Personally I get really annoyed by self promotion, emails etc. I feel it's a weakness and portrays the individual as week and rather needy. Am i strange thinking this ?
Self-promotion will come across as and "Ego trip" to a lot of folks. Self-promotion can be accomplished in many other ways, too, without coming across as obnoxious. Learning the proper skill of "attraction", the ability of capturing others' attention to be around you, to learn from you, to reach a "leadership"' role is a great turn on to others. It then starts to become "organic" in reaching others... networking. Sorry, things I have learned from my Hubby. He always reminds me, that if self-promotion is not done by you, then who? That is the role of the attraction skills ... others will promote you, too.
Excessive self-promotion can be construed as needy, I suppose. I've only sent out one story spam to my friends in the nearly 3 years I've been here, and received a few unexpected thank-yous. As a person, I've never needed to promote myself. I've always attracted a lot of attention. But as a writer, I probably need to desperately! My stories have cobwebs dangling from them from lack of attention. I feel guilty spamming though, so I just don't. Actually, I also feel guilty when someone sends me story spam and I don't read their story (I deal with a lot of inherent guilt on Lush, it seems!)
In truth, I feel uncomfortable about promoting myself. At the same time, I get the big picture. I refuse to patronize just to get a few eyes, reading my works. In the last few days I have decided on supporting only those who support me. Unfortunately, that is how things play out, usually.
In my industry I am often confronted with self promotion - I dont need to be told how good they are , I can recognise ability when I see and experience it. It can and does do more harm to their chances as far as I am concerned. As I do get involved in many job interviews it is interesting to see how many can do it well without overdoing it. The words "I am willing to learn" are the best form of self promotion I like to hear. "I am willing to try" when a challenge is offered - is another positive form of self promotion I like to hear.
In the bedroom my lovers and I will often use self promotion in order to raise the bar for a better performance. "You are going to enjoy this" is often used to encourage each other to outdo the other. There the word "willing" has a different meaning there.
Storm dog has got it right. Don't feel the guilt X
I'm not an author but a grateful consumer. So sticking my oar in. Personally I find the best type of self promotion comes with the human touch. I read across all genres and although not all to my taste make the time to comment or at least score. Communication is key, a reply to a comment I left is like a carrot rather than the stick approach of spam. I don't want to be your best mate but to be acknowledged may spur other readers to comment/score more therfore spreading your work. I actively promote and share what I enjoy.
Yvonne? Forget it and write. Save your compassion for the old lonely guy at the bar who you worry about if you don't see him.
(I need to learn the art of quoting here- I tried and failed miserably!)
Blushing saucy thank you... Now, no superstar more 'simple'star lol. Off to check your profile and stories hehe X
I'm not really into self-promotion either. In my business I find that customer referrals end up being the best and the longest lasting.
My philosophy here has always been to read other struggling author's works. I also read works from others that read mine much like Adagio suggested above. I know I suffer from writing in classes that are not as popular but those are the ones that I enjoy and quite frankly I do write for me as a way to express my desires. In the end I am always pleasantly surprised and grateful when someone reads and comments on my stories but will continue to write whether or not anyone reads them.
I never used to promote myself. I always felt awkward by it. But having received quite a lot of emails as others do it I felt, why not.
I don't mind getting the emails, as you can always delete them if you want to. I generally keep them until I have clicked on the story. That doesn't always mean I will comment ours give a score though.
I also feel obliged to read the stories from friends and people I consider as friends much to the suppression of a lot of other stories.
So expect a spam from me in the near future... lol...I have a series of short stories coming up. I shall be asking questions to everyone on this thread. Lol.
I used to be a pervert. In here, I'm normal!
Watch this space...She is really - cumming soon!
Personally, I don't like it (there are some exceptions). I don't like having something rammed down my throat, or shoved in my face. Too many people are far too concerned with figures. I'm not interested in those writers who use words to play a numbers game. Most of what they produce is done so based on a number, not the quality of the content. If you're someone I follow, chances are I'll read anyway. Of course I can understand why people do it, that's not the question. Funny thing is, people are going to use this thread to promote themselves. Irony caution to the OP.
