{"id":2058,"date":"2012-02-09T07:22:24","date_gmt":"2012-02-09T15:22:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.orcutt.net\/weblog\/?p=2058"},"modified":"2025-03-02T19:46:09","modified_gmt":"2025-03-02T19:46:09","slug":"writing-vs-self-promotion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/writing-vs-self-promotion\/","title":{"rendered":"Writing vs. Self-Promotion"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>The big prob\u00adlem fac\u00ading writ\u00aders today is find\u00ading a bal\u00adance between writ\u00ading and self-pro\u00admo\u00adtion.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m cur\u00adrent\u00adly doing a free pro\u00admo\u00adtion of my Kin\u00addle mys\u00adtery nov\u00adel, A Real Piece of Work<\/a><\/em>, and I\u2019ve dis\u00adcov\u00adered that it\u2019s easy for tweet\u00ading, post\u00ading to Face\u00adbook, and blog\u00adging and the like to take over your life. Mean\u00adwhile, in my own case, I think if giv\u00aden a choice between writ\u00ading and pro\u00admo\u00adtion, I\u2019d choose writ\u00ading every time.<\/p>\n

To my think\u00ading, the best way for a writer to get noticed is over time by pro\u00adduc\u00ading high qual\u00adi\u00adty work, and if he is spend\u00ading all of his time pro\u00admot\u00ading (a realm that thrives on instant feed\u00adback), then he isn\u2019t spend\u00ading the req\u00adui\u00adsite time on his craft (a realm that thrives on qui\u00adet and reflec\u00adtion).<\/p>\n

If the writer doesn\u2019t want to focus on the writ\u00ading, he needs to ask him\u00adself whether he real\u00adly loves the process of writ\u00ading or if he does it so he can be known as an author<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The great\u00adest rewards tru\u00adly are in the process of doing it.<\/p>\n

In her book The Writ\u00ading Life<\/em>, Annie Dil\u00adlard tells the sto\u00adry of a stu\u00addent writer who asks his writ\u00ading men\u00adtor if he could be a writer, too. The men\u00adtor says, \u201cI don\u2019t know. Do you like sen\u00adtences?\u201d Ulti\u00admate\u00adly all of this writ\u00ading stuff comes down to sen\u00adtences. I hap\u00adpen to love them.<\/p>\n

I do this because I can\u2019t not<\/em> do it. I am com\u00adpelled to write every day, and have been for over 20 years.<\/p>\n

Every writer needs to ask her\u00adself why she is doing this. If it\u2019s to sell a ton of books, that\u2019s great, and greater still if she is being hon\u00adest with her\u00adself. If it\u2019s to become the best writer she pos\u00adsi\u00adbly can, that\u2019s great, too, so long as she under\u00adstands that she won\u2019t nec\u00ades\u00adsar\u00adi\u00adly become a best\u00adselling author. I think it is near\u00adly impos\u00adsi\u00adble to achieve an equal bal\u00adance between writ\u00ading and pro\u00admo\u00adtion, so each writer needs to decide where she wants to focus.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

NOTE: This piece came out of a reply I made to a thought-pro\u00advok\u00ading arti\u00adcle by Rachel Abbott enti\u00adtled, \u201cUsing Twit\u00adter: Are You a Writer, a Brand, or a Sales\u00adman?\u201d You can read her orig\u00adi\u00adnal arti\u00adcle here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The big prob\u00adlem fac\u00ading writ\u00aders today is find\u00ading a bal\u00adance between writ\u00ading and self-pro\u00ad\u00admo\u00ad\u00adtion. I\u2019m cur\u00adrent\u00adly doing a free pro\u00admo\u00adtion of my Kin\u00addle mys\u00adtery nov\u00adel,\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,3,21,8,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-real-piece-of-work","category-craft","category-kindlestuff","category-publishingandthemarket","category-dakota-stevens-mysteries-series"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2058"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9223,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2058\/revisions\/9223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}