Are you an artist, blogger, YouTuber, or business owner wondering how to promote yourself, your business, or what you do?
I Forgot to Promote Myself
I wrote the book Turn Your Happiness On a couple years ago.
During two years, I wrote for two hours every day and then I edited for another year before I decided that the book was ready for publication.
However, I had no idea that after making sure that my book was available in every bookstore I had to start a different type of work: promoting the book.
Promoting the book always felt like yelling into the void:
“Look at my great book you will feel so happy after reading it.”
Of course as I am the author I would say it is a good book, so I needed other people to also say that it was a good book.
I started asking people who I thought would like the book, to read it and review it.
It took around a year to get 100 reviews.
Besides the reviews I would also post quotes and pictures from the book on social media.
My overall feeling was always that I was trying to show others how wonderful my book was.
Promote Yourself and Your Book
More experienced writers recommended to promote yourself and your book while you are writing.
Don’t wait to finish your book to start promoting it.
However, I was clueless.
I had no idea what to do or how to do it.
For many years, I had read all the books and research related to happiness that I could find and used my own experience as examples and BOOM there was my book.
After many weeks and months of self-promotion, the book was a best seller for a couple of months.
Recently a friend of mine recommended to read the book Show Your Work.
I wished I had read the book before writing my book because I would’ve done things very differently.
Instead of focusing single-mindedly on completing my manuscript, I would share my journey of writing the book.
In addition, I would share the little snippets of insights about happiness that I discovered along the way.
This would have had many benefits such as connecting with other people who were also interested in happiness early on instead of having to figure out who would like to read my book once it was already published.
Sometimes we think that having a perfect final product is the right thing to do, however, Austin Kleon recommends otherwise.
The author starts his book off by saying that the most common question that his readers ask him is how to self-promote their work.
The main idea of this book is to document your creative process and share it online with others.
If you are wondering how to promote yourself or your work, you will love this book.
How to Promote Yourself: Main Ideas of the Book Show Your Work
“Good work isn’t created in a vacuum.
“Creativity is always, in some sense, a collaboration, the result of a mind connected to other minds.”
“The best way to get started on the path to sharing your work is to think about what you want to learn, and make a commitment to learning it in front of others.”
“Share what you love, and the people who love the same things will find you.”
Document Your Progress and Discoveries
“Start a work journal: Write your thoughts down in a notebook, or speak them into an audio recorder.
If you are not sure how to start a journal you may want to read: How to Start a Journal for Beginners.
Keep a scrapbook.
Take a lot of photographs of your work at different stages in your process.
Shoot videos of you working.
This isn’t about making art, it’s about simply keeping track of what’s going on around you.
Take advantage of all the cheap, easy tools at your disposal—these days, most of us carry a fully functional multimedia studio around in our smartphones.”
“Don’t think of your website as a self-promotion machine, think of it as a self-invention machine.”
Tell Stories About Your Work to Promote it
“Artists love to trot out the tired line, “My work speaks for itself,” but the truth is, our work doesn’t speak for itself.
We want to know where things came from, how they were made, and who made them.
The stories you tell about the work you do have a huge effect on how people feel and what they understand about your work, and how people feel and what they understand about your work affects how they value it.”
“If you want to be more effective when sharing yourself and your work, you need to become a better storyteller.
You need to know what a good story is and how to tell one.”
“If you want fans, you have to be a fan first.
If you want to be accepted by a community, you have to first be a good citizen of that community.”
“Make stuff you love and talk about stuff you love and you’ll attract people who love that kind of stuff.
It’s that simple.”
“You just have to be as generous as you can, but selfish enough to get your work done.”
Promote Your Work Online
”It sounds a little extreme, but in this day and age, if your work isn’t online, it doesn’t exist.
We all have the opportunity to use our voices, to have our say, but so many of us are wasting it.
If you want people to know about what you do and the things you care about, you have to share.”
Because almost everything—all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure—these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.
Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.
You are already naked.
“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.
Because almost everything—all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure—these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.
Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have a lot of time.
“Protect your vulnerable areas.
If you have work that is too sensitive or too close to you to be exposed to criticism, keep it hidden.
