You see, I'm starting to think I'm ill-equipped to play this game.
I went to a seminar at the Society of Authors yesterday on how to get the best out of your publisher.
It was full of useful tips and contacts, but it all boils down to one thing -
- if you're not prepared to pimp ... oops, sorry, I mean self-promote ... you don't stand a chance.
Now, herein lie my problems:
- the skills involved in writing and those related to self-promotion are very different and may in some cases (*self-conscious cough*) be mutually exclusive
- you will have to do a huge amount of work in the face of publicists who will tell you to leave it all up to them - which you must on no account do while bearing in mind that's it's crucial not to alienate them
- you have to be self-confident without being obnoxious and assertive without being aggressive
- which means you will need to have the balls of a rottweiller, the hide of a rhino and the soft hand of a seductress
- if successful, you will probably have morphed into someone you won't like very much
10 comments:
Oh, I agree completely with you. And the other thing is when you're going to fit in the time to write with all this self-promotion going on.
Oh goodness yes. Pimping the right word - can't do it, me. And look where it's got me - or rather hasn't...
I think it's so sad that such talented writers as those commenting here don't get the recognition they deserve because they're unwilling or unable to push themselves to the fore. Grrr ...
Or you could go to another seminar,and be told something completely different,in the end its about beliving in yourself,"when the going gets tough,the tough get innovative" xx homelesschicken
Yes, I was going to ask about when the writing gets a look-in? :-)
I suppose it comes down to being a money generating product. Maybe there should be a School for Awfurs and we could all learn to be the all singing, all dancing commodities that is expected today.
(tap dances off - stage left)
Talking about commdities,thats what you become,when your street homeless..as long as you can get benefits,ie housing benefits..then there is a chance,a homeless charity,will help you to get back into the system? starting with emergency shelter.hostel..ever wondered..why? we are starting to see more EU nationals homeless on the streets..because they cant get benefits,if havn,t worked in last 12 months,and charities dont wont to know them, because they cant get a income from them,if they take them off the streets..oh yeah give them some advice for free..the same also applys to other if for some reason you cant get benefits,in my case this time round it was because i was £7 short on NI, and it was my ex employers clerical error..so as you can see.Homelessness is Money Generating product
regards homelesschicken
Shamey - yes, quite.
Minxy - yep - it's the awfur not just the book that is the money generating product.
HC - Catch 22. Bah! And now it's snowing heavily. Hope you're somewhere warm and safe. xxx
I agree, Debi. I too feel that 'I'm ill-equipped to play this game'. I'm just not good at the self-promotion stuff, no matter how much I believe in my writing.
The trouble is, Marie, that it's a prerequisite, so I don't know where that leaves those of us who don't have the equipment ...
And there we were, thinking writing the books was what mattered. Silly us, eh?
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