So it's still true? I'm not insane for opting out of the self-promo game?
I can't tell you how much better that makes me feel.
The story I tend to tell people who are very, very stressed about self-promotion: My two most successful books to date were published when I had fallen off the edge of the universe and had no energy to do anything except write (and when I say energy, it is grossly overstating the case). No web presence, no LJ presence, no email, nothing.
This may mean that I am of that class of writer who is better off being invisible because I am either too boring or too offensive, although I would like to believe this is not the case.
Had I attempted to put any of that non-existent energy into promoting the existing books at that time I would never have had the third book ready, or the 4th (which, admittedly, is not out yet), and I would have lost any sales momentum the the first 2 had built.
I think, rather than saying self-promotion is pointless, which I'm trying hard not to say, I'd rather emphasize that writing time is the vastly more productive choice if you have to choose between the two.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2008-02-22 02:26 am (UTC)I can't tell you how much better that makes me feel.
The story I tend to tell people who are very, very stressed about self-promotion: My two most successful books to date were published when I had fallen off the edge of the universe and had no energy to do anything except write (and when I say energy, it is grossly overstating the case). No web presence, no LJ presence, no email, nothing.
This may mean that I am of that class of writer who is better off being invisible because I am either too boring or too offensive, although I would like to believe this is not the case.
Had I attempted to put any of that non-existent energy into promoting the existing books at that time I would never have had the third book ready, or the 4th (which, admittedly, is not out yet), and I would have lost any sales momentum the the first 2 had built.
I think, rather than saying self-promotion is pointless, which I'm trying hard not to say, I'd rather emphasize that writing time is the vastly more productive choice if you have to choose between the two.