How to Promote Your Work

In a word, don’t.

Photo by Xiaolong Wong on Unsplash

It does not translate into income, followers, or satisfaction. My most popular article by far did not make me much money for a good reason: views from social media don’t count as reads. The piece went viral on Reddit and other places, generating a lot of traffic from non-paying Medium readers who likely used it as one of their freebies.

I try to avoid writing about my own experience with the Payment Program as I think most of the ‘I Made $XXX in Three Hours’ articles are complete baloney. I could once say I made ten grand for eight hours of work writing my first book proposal. It would be true on the surface, but the reality is that I then had to write 80,000 words on a topic I really didn’t care about that much.

But it was a book deal so…

It’s important to understand that I am a former marketing person. I know how to promote. I know all the tools and media and see all the gimmicks. They make me want to puke. If I had to do that stuff to sell myself my soul would wither.

You know what makes me follow a writer? The writing. The perspective. The human behind the words.

I understand that many consider this a business