The Self-Promotion Myth

Have you ever noticed that the term self-promotion is most often thrown at individuals or people that represent their brand with their very person. I think it is a symptom of our culture of big business bias.

An author, singer or lawyer for that matter will be slapped with the tag of shameless self promoter. Donald Trump can't escape that label. If ABC runs a commercial on its own network promoting Desperate Housewives, that self-promoter tag does not seem to apply, but it is promoting its own product. By definition if an individual or company will profit form what is being promoted, it is engaging in self-promotion. Stop and give this some thought, because if you scratch the suface of many of our most respected business institutions and look back to their roots, you will find a shameless self-promoter who is now viewed as a lengendary business pioneer with a colorful marketing style.

So promote away, and become a colorful marketing legend after the lens of time polishes your image. Success tends to smooth out the rough spots.

My husband is very good at blowing his own trumpet, and he tells me all the time that I should get out there and promote myself more.

Not only do many of us (us, as in writers in general) not self-promote, we even go so far as to underplay our achievements and our books' worth.

I'm told by those who've read my Utamaro book that it is a pioneering work. How do I describe it when anyone asks what I've written? 'Oh, it's a book about a Japanese artist... mumble mumble.'

I saw a beggar leaning on his wooden crutch,
He said to me, you must not ask for so much.
And a pretty woman leaning in her darkened door,
She cried to me, hey, why not ask for more?

Leonard Cohen

Well, it becomes rather awkward to describe one's own work as pioneering, plus when one says it, it doesn't sound objective.

But, get an expert to say it for you, and you've got a fair impressive thing.

Malcolm

P.S. Nice spin on the matter, Lin. :-)