Self Promotion

[nadinbrzezinski]

this is one of the least apreciated sides of the industry by new writers

So here are some words of wisdon.

Learn to sell yourself, there is nothing wrong with that

Get yourself a website... plenty of places that you can do it for free, but you may want to consider a cheap web provider.

Learn how to build a static website... it is not that difficult, trust me, and webside for Dummies is invaluable or just get the larger brother as it were... with the nine books in there.

Once you do that, add to it a forum, aka interactivity. there are free forums, with annoying commercials, or most providers will have PHB for you to use... I just learned how to do that today, so I have my new shiny forum up with no commercials

:-)


Talk about your product (book, game what have you) with people

Have a business card.

Again, be ready to sell yourself, don't be shy... and yes it takes time.

[villager]

1. doing it now with a third book out...

updating the website, recontacting the book stores, the book festivals, etc., etc. It's the "other full time job," besides the writing itself!

Thinking of going the blog route, though. Hadn't thought of a forum... My readers tend to be on the youngish side...

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Here is the one I set up as of this afternoon

was part of my service provider I just spent the morning learning how to do it....

http://deistgames.com/phpbb/index.php


Be sure to include a rules of the road for the site, and feel free to use mine as a model.

My market is older teens to adult, so I decided not to activate the censor, will see... if I need to.. wiht younger kids you may want to, definitely prevent certain language from being posted.

If I can help I will take you thought it.

[villager]

5. I like the assumption that there'll *be* a future, first of all!

Nice work. still have to see if a full forum is warranted, but I may take you up on it...

Actually, you've reminded me that I'd love to add some Flash games to my site, since I get requests for those, but would have to "hire out" for that kinda programming...

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. Hmm kids are asking for Flash

just remember those load a tad slower, that said they are asking for some kind of interactivity... and the customer asks... we have to give.

By the way I could not believe how easy it was to set the forum once I finished banging my head on the wall....looking at the screen going.. how do I do this?

Now if you read the fiction, in between the lines, there is much of what is going on today.... which is a classic after all.

One of the things I give away at Cons are CDs with some indtroductory fiction set as a mini PDF book.. that runs me about 10 cents a CD, add to that the folder and the character sheet and bidness card, we are talking about 13 cents a unit... I see that as an investing in future fans

[villager]

9. I should PM you...

...you gonna be at the San Diego con this summer?

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. Heck yes I have to firm that up as soon as hubby gets here

I will be doing demos... and I live in San Diego, so that is easy...

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

2. You're 100% CORRECT.

One of the first things I learned in life is that there IS NO "product or service."

The "product or service" is YOU.

People will buy your product or service...or book, or CD, or painting...because you have effectively sold YOU.

If people LIKE you, if people feel like they KNOW you, you're IN.

Many people find this distasteful. They feel that their product or service should "stand on its own merits." They are DREAMING. It's a LIE. If you want to live in the 1/10th of 1 percent realm of POSSIBILITY, by all means...let your "art" speak for ITSELF. Everyone else, LEARN MARKETING SKILLS.

Of course, they've seen the WORST of this principle in action...poeple who are EXPERTS in selling themselves but have NO product or service of merit.

That's what happened in Silicon Valley, in the "dot com" boom. People were SMOOTH TALKING. They PRESENTED THEMSELVES well. They had NOTHING OF MERIT to offer, but they TALKED A GOOD GAME, and the greed-driven "Venture Capitol" DICKS wrote them fat, FAT checks for something they would ultimately NEVER DELIVER.

HAVE SOMETHING YOU CAN DELIVER. Believe in yourself. FIGHT for what you believe in. "Self-promotion" is NOT a dirty word.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Want me to tell you the story last night about this guy

thinking he can have his game on the shelf zilch promotion?

We give him 10 seconds survival, and he may just have the holy grail... but if nobody knows it is there...

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

7. We MUST get past the point of thinking "life is fair," because it IS NOT.

If life were "fair," WHY would we have this spoiled, arrogant, substance-abusing, rich kid frat boy Oedipal COWARD as our "president?"



...I'm speaking from my own (admittedly limited) experience.

I'm a "self-employed Graphic Designer." I also write.

I live in a Silicon Valley city in which OTHER "Graphic Designers" have already hit on the local merchants and delivered a Web Site solution that SUCKS.

It's lacking in HEART. It's lacking in CHARACTER. BUT...

These people knew how to knock on a door and PRESENT THEMSELVES.

And they did just that, and they sold a VERY inferior product.

In the "old days," a poet or a painter or a musician would PLEASE a LORD, and that LORD would give them a shack to live in, maybe a garden and a few chickens for eggs and meat, and that "artist" would have no other responsibility than to create ART for the LORD OF THE MANOR.

THOSE DAYS ARE GONE.

Speaking (once again, from my own very limited experience) to every ARTIST, WRITER, PAINTER, MUSICIAN and GRAPHIC ARTIST on DU...

GET OFF OF YOUR ASS and learn how to PROMOTE YOURSELVES. If you want to SURVIVE, this is the KEY to your SURVIVAL. YOUR "art" means DICK in the grand scheme of things.

That's my "tough love" post for the day.

:toast:

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. That is why I am learning as much as I can about web

design, and all that jazz...

Is it my favorite part? Nope, but i know I NEED TO DO IT, and right now I cannot afford to pay a pro... so yes I know it is not the product it could be, but it will get the job done.

When there is money, then I will hire a pro to redo the whole thing

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

10. Someone once described it to me as...

"arrows in a quiver."

The more diverse the selection of arrows in your quiver, the more targets YOU CAN HIT.

When Silicon Valley caved in like the rotted, worthless melon that it is...many Web Designers learned print design.

Seriously...for anyone reading this who DOES NOT LIVE IN SILICON VALLEY...the whole "dot com" thing was based on A LIE. A BIG, BIG LIE FROM SCAM ARTISTS who had NO INTENTION of delivering on their promises. They got RICH, they got OUT, and may they BURN IN HELL.

For many Web Designers, learning print design may not have been their "favorite part."

The ODDS of finding a good-paying, full time job in Silicon Valley as a Web Designer RIGHT NOW (with salaries comparable to the "dot com" debacle, with medical benefits and the whole nine yards?)

DICK. Those are the odds. DICK.

So, you study the NEEDS of the area you are in. You learn the SKILLS to MEET those needs, then you PROMOTE YOURSELVES.

And that's about as simple as it gets.

:toast:

[all.of.me]

12. read 'shameless marketing for brazen hussies'

by marilyn ross. it is subtitled '307 awesome money-making strategies for savvy entrepreneurs.' it's impossible NOT to find some good ideas in it for promoting any kind of business, and that's what you are as a writer - a business.