The Cynical Reality of Self-Promotion in The Age of The Internet

Apologies in advance for this week's topic. I usually try to bounce back and forth between Craft and Business, but this is something that's been digging its way under my skin for a while, and I felt a need to just get it out before the frustration builds any higher.

If you are going to be a professional author (or really a creator of any type), you're going to end up doing the majority of your own promotion. You're the one who makes your social media posts, who shares links to your content, who makes videos and blogs talking about your book, who sets up interviews, etc. And because there are so many of us out there all trying to get a little bit of attention, it's understandable that a lot of groups, pages, forums, etc., want to set ground rules for when and how someone promotes their own work.

The problem you'll run into (and that it feels like I get clocked by at least once a week) is that no one out there seems to have an intuitive definition of what, exactly, self-promotion is. Instead they treat it like the infamous definition of pornography... they can't tell you what it is, but they can call it when they see it.

And that doesn't help anyone... but there is more to it than there seems to be on the surface.

Words mean things... but do they matter?

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Why Is This So Damn Difficult?

To begin with, I don't want to get into the particular schedules or requirements different parts of the Internet have regarding how often creators can promote, what kind of promotion they're allowed to do, etc. That is a different topic for a different day, and honestly not one I really want to weigh-in on. If you manage a FB group, a Twitter page, a forum, a Discord, etc., it is entirely up to you how often you allow self-promotion, or even if you allow it at all.

However, before we ever touch on that topic, it's important that we all come to a functional definition of what self-promotion actually is, because it feels like a lot of folks just use it as a catch-all for, "Stuff I don't want to see."

And that isn't a definition that helps anyone.

Since I brought the topic up, I think I have a fairly simple definition of self-promotion that we can all agree on. In short, self-promotion is when someone promotes their own work. It doesn't matter if it's a free-to-read article, a blog entry, a YouTube video, a podcast, or a link to the sales page for your book; if you made it, then it's self-promotion when you talk about it.

I don't think there's a lot of folks out there who would argue with me on this topic, as it seems pretty cut-and-dry. If you're trying to get eyes on your own work, or work that you had a hand in helping create if it was a team effort, that should be considered self-promotion. I would even concede that you could stretch the definition slightly to include affiliate links to other projects, because those are directly meant to help you earn a commission, even if you're boosting the signal for something you didn't work on, which would make it "promotion" without the "self" part.

However, here's a short list of other stuff I've seen struck down as "self-promotion" that doesn't fit that definition:

- Sharing the work of someone you know.

- Sharing too many articles/videos from the same creator in a row even if you don't know them.

- Sharing the work of someone who was published by a company you were also published by in the past.

The list gets more ridiculous after this point, but I think that most of us would agree that sharing content made by your friends is not, by definition, self-promotion. Sharing content made by strangers isn't self-promotion either, especially if you stand nothing to gain from doing it. And if you use the argument that any time you share a publisher with someone then you're essentially promoting yourself by boosting their signal, you may not know just how small and inbred the independent and third-party publishing community actually is. If we followed that logic, none of us would be allowed to talk about anything, because there's probably no more than 3-4 degrees of separation between a lot of us.

At End of The Day, Though, It Doesn't Really Matter

I don't think there is some legion of moderators and page managers out there who are looking over all of the posts creators make with a magnifying glass, trying to find out when we violated the rules just so they have justification to bust us. Nor do I think this is a simple case of people not knowing what basic words mean, or who need to have a nuanced discussion on the challenges and difficulties that come with surviving as a creator. I don't even think the problem is people just interchangeably using "promotion" and "self-promotion" when it comes down to it.

Does all of that happen? Sure. All of these options imply something kind of ridiculous, though; that human beings ever operate on rules when they are given discretion and authority to just do whatever the hell they want with minimal-to-no consequences.

There is no 5D chess... you're just depending on other people's good mood.

Think about that time a cop pulled you over. Maybe you were speeding, but you told a joke that got him to laugh, so he let you go with a warning and told you to have a nice day. Maybe you weren't speeding, but you reminded him of his ex that he was still mad at, so he wrote you a ticket and threatened to do more if you said anything other than, "Yes, sir," or "No, sir," when he asked you a question. Think about that friend of yours who managed the local restaurant who always gave you the "friends and family" discount when you ate there, or the boss at the gas station who said that if he didn't see the food go missing, then he was going to write it down as properly thrown out. Or on the other end of the coin, think about that I.T. guy who decided he didn't like you, and so he always "lost" any reports you made to him, or dropped your calls when he went to "transfer" you to someone else.

The unfortunate truth about self-promotion online, or even just helping signal-boost other creators, is that you are entirely dependent on people, and their whims. No matter what the rules are, people who like you are going to bend or ignore them to help you out, and people who don't like you are going to do the same in the other direction.

I say this because I have been in the game for a while, and this is the reality you're dealing with when it comes to self-promotion in online spaces. Are there going to be some spaces where moderators, page managers, etc., will look at your behavior and make a reasoned choice about whether your posts are allowed by the rules set forth in the group? Sure. I'd even venture to say that roughly half the places you try to promote your work will have that kind of attitude. The other half? Well, best-case scenario is that your work catches the eye of the folks who run the place, and they decide they're going to help you boost your signal. Worst-case scenario, they slam the door in your face and ban you because... well, just because.

Should you follow the rules when it comes to self-promotion? Yes, because much like blatantly violating the speed limit, it's going to draw attention, and get you pulled over for cause. But just as with the highway patrol, keep in mind that following the rules and minding your own business is also no guarantee that you're going to be able to get ahead if someone decides you, "look suspicious," or, "they don't want you doing what you're doing in this neighborhood."

And I say this not to rag on people who manage social media pages, or to try to paint moderators with a broad brush. I say it because as someone who tries to follow the rules as they're laid out, it is much less frustrating when you understand that those rules are a paper shield. You should follow them if you expect to be a good member of an online space... but at the end of the day, those rules don't have any weight to them, and you can't appeal to those rules. All you can do is appeal to people, and hope that you end up making more friends than enemies.

If You'd Like To Help, It Would Be Appreciated

Now, after saying all of that, I think I've made it fairly clear just what a challenge it is to get anywhere as a creator who has to do a majority of their own promotion. That said, if you wanted to help me out, please consider some of the following options:

Things That Cost Money
- Buy a Book From My Amazon Author Page

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- Become a Patreon patron
- Buy me a Ko-Fi

Things That Are Free
- Subscribe to my Daily Motion Channel
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- Browse through my Vocal archive (I get roughly 1 cent per every 3 reads)
- Subscribe to my social media channels (found at the bottom of the blog)

Thanks in advance!

Like, Follow, and Stay Tuned!

That's all for this week's Business of Writing!

If you'd like to see more of my work, take a look at my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife as well as my recent collection The Rejects!

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