The question in this week’s title is especially relevant for me because as of this week, MFA Thesis Novel has been out for three whole months. For the big publishers, that’s the typical amount of time in a book cycle, where new releases tend to come in 3-month seasonal waves.
In the past three months I’ve been doing a lot to spread word about the novel: in addition to the pre-order and the novel release party, I also contacted local bookstores about carrying the novel, built a new website page to feature it, talked about it on my email mailing list, answered a few author interviews, listed it in my alma mater news, recorded guest appearances on podcasts, and got some of my writer friends to review it, in addition to pitching the novel around to other reviews sites, bookstores, and media outlets.
I’ve also been doing a mini drive to get more Amazon and Goodreads reviews, which are incredibly helpful for helping people find the book. (By the way, if you liked MFA Thesis Novel and want to help in a super-easy way, consider leaving me an Amazon and/or Goodreads review!)
In the past few weeks, though, I’ve found myself running out of steam, with fewer bookstores to contact, avenues to explore, and hype to generate. This has gotten me thinking about a really important question:
How long should creative people spend promoting their projects?
Promotion Is Important, But Takes Away From Creation
Most books, movies, shows, albums, and other creative work get promoted before their release day to generate excitement, because people want to read, watch, and listen to things that are new. People still read, watch, and listen to older things, of course, but unless you’re in the Beatles-Harrison Ford-J.R.R. Tolkien camp, your work is going to get less attention after it’s been out a while, since more new stuff is coming out for people to get excited about.
I for one don’t like it when I see constant ads for the same thing, especially over a long period of time. I like variety, and I have multiple things I want to check out, so being drawn to the same media over and over feels repetitious and annoying. I imagine most people feel the same way.
But, when you’re a creative person with a project you’re REALLY proud of, it can be the most natural thing in the world to want to share it with people…except that if you hype it too much, for too long, it becomes old news, and people won’t want to hear about it anymore.
In fact, they might well get tired of you as the creator too.
I think it’s really important for every creator to honestly assess when their latest project has reached its peak so they can move on and devote their energy to other things. And chief among these other things should be another creative project.
I think a lot of writers especially fall into the trap of holding on to their first book for too long and talking about it endlessly rather than moving into the realm of the new. Promoting yourself and your work can be fun, but if it becomes excessive or takes away from the process of creation, then it’s clear that the creator is focusing on the wrong thing.
Short-Term Promotion vs. Long-Term
The type of promotion I’ve been talking about, like I did for MFA Thesis Novel, is really short-term promotion about a specific work—especially one that’s new. That’s the kind of promotion that can quickly get old, since people are hearing about one work over and over again.
Other kinds of promotion, though, have more longevity, especially when it’s the kind of promotion that focuses on the creator themselves rather than the work. In terms of writing, this would be like an author reading a passage from their newest book, versus the same author doing a compilation reading from many different books. Or, think of it like a band that plays a concert mostly focused on their latest album versus a band that plays their greatest hits that all the fans want to hear.
I talked about this more in a recent post about building a creative career over the long term, and I think that same insight applies here. Hype around a single project is incredibly useful, but should really be a springboard for hype around the creator’s work as a whole over the long-term, where people get to know you as the creator rather than any one particular project you’ve done.
In some sense, I think it’s a mistake to cease promotion entirely for your latest piece of creative work, especially if good opportunities come up. These opportunities can transcend the release of the work and do more to establish your presence as a creator in the world, and lead toward more of the long-term exposure I’ve been talking about.
Final Thoughts
Navigating the field of promotion can be tricky business—and I think a lot of creators take the opposite extreme of not promoting their work enough. While focusing on promotion too much or too little can be a difficult minefield to navigate, in recent weeks I’ve begun thinking of promotion as just another aspect of the creative life that creative people have to handle—one that can set them up for success if they do it well.
Moving forward, I’ll still be putting MFA Thesis Novel out there, just not as much as I have been. Instead, I’ll be working on ways to transition into more long-term promotion of my work, as well as producing more work to promote—including my secret new novel manuscript, which I should have some BIG news about soon ;-)