Share Your Writing Successes With Others

 Today's poster tells us never feel guilty for being happy. Writers should also never feel bad about blowing their own horn over the successes in their writing life. 

Our parents tried to teach us to be humble. "Don't brag." "Don't try to look better than your friends." It was good advice in most aspects of our lives. For writers, it's a different story. If writers don't do a bit of bragging, no one is going to buy their book or read the story published in a magazine. 

Part of a writer's job is to promote themselves as a writer in every way possible. Don't look at it as bragging. It's marketing yourself as an author and letting others know about your work. 

How do you do that without jumping up and down and shouting "Hey, look at me! See what I just did.!" 

If your book was just published, or you've won an award, or your work placed in a contest, share with your friends and family. Announce it on all social media venues you belong to. If you're a blogger, tell your readers in a post. If possible, add a link to the place they can purchase the book. You're not bragging, you're trying to sell books. Creating an author website is good business, not boasting.

If you are going to conduct a workshop at a writing convention, be sure you list your achievements in the program handout. If a writer sees that you have 5 books published and have won an award for two of them, they will take you seriously. If you've only published in one magazine, it's alright to list it. You've shown that you can write something that was published. Usually, people who are asked to teach a workshop are ones who have a list of credits. 

You can give information about your writing successes without sounding like a braggart. Something like "I'm pleased to share that the script for my first play has been purchased." is fine. If you say, "I'm a fantastic writer, and I have just sold my sixteenth book. There should have been others, but the editors were too blind to see what a good writer I am." That person is not going to gain many fans. 

Many Calls for Submission ask for a short bio with the sub. Here's where you can list your achievements without feeling you're being boastful. Editors are interested in seeing if you have a publishing history or not. Even if you have never been published, you can still write a short bio about the kind of writer you are, where you live and write--things about yourself.

If you don't spread the word about any good news in your writing life, how will anyone know you are a writer? How will they look for your work to read? 

So, don't hesitate to tell others about your writing successes, but do it in a nice way.