How to get your work noticed!

This article will teach you how to get your work noticed and ways you can promote your work online, without having to build a huge following yourself!

Even if you don't have a huge following, this information will help you get noticed, and the more you promote your work the more you'll get discovered!

It’s pretty easy to sell your art to collectors but how do you get it out there?

This guide will teach you how to get your work noticed and give you a few tips on how to promote your art and sell it.

Get Yourself Published

In the past I would ask everyone I know to read my work. This was a time where I was actually working part-time as a musician/record producer.

However, it always felt a little weird to ask for their input, so I eventually learned to start writing my own work and getting it published online. Now, with two completed novels and two middle grade fiction novels in progress I have realized that I can’t just expect everyone else to read my work.

I feel that publishing is a lot like dating.

You can’t just sit at home and expect someone to be attracted to your personality and be interested in having dinner with you. They need to see that you have something to offer.

You need to get your own identity out there.

There are a few ways that you can get your work published:

1. 1. Trying to be “discovered”
      • I know that this is a crazy notion but it’s something that a lot of authors and artists do.
      • I always thought that if I put something out there and people see it, they’ll have to want to read it. Then I went and got an agent and now I’m a bestselling author (that I didn’t really plan for).
      • The problem with this is that it’s very much like the friends hypothesis.
        • You’re trying to live out a fantasy with a bunch of random people you don’t know very well. There’s no reality behind it.
      • It’s very superficial.
        • What if you’re not successful? What if nobody likes what you’ve written? Are they really going to be happy with it when you get rejected?
        • They’re not.
   2. Publish it yourself:
      • If you feel strongly about what you’re writing, there’s really no need for an agent.
      • As long as you have it together, do it yourself. You won’t make as much money, but you can control the process.
      • I have seen this work quite successfully. I know a couple of author’s who have gone this route.
        • They get the bulk of their money through bookstores and from fans of their work that want to buy copies directly from them.
        • They do this because it gives them complete ownership over their work. If they go with an agent, they have to go through an agent, and it’s possible they’ll be sold to a publisher before they’re finished.
   3. Go and self-publish:
      • This is one of the things that a lot of self-published authors like to do. They want to control the entire process and make it what they want.
      • You don’t have to wait for the whole world to see your book to make it popular.
      • The marketing takes some time, but once you’re on the road, you’ll make people want to know about your book.

Have a Story

If you don’t have a story, you don’t have a story. I feel like I’m living in an era where the writing is good and the story is less important.

It’s a lot easier to write a book that looks pretty than it is to write a book that has a great story. But there’s a market for both.

If you want to go the self-publishing route, you can find some great free books online to help you get going.

Don’t get caught up in the “self-publishing is terrible” talk. Read the reviews of books that self-published authors have written, and decide for yourself if you like what they’re doing.

Have a plan. Know what you want.

Make sure you can cover all of the bases before you go and ask for help. You won’t get it, you’ll get more disappointment.

Now what does all of this mean for me as a personal and professional writer?

Well, this basically says to me to do what makes you happy. If what you’re doing is making you miserable, then that’s a good indication to stop.

If what you’re doing is making you feel happy and you can support yourself doing it, then do it! It’s your life, you’re in control of it.

I spent way too much of my life not doing what I really wanted to do because I was afraid to fail. I have now learned that if you’re not going to try, you’re going to fail.

And that’s not the only reason. If you do try, you might succeed.

So that’s my advice to all of you writers:

Do what makes you happy. Don’t be afraid to fail.

Don’t be afraid to get published. Just do it.

If it doesn’t work, it’s okay. Nobody is going to sue you.

If you get published, it’s okay. Just make sure you’re ready.