Promoting your writing on the Internet - by jharmon

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by jharmon

Created on: December 04, 2009 Last Updated: December 06, 2009

Promote Your Writing by Promoting Others

Lending a hand to other writers can pay off in the end.

Maybe you've written a novel, or a few short stories. Maybe you have an ebook available at Amazon or Barnes and Noble. Or maybe you just like to post articles on Web sites such as Triond or Bukisa. Or maybe you like to provide or sell your writings on sites like

Scribd or Smashwords. Whatever your venue for writing and publishing might be, you probably want other people to read your work.

And that's where things can get a little tough. Self promotion isn't easy, especially when everywhere you go on-line, the second you post something about your writing, someone immediately jumps up and starts screaming SPAMMER!

How to get around this? One easy way is not to promote your work, but promote the work of other writers. You can't be accused of spamming, and you're driving potential readers to other writers.

But how does this pay off for you? In several ways. First, hopefully the other writers you are promoting will get a clue and will do the same for you; this helps if you have some sort of relationship with the other writers, maybe are even friends with them. Also, by promoting other writers, you are letting potential readers know a lot about yourself. They get to know what kind of writing you like, if nothing else, and if they like what you like there's a good chance they will want to check out your writing, too.

So, you do not need to go to a bunch of forums and start spouting about how great your latest project is. That can be annoying to others. But you can go to various forums and talk about other writers and their works. You'll sound like any reader or fan, and won't draw the spam haters.

But be careful about the forums and social networks you decide to visit. Make sure it makes sense for you to post in any particular forum. Keep it appropriate. You shouldn't go to a forum about puppies, for example, and start posting about the latest thriller novel you read.

Also, you're likely to have some fun and maybe you'll make some new on-line friends.