26 06 10 - 15:55
Got pulled up onto a panel about reputation management this morning. After some initial statements about the various ways in which aggressive or inappropriate self promotion harms your reputation, the audience began to tug the self promotion thread. Soon the conversation was unraveled, and then rewoven, into a new pattern. I was glad, though, because talking about the right way to build awareness is much less embarrassing for me than talking about the reputation-killing mistakes you should avoid. Because I've made a few of them.
While it wasn't my intent to sell my books (or, for that matter, be on a panel here) I think this might lead to a sale or two. I like this. I really do. Also, I'm admittedly a little embarrassed over my short story collection. It's full of good stories and it's pretty well-written, but there are more typos in it than I care to have between covers bearing my name. This is my only professional regret about my early amateur years. If I were doing it again, I'd hire a freelance editor to take care of some sentence structures in The Box and the occasional errant indentation in Fruit Fly the Magician.
Back then, I was under the impression that anything I had already sold to a publication that paid me, edited the writing and released it into the public would be flawless. Naturally, I didn't think anything needed re-editing. Naturally, I was wrong. Now there's this pretty good collection of short stories out there with my name on it and, despite all of the other things I may have done right with it, it still serves to illustrate one of the main points people make when arguing against self-publishing.
So there's your lesson. Everyone needs an editor.
Also, in hindsight, I was on the panel because Steven Brust opened by asking who in the audience is actively involved in their own marketing. When my hand went up, he motioned for me to join the panel. I don't know what his intent was, but I like to think he was looking to provide a fresh unknown or two with the opportunity to state their case, and get their name out a little. I can tell you I wasn't the only self-marketing small presser in the audience (there was one more on either side of me, in fact) but I was the only one who put their hand up.
Next time, you other guys are coming up there with me.
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