Sharing Your Work

As artists of any kind we pour our hearts and souls into everything we create. Painters leave themselves on the canvas, dancers let their inner light shine on the stage, singers display their talent through their vocal cords, musicians feel the music flowing through their veins and writers weave themselves into their characters and storylines. We don't work a normal nine to five like more traditional professions and we aren't able to simply turn it off and leave our job at the office. A great deal of what we do is in our minds so it is with us all the time. We will wake up in the middle of the night to jot down lyrics, chords or characters and find inspiration everywhere throughout our day.

Of course we dream that once we have created our masterpieces that we can sell them. Hopefully in time we will not only make a few sales but we will make enough to work as an artist full time. I am a writer so my stories are the art that I hope to get out to the world. I joined several groups and share the links to my books in those groups. I will be getting more involved with local writer's groups in the  near future and understandably I will make sure they know I have books that have been published. These tactics however are not enough.

All forms of artists know that we must share our work as well as make sure our name in order for people to even know we are out there. For writers we give out free copies of our stories for reviews. We will take part in events that relates to our topics or genres in order to interact more closely with our readers and potential fans. We even take part in anthologies that raise money for charity or are put together to help groups of authors grow their fan bases without expectation of compensation. The free work will not obviously pay the bills but it is a necessary evil in order to reach beyond our own family and friends.

Another great way to grow your reach, possibly the best way according to the marketing profession, is word of mouth. However unless your family and friends circle is enormous it is very difficult to reach many beyond that group without networking so it is a must to interact with others in the industry as well as those we want to read our books. Being a part of groups, sharing what has and hasn't worked for us who paying attention to what others have done can be key to growing our businesses. Yes we are businesses and brands so making sure to share who we are can be the best way to reach further for what we do.