Promotion of one's creative works is just outright hell. It
goes against my nature to act like a salesman, but if you don't let people know
about your work then you're certainly doomed to obscurity. But in
this world it seems you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
I joined Facebook to connect with both family and with
writers and readers who share my particular loves, such as fantasy, pulp
fiction, SF, and Westerns. I comment often on other people’s posts. I share
teasers from friends about their work and I do post about my own. I don’t very
often post a straight sales-pitch, but I do put up teasers or quotes from my
own work. I only do this on average about every three or four days so I don’t
think it’s excessive. I try to make most of my "promotional" posts funny anyway in hopes that a few people will get a kick out of it.
I did a post like this yesterday. It’s the back cover blurb
for Swords of Talera, which I wrote myself, and I included a link to the book
on Amazon. When I paged back through my feed the most recent promotional item
that shows up was on June 20, so that’s a pretty good while.
However, I got a comment on my post. I quote: “Stop posting sales pitches or I will defriend you.”
Someone else then ‘liked’ that comment.
Wow, one post a month with a link to one’s own work is
apparently excessive. I’m certainly not going to quit doing what I’m doing. I
personally like to hear what other writers are working on. And it’s fine to me
if folks who aren’t really my friends “defriend” me. Still, I have to say, it
hurt just a little bit to get up and see that kind of comment first thing in
the morning.
---
---
