Welcome back to the Life After the MFA series! In our last installment, we covered the ins and outs of contests, grants, and fellowships. Now, we move into the more precarious waters of marketing and self-promotion.

Building an Online Presence: Pros and Cons

Christina Katz argues in favor of cultivating an online presence in her essay “The Tech-Savvy Writer: Embrace Technology, Establish Your Online Presence, and Earn More.” She states:

Once you have covered the basics of an online author platform, you can start to use technology playfully, creatively, and in exciting ways that elevate tools from mere content-delivery systems to dynamic, interactive contexts, where new work can be born from interactions spontaneously taking place between writer and readers.

Appearing in AWP’s The Writer's Notebook, this essay delves into the ways in which writers can use technology to their advantage by first mastering the basics.

Of course, social media can have its drawbacks. If you are struggling with the demands of building and maintaining an online presence, or feeling drained by the experience, you are not alone. Dani Shapiro discusses her own struggles with self-promotion and the changing landscape of the literary world in "Dani Shapiro on the Hard Art of Balancing Writing and Social Media" over at Lit Hub.

Jane Friedman offers a compelling argument that there can be significant barriers to maintaining an online presence and the ability to balance the work of writing and self-promotion in "The Secret to My Productivity, Or: Thoughts About Luxury and Privilege" on her blog. However, she also reflects that social media expanded her audience, and gave her power that she didn’t have before. She points out that the ability to refuse to engage in social media as a means of promotion is itself a privilege that not everyone has:

When authors like Jonathan Franzen reject marketing, promotion, social media, or anything else that takes them away from their art, it’s often (if not always) because they’re in a position where activities like social media don’t afford them any more power, or any interesting opportunity or benefit, relationship-wise or creativity-wise—it’s only a headache or an obligation. And that’s logical and more than acceptable to reject those activities, but it’s not admirable in and of itself nor is it a good model for people beginning a career.

Alternative Avenues to Self-Promotion

Not all self-promotion happens online. In “How to Give a Killer Reading,” available in AWP’s The Writer’s Chronicle Features Archive, Christine Vines offers some vital tips on how to make an impression when reading your work. She speaks from experience as a former reading series organizer about whether a reading immediately translates into book sales: “The benefit is exposure to potential new readers. And when this introduction goes well—with all the chemistry of a great first date—I could draw a family tree of the recommendations that resembles the biblical book of Numbers. And these are just the ones personally reported back to me from the monthly event that I ran.”

Looking for places to share your work? Try the Poets & Writers Reading Venues database.

Final Thoughts

We will leave you this week with some wise words from former AWP board member Lesley Wheeler, professor at Washington and Lee University and author of several books of poetry, including Propagation, Radioland, and The Receptionist and Other Tales:

When I get interested in authors—perhaps because I like a poem in a magazine or enjoy a reading at a conference or festival—the first thing I do is enter a name into a search engine, so I do think it’s important for writers to have web sites and a few pieces online. I’m less likely to go looking for the work if I “meet” someone through social media, but blogs, tweets, and Facebook posts have deepened my knowledge of and liking for many literary people, especially when they use their platforms to curate and celebrate the work of other writers. I live and teach in a rural part of Virginia, so my networks need to be heavily virtual. I need the news and reading recommendations I find online. And I’m more inclined to buy a book, or review or teach it, when I have positive associations with the author.

I’m a fan of social media used generously, but I limit how often I check in. Sometimes it makes me crazy or just wears me out—in many ways, it’s the opposite of the open stillness I’m trying to find through reading and writing. It’s helpful to think of writing, blogging, reviewing, and even posting and tweeting as service to poetry rather than self-serving promotion, so I make sure to focus some attention on great work by strangers, as well as past authors who haven’t yet received enough love for their accomplishments. I figure none of us controls how our work will be received. I write as well as I can, seek to publish, and help those publications reach audiences, but after that, who knows what tiny proportion of my writing, if any, will last? Having done some net good for poetry by encouraging and celebrating others—that would be a decent consolation prize.

That’s plenty to consider for now. Now that you have the tools for promoting your work, be sure to check out our next installment, which focuses on cultivating a robust literary life!

Warm Wishes,

Your Membership Team