A huge part of the writing life is promoting. As a freelance writer, I use a lot of social marketing tools to promote myself. I write articles for article directories, I blog, I guest post and use tools like Twitter, Mybloglog, BlogCatalog, online community forums and others.
Put On Your Publicist Hat
As a writer, you need to be your own publicist. Today, I'm told that publishers are more likely to sign writers that already have a following. If you show them that you have a Myspace page with 5000 friends and established presence on the internet through book clubs, a blog, an e-course or some other social tools, you'll be more likely to win them over.
If you're not spending at least a few hours a week on promoting yourself, your writing career will likely stall. To move forward and get better gigs, step outside of your comfort zone and act as a publicist for yourself.
*Learn about Web 2.0, social media and about ways you can get noticed in the search engines as well as by your target audience.
*If you're solely ghostwriting today, start publishing free e-zine articles or start a blog of your own.
*If you're starting to get well known in your niche, kick things up a notch and try to get noticed some more.
Writers as creative people can come up with all sorts of ways to increase their profile. Happy Promoting!
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2 comments:
I like this advice. I worry about some writers who spend so much time worrying about getting hired by this website or that. I have heard about how writers were affected when Write For Cash closed up shop.
I believe in self-promotion and marketing big time. I'm trying to learn all I can! I think it's how you can move on to command better pay and just plain expose yourself to better writing opportunities.
That's the holy grail of freelance writing -- marketing oneself. If you aren't doing it, you won't last a minute.
Each day starts with me posting bids or proposing to write something for someone or the other.
Life's all about selling oneself and marketing your writing is something you must do for a living, apart from actually writing.
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