Countdown to #getPOSSESS: Day 16

mood: yawny, not yanni
pandora/ipod: "you're so vain" by carly simon

I'm getting tired of the sound of my own voice.

Hey, I can hear you laughing.

Okay, not the sound of my own voice technically, but definitely the sound of my own typed out words spreading like a blanket of herpes glitter over the Interwebz: Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Blogger. I feel like Norma Desmond, trying to convince Mr. DeMille that she is, in fact, still relevant and ready for her close up.

That reference might just have ensured that I'm not relevant. But whatever.

Self-promotion seems to be de rigueur these days in publishing. In addition to your publisher - your editorial and publicity and marketing teams working on your behalf - most of us authors are expected, if not required, to do a decent amount of self-promotion.

We go from creative artists to marketing machines during the last six months of pre-publication. We mastermind grassroots campaigns, enlist family and friends, create our own swag, connect with local booksellers, blog, vlog and tweet our way across the world wide web. We run contests, set up giveaways, participate in as many blog tours as is humanly possible. We ;), we <3, we *flail*. And we approach the whole process with varying degrees of enjoyment and loathing. But we do it. Why? Because we know, deep down, that we are partially responsible for the success or failure of our books.

Okay, that may or may not be true, and I'm not going to get into a discussion on self-promotion and it's effect on sales, but what's important to the author is that we believe we have some influence over the process.

It's a labor of love, for the most part. But there's also a tremendous amount of pressure. If I didn't spend this month before the release of POSSESS doing everything I can think of to help get the word out, I would always look back at this time with regret. That drives me on.

Still, I'm acutely aware that self-promotion walks a fine line between "awesome" and "annoying." There's too much, and there's not enough, and somewhere in between is the sweet spot where you're promoting and celebrating your book without alienating, oh, everyone who comes into contact with you because you can't do anything other than talk about yourself.

I worry incessantly about crossing the line into this territory, and this month's Countdown to #getPOSSESS has walked dangerously close to "annoying."

So for those of you who have stuck with me, I thank you. And for those of you who might want to punch me in the face, I apologize. :)