If you write fiction, you need to promote yourself as a novelist and sell your work. If you write nonfiction, you need to promote yourself as a journalist and sell your work.
Both writing styles rely on promoting your own work and selling it to others. And the best way to do this is to be the best you that you can be at both writing and selling (see our earlier article on how to be a better writer).
The truth of the matter is that most people don’t see themselves doing their own promotion or sales, so they either don’t start at all or they stop doing it when they realise they are not good enough.
In this article, we’ll explain why this is so — what makes people bad at it — why it’s important — and how to fix it.
We’ll also share some strategies for making sure that everyone sees what you do better than anyone else in the world: the thing that makes you unique!
The benefits of promoting yourself as a writer
So you’re a writer and you’re feeling a lot of pressure to create content. This might be because you have some really great ideas, but you don’t know how to get them out there.
Having some great ideas is great, but how do you go about putting them into practice? We’ve all seen the nice looking blog on Medium that looks wonderful and seems like it has something going for it.Â
But when we take a closer look, we realise that there isn’t much substance. The content is dry and has no real meaning behind it — the link at the bottom of the post doesn’t even say what the post was about.
The problem with many blogs is that they are written by writers who are writing to an audience who isn’t sold on being writers themselves. This can happen if people have writerly aspirations but aren’t very well known as writers or if they think it means they can make money from writing (which isn’t true).
So what can we do about this? Well firstly, we need to identify our audience. We talked about this in a previous article , so here I will talk about how to do that step further: identify your target market.Â
Once you know your target market and what they want from your blog, then the next step is to be specific and get down to business: find out how much time each person spends on reading your blog and then work back from there to figure out how to create good blog topics, so they spend more time on reading.
How to go about promoting yourself as a writer
Writing is a difficult, and in some cases, an impossible task. It is a difficult task because it demands a deep understanding of the subject matter in your hands. It demands a deep understanding of yourself as a person and as a writer, who you are and what you want to do.
Writing is something that most people don’t like to do because they’re afraid of failing at it. They don’t want to seem inadequate or lose their sense of self-worth in front of their friends and family, who are waiting for them to fail or quit. Writing is also something that most people will avoid doing because they think it will make them seem like either a loser or someone that is too good for the rest of us mortals.
If you have never written before and believe you can do this then I would love for you to read this article… This article will help you go about promoting yourself as a writer so that if anyone wants to read your writing they can find out what kind of content (and quality) they can expect from you.
Do’s and don’ts of promoting yourself as a writer
It is no secret that to be a successful writer, one needs to have a lot of social proof. Whether it is the prestige of writing for a high-profile publication or the visibility of setting up your own blog, there are many ways to promote yourself as a writer.
The first thing to consider is whether you can use the same tactic that you would use with any other product. If you’re an established author who has sold thousands of books in the past, then using your name and face as a brand is on par with any other product. But if you’re just starting out and don’t have much to sell, then you may want to consider introducing yourself as someone “who writes”.
For example: “I am the author of 9 books including my most recent book ‘My Name Is Rick. I also write in both International English and US English‘”
Without being too proud, however, readers will often look for more information about your book before they decide which one to buy. So maybe instead of simply stating your name and what kind of book it is (e.g., “The rich man’s guide”, “My name is Rick”), you might want to give them some details about yourself as well.Â
One way to do this is by offering them some links or testimonials from people who have bought your book or used your services as an author. You can also mention online blogs where people advertise how much they love your book: “My latest book ‘My Name Is Rick’ has been featured on such websites like The Huffington Post.”
How writers can promote themselves effectively
The first step in building an audience for your writing is to learn about how to do it. This article has been written as the best way to promote yourself as a writer, and all you need to do is read it.
1) Get out there and tell people what your book is about
It’s tempting to shy away from any contact with potential readers, but if you’re serious about getting your book published then you need to appear at events and trade shows. You can still get your book reviewed by other authors and featured in print publications, but it’s going to be easier if you’re seen in person (and hopefully in writing). Many authors have attended events simply because they were asked — if they didn’t attend, they would have never known that they were even welcome. If you can get someone else to do what you want them to do for free or at least at greatly reduced cost, then why not? It beats having someone take up all your time!
2) Speak up on social media
If there are people who are fans of yours then maybe it is worth setting up an account just for them. If there aren’t too many people who follow you then perhaps it isn’t worthwhile creating an only-for-fans account so that no one else has access to it. However, if there are a lot of people who follow or like you then create an account for everyone so that as many people see your posts as possible. It might be worthwhile creating multiple accounts for different projects so that each project has its own page and post history so that no one forgets any information from previous posts. Perhaps I should just put my entire life on here? 🙂
3) Show off your work
Nowadays blogging sites such as Medium and WordPress boast about their huge audience numbers – but blogs aren’t exactly reliable means of reaching those audiences: 2% of people visit the blog every month (that doesn’t include anyone who refers visitors). So if I am posting regularly enough then surely I should be able to get these numbers right? Well, yes and no – if I post once every couple of weeks then this is probably quite good enough
Conclusion
As a writer, you want your audience to become familiar with your work. In order to achieve this, you need to promote yourself as a writer.
This is necessary for two reasons:
- To get recognition for your work and to be able to continue writing as a career
- To give people the confidence that they can contact you if they’re looking for some freelance work.
When you promote yourself as a writer, remember that it isn’t just about who you are, but what you do. Even if it’s simply the fact that you have a degree in English (or if you write primarily in English), it’s important that people know that as well.