what I do and judge me on that, not how well I talk about it or promote it. Life is full of self-promotion opportunities — job interviews springing to mind. I ain’t so good at job interviews either, but I’m good at getting the job done.

Thank you for a wonderful post regarding this touchy subject. I am one of those people who is considered pathetic by many because I actually engage in self-promotion. (At least I used to — these days I am too weary and ill to do much of it on behalf of my most recent and upcoming books.)

Well, let me just say one thing to all of the people who think it is pathetic and demeaning and unacceptable — you try walking in my shoes.

When you are with a small press, have no publisher support whatsoever and your first books are POD when POD was still in its earliest crappiest infancy stages (and most expensive too, not to mention unavailable in bookstores), what can you do, but fight with tooth and claw, with your last breath, for the work that is your only child?

Let me tell you a pathetic pitiful, disgusting sob story. And I don’t really care how low this comes across. You can all despise me even more, folks….

When my first novel, Dreams of the Compass Rose came out, it was the first original fantasy hardcover from my publisher, who was just testing the waters of releasing new authors, and hadn’t gotten their act together yet. So, my situation was a sort of a guinea pig.

No review copies went out.

No one did anything for it. NOTHING. The resounding sound of silence.

The POD edition was so expensive that I could not afford to buy my own book. So I got a cheap manual velobinder machine, and printed double–sided copies on a dinky old printer (wasting money and toner on half of the pages getting ruined by paper jams), then HAND-stapled them and bound them with my carpal-tunnel agony-ridden hands, staying up late nights — we are talking several dozen copies at least, at about 350 pages each — and mailed them out on my own dime to reviewers, most of which naturally ignored it.

At that time I was also laid off, and was about to declare bankruptcy. I had no significant other to help me with this, no time off from the new insane night shift job just to make ends meet, no other source of income except the tiny drip-drip of writing income and old parents who had to be cared after and spoke no English and lived with me.

I did what I could. I did everything you can image that is self-promotion.

I begged people, begged bookstores to take my book on commission (and endured their derision and in most cases absolute refusal) handed out fliers, sat at comvention panels and put up my books just like everyone else around me did, made loud, manic, cracking observations in public, waved my book around, hand-made promo pencils (HAND-made!) sold a pitiful number of copies out of my bag and at autographing sessions.

I took my only vacation and sick days from work to attend conventions and do promotion. I used the money for food to pay for paper and toner. My other writing time itself was small and “interstitial” during lunch breaks and deep into the night.

My health went. My energy disappeared, sucked away with the regime of 4 hours of sleep a night, for many years.

Let me also admit that by nature I am a quiet and reserved person. Hah! Yes, don’t laugh. I do not enjoy the persona I had to put on to do the promotion. It drains and kills me.

I was desperate.

And even so, my book sank like a stone.

I was never one of the “cool kids” whose book was touted and mentioned on blogs, who was talked about and sought after by agents and publishers.

I mean, have you heard of it? Have you read it? For that matter, have many (or any?) of you read any of my work?

What does a person do to tell the world about the one thing they care about (in this case it was my written works) and they have nothing else to live for?

And if no one else will do it for them, if all you get are obstacles in your way, what is so wrong for a person to do their utmost to promote their work? WHAT ELSE CAN ONE DO?

Yeah, I am pathetic. But I am also relentless. And I do and will continue to support all my fellow writers 1,000% in their efforts to self-promote their own work.

You try and walk in our shoes.

the question arises: why would anyone go to an author’s website/weblog if not to find out about the author’s work? if they don’t like it they don’t have to read it.

i’ve seen the in-your-face author type on panels at conventions and tend to find it amusing. on the other hand, face-to-face it’s tedious and impolite and tends to put me off that author’s work entirely – “i’m drinking here!” don’t get between me and my glass.

most convention committees would be quite happy to receive a request for a program time-slot for a reading/q-a from a new author. you can get a lot of promotion done in 45 minutes if you’re the only one on stage.

But if you’re at a book fair or literary convention, have at it. Even during panel discussions – one might assume that the author was chosen for that panel for their insights on that particular topic, so pimp away.

And as far as using your own website to promote your new book – it’s your website, and if people don’t want to read about your new book they can find somewhere else to visit.

My non-author’s two cents…

I think part of what took me aback with the neg response to my first acts of self promtion is that I’d been having a ball. I was having such fun and getting what seemed like a great response that it was a shock to discover that I’d offended and appalled some folks. (Though, being a loud-mouthed Aussie girl not my first experience of such!)

Veejane: Ah, seamless self promotion is what we all aspire to!

I’m like you and if I find a person charming and interesting I’m much more likely to seek out their book, which is pretty unfair really. There are some truly fabulous writers out there who are totally obnoxious in real life. And some dreadful writers who are as charming as hell . . .

Anghara: One of the industry’s great ironies. If your book is going great that’s when your publisher starts pouring money into promoting you, not beforehand. Sigh. (Susanna Clarke, by the way, is a wonderful writer.)

So you like being on panels and talking to people—then what part of self promotion do you suck at?

If I’m on a panel at a con, I’ll have a copy or two of my published work with me. It helps to establish who you are. But I won’t be telling anyone in the audience that they can pick up a list of bookstores or dealers where they can purchase said works on a chair at teh back of the room as they leave the panel. I would hope that my contribution *to the panel* might have made a few of them interested enough to check it out – but I won’t be hounding anybody.

I am, however, happy to talk about it with anyone, any time [grin} Hardened old pro or not, I am STILL excited by the idea of having written a book, of having it around looking like an actual book, of having people reading it, of having people tell me what they thought about it when they’d read it. THAT is part of the joy of it all. Writing is a very solitary process, and it’s this interaction with your, you know, actual ptoential readers that makes the whole thing come alive.

I’d say, if whatever you (rhetorical you!) are doing is making you uncomfortable, stop doing it – but anything up to that line, go do. There is often nobody else who will do it for you. You don’t have to be obnoxious to be visible…