The Authentic Writer

When it comes to marketing your book, you are also marketing yourself. It's not just about the book titles, it about your good name.

When you do events, pass out postcards, speak at a writer's group, you will be leaving behind a message. Not just a message of what you do, what you write, but a message of who you are.

I attended a writer's conference not so long ago and learned a lot about various writers. But I also learned a bit about perception and those thoughts one has when someone says something that just doesn't click with the heart.

The writer may make an excellent point, but somehow you feel that it is interlaced with ego or merely the desire to make lots of money.

Are you an authentic writer?
Photo by laynasaur, courtesy of Flickr

In these situations I try to be open minded, but I'm also cautious. The greatest desire I have as a writer is to be authentic, and to inspire other writers to be authentic.

It does little good (in my opinion) to consider publishing a trunk load of books if these books aren't well thought out, well planned and well executed. That means I know it's the next book I should be working on, that I have the wisdom to plan it out and the courage to write it authentically.

Marketing yourself is like going for that job interview and behaving in such a way that will impress your possible new boss. Sure, you want to wear the right thing, speak in a way that shows you know your stuff, ask questions, and be the sort of interviewee that the boss wants to hire. But in the midst of everything, if you forget to be you in favor of some mock job searcher just hoping to make a bit of extra money, you are missing the point, and possibly even the job.

The same is true for you as a writer. When you speak to a group, do a book signing, reach out with postcards or join in an event, realize that others are watching you. If you write inspiration, do you emanate inspiration? If you write children's books, can you connect with children as well as adults?

Whatever you write, are you more interested in others than in yourself and the sale of your books?

Writers should be positive and upbeat. Sure, there are struggles that must be shared that every writer faces, but in the end it should be about what a writer has to offer the world. In the end, the good news that you are who you say you are, is what every writer will remember most.