Thursday, June 23, 2011

The best way to promote your writing

I understand the temptation to self-promote at every turn. I see it all over the place. People write two or three lines in a comment reply somewhere and then pitch their site or book link. It's fast and easy. I think it comes from short-sighted goals on the side of the writers. We think the goal is to sell books. But the real goal is to give readers (whether they're reading your comments or your books) something of value.

Entertain and people pay attention. If not, they're on to something else. Think of all the web sites you visit regularly. They give you something of value. That's why you go back to them. And these are the readers you want for your books. Readers like yourself. Sometimes I think we expect readers to act differently than we do.

Anything you write is an advertisement for you as a writer. Every comment, tweet, or blog post has an impression on whoever's reading. The best promotion you can do to get others to look at your writing is to write well and have something to say wherever and whenever you write.