I'll be honest, this is a hard one for me. I actively try not to boast (unless I'm joking with my family) but I struggle to know where the line is between confidently talking about something you are proud of, and boasting. For example, I often worry that I don't want to say I'm becoming more patient because that might be taken as boasting.
This is actually a real problem in my carreer. As an author, my main job is to market myself. It is arguably more important than writing a good book.
Most people think that the authors we know well like Mark Twain and Hemingway stood out above other writers of their time because of shear writing talent. The truth is that these men were relentless self promoters.
Well known French author Stendhal famously said,“Great success is not possible without a certain degree of shamelessness, and even of out-and-out charlatanism.”
Ok, doesn't that sound like boasting?
In a world where almost a million new books are published every year, you have to market yoursself relentlessly if you want to be noticed. It isn't true that "if your book is really good, people will find it."
So how do I do that without boasting? How do I tell people how good this book I wrote is without seeming (and feeling) so obnoxious?
I try to work around this problem by collaborating with other authors, quoting reviews from other people, and talking about the book and how it would benefit my audience. But I still feel self concious.
It's funny that I'm focusing on not boasting this month, because I'm also really focusing on doing a lot more marketing. Or maybe it's really inspired timing. As I'm creating my ads and social media posts, I'm really thinking about not boasting so I'm making them less about me. Please hold me accountable here and call me out if I'm coming across as boasting. I promise I won't be offended.
I know that this is a little be different than my other posts. I know a lot of you have businesses. Maybe we can help promote eachother.