Shameless self-promotion

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Shameless self-promotion

I bet some of you are shuddering at the very title of this piece.

Not terribly British, is it, to boast?

The Australians call it Tall Poppy Syndrome, the Dutch advise that we don’t stick our heads above the parapet. The Norwegians call it janteloven (Jante’s Law), which, in a nutshell, means don’t think your special or that you are better than us. (Source Wikipedia)

But the trouble is that I like to stand out from the crowd, in fact, I think it is mandatory in my kind of business.  I am an advocate of shameless self-promotion. I have to be. And so, I believe, do you. That is if you want to be a successful writer who actually gets stuff published and (whispers) makes some money from it.

Networking = shameless self-promotion

I have run workshops on networking for a few years now. As someone who is now living in her fifth country and who has fought to keep her business alive and growing throughout the 24 years she has been abroad, I attribute almost all my success (bad word, Jo, slap wrist) to networking.

How do I ‘use’ networking?

I use networking to meet people who might hire me, buy my books or ask me to publish them, one day. I also use networking to meet people who may never hire me nor care two hoots about what I write but who like me and trust me and may refer me to their friends. Regardless of which type of person I hope to add to my network, it is fundamental that they know what I do.

But herein lies the problem. How can we communicate what we do clearly and concisely and memorably without sounding just a little bit proud of our achievements? How can we build trust in people unless we share a few of my success stories? But then… the moment we share our successes some may accuse us of breaking Jante’s Law. And, unfortunately, some may actually start to dislike us because they think we are bragging. Fortunately, there may be another way …

The easy way to ‘promote’ yourself

Andy Lopata is a friend of mine and I have helped him with the editing of all of his books. His latest, Recommended, has just been published by Pearson and I have to say that it is terrific. (Did you spot how I threw a teeny bit of self-promotion in there? See, I can’t help myself, sorry.)

In his book, Andy shares how to present yourself to others so that they actually want to refer you. He doesn’t suggest that you go about shamelessly promoting yourself… no, he suggests something that may sit easier with you – that you simply do a fabulous job of what you do. That you exceed expectations, that you deliver early, do terrific work and that you are super to work with.

Of course, you also need to be very clear about what it is that you do for a living. In fact, my line, above, about people needing to like, trust and know you, is one of Andy’s.

If you want to see Andy in action, take a look at this super short video on YouTube about how to get your clients to refer you.

And on the subject of getting your clients to refer you…

It is with butterflies in my stomach that I share the news that my first novel will go live on Amazon later this month.

As part of my promotion I am planning a ‘virtual book tour’ Sept 26^th – 3rd Oct – and I would like you to be part of it

It is with my heart in my mouth that I ask you to do me a BIG favour and help me with some promotion (bad word!) for my novel.

Could you mention Sunshine Soup to your network between 26^th September and 3^rd October, my launch week?

You can do this in a variety of ways:

• You could interview me about any aspect of writing, living abroad or running a business and place that on your blog or on a website.

• You could ask me for a review copy of my novel and post a review on your blog.

• You could ask me to write you a guest post for your blog.

• You could post an extract of my novel on your blog.

• You could post a link to my book for sale on its Amazon page via your Facebook page or wall.

• You could Tweet about my novel, with a link to either my website or to the Amazon sales page.

And to thank you for doing this, I will do something for you, in exchange:

• I could interview you for my Writers Abroad radio show.

• I could take a look at your book proposal.

• I could mention you on my Facebook page, blog or Twitter.

• I could take a guest post from you on my blog.

You see the other thing that helps you to grow your network without breaking Jante’s Law is to say thank you to those who help you. To reciprocate. To nurture the people Andy calls ‘champions’.

If you do something for me then I would love to do something for you in exchange.

Asking

Do you have any idea how hard it was for me to ask you to something for me?

I have agonized over the previous section while those butterflies went crazy and caused my stomach to clench.  Why is asking for favours so darn difficult?

But, the thing is, I believe that not only do we all have to find comfortable ways of promoting ourselves, but that we also have to ASK for help.

And there is no way it would sit easy with me if I didn’t practise what I preach. So I did. Here goes, I’m pressing the send button now…