But remember what writer Colin Marshall says: “Compulsive avoidance of embarrassment is a form of suicide.”
“If you spend your life avoiding vulnerability, you and your work will never truly connect with other people.”
“Because, of course, the worst troll is the one that lives in your head.
If you are struggling with your inner critic, you may want to read How to Overcome Self-Criticism in 5 Easy Steps.
It’s the voice that tells you you’re not good enough, that you suck, and that you’ll never amount to anything.”
Keep Your Day Job
We need to eat and pay the rent.
“An amateur is an artist who supports himself with outside jobs which enable him to paint,” said artist Ben Shahn.
Whether an artist makes money off his work or not, money has to come from somewhere, be it a day job, a wealthy spouse, a trust fund, an arts grant, or a patron.”
“Whether you ask for donations, crowdfund, or sell your products or services, asking for money in return for your work is a leap you want to take only when you feel confident that you’re putting work out into the world that you think is truly worth something.
Don’t be afraid to charge for your work, but put a price on it that you think is fair.”
“Even if you don’t have anything to sell right now, you should always be collecting email addresses from people who come across your work and want to stay in touch.
Why email?
You’ll notice a pattern with technology—often the most boring and utilitarian technologies are the ones that stick around the longest.”
Enjoy the Process of Promoting Yourself
”Be ambitious.
Keep yourself busy.
Think bigger.
Expand your audience.
Don’t hobble yourself in the name of “keeping it real,” or “not selling out.”
Try new things.
If an opportunity comes along that will allow you to do more of the kind of work you want to do, say Yes.
If an opportunity comes along that would mean more money, but less of the kind of work you want to do, say No.”
The people who get what they’re after are very often the ones who just stick around long enough.
It’s very important not to quit prematurely.
I read this book in a couple of hours and my first thought after finishing it was. And now I will read it again.
Did you come up with a new idea to promote yourself or your work?
Let me know in the comments below.
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these are such good pieces of advice. I’ve got an ebook in the works and your suggestions couldn’t have come at a better time. “Share what you love, and the people who love the same things will find you” – I hope this is true. Thank you
I really want to read this book! It seems perfect for me right now when I’m brain-fried and can’t come up with ideas on how to promote myself on social media. Great book recommendation!
Definitely a reading that I need to grow, indeed to increase my brand and myself …
i would love to read this book.It is really good time to make friend with books and enjoy the time.
This is some great advice. I will have to pick up this book–it sounds like a helpful one!
This sounds like a good book. I am trying to get my hands on some good books this year. I will have to add this one to the list.
I’m an aspiring writer… need to stop saying that and start doing but you know how it is. I’m glad I’m seeing this while I’m still in my early stages. I love the idea of sharing your process with your audience. Seems like a great way to build interest and community.
You have given a treasure trove of valuable advice here, thanks so much!
This sounds like a great book. I know the struggles of promoting your own work, and the shyness of saying hey, this is what I do, come and read it.
Self-promotion is super important for growing your business!
I love that you discuss creativity being a collaboration. Self-promotion is hard work but when you have other people who are helping makes things a little easier.
This post is absolute gold. Thank you for giving others advice on how to not only promote themselves but be better. It’s hard to follow your own advice sometimes and seeing it displayed like this makes it stick a little bit better. Always keep on keeping on is what I say even when life isn’t exactly ideal.
I really need to read this book! I need help with promoting myself more and more creative ways to do it! I feel lost in all the social media frenzy. Thank you for sharing this find!
Now I wanna read this book more and more. I’ve heard so many good things about it.
Honestly, I am not very comfortable with self promotion. But in this blogging world, it is necessary so I am starting to adapt. Kinda late but at least it’s working. Seeing the fruit of my efforts, too.
Indeed such a good read. Strategizing is really a need. I need to learn new things and yeah, be ready to adjust what should be done to improve. Moving forward and still doing what I love is a good combination.
Thank you for this amazing article! It’s so perfectly timed. This quote really resonates with me: “Don’t think of your website as a self-promotion machine, think of it as a self-invention machine.” Self promotion can be challenging for me too, and I truly appreciate these helpful tips! Best wishes.