What Is It With The Pushy Demands For Promotion The Last Six Months?

This site isn't big enough to make or break anyone's events, so pretty much anything I have to say doesn't have to be listened to. But I've noticed an increasing tendency for people to send me things and ask that I promote them. Not "this is an event your readers might be interested in" or "this is happening June 6" or even "we have a new book out" but "post my video" or "help us publicize our book" or "do an interview with me." I find this curious. Some of these things aren't even comics, so it's easy to take a pass. But some of them are. I know things are bad out there and that new media has reached that point where there's a bunch of people clamoring for X level of saturation when there are only Y hours in the day for people to process and/or consume it, but people seem to be mistaking being aggressive with being effective.

The old rule for entertainment news is that if it's something you can buy an ad for, it's probably not news. I love hearing about events and about new books and even videos, and I have a place on this site for all three. But I get to pick and choose what I cover and why I think it's important. I don't understand the hurt feelings I'm seeing more and more when this site or others out there fail to celebrate someone's promotional "get" to that person's satisfaction. I put myself through college in part by working for a PR firm -- it's a tricky field and can be honorable work. But it's not something I'm particularly interested in as a thing in and of itself, even if there is a comics component.

I'm also not interested in sitting down and typing out a tutorial on how you can promote your work. I'm happy to answer questions about how you can work with me, but I don't really track what other people do and what little I learned promoting the Stan Lee book is already up on this site somewhere by now.

I love your enthusiasm and I love hearing about what you're up to, and I love hearing from professionals in the field. I can do a lot better with my event coverage and my publishing news coverage and my reviews. I know that. I'm trying to get there and I will likely need your continued help in doing so. But if anything I can say can convince some of you to consider taking a step back and return to an emphasis on events and comics and creators and not the act of promotion itself, not try to force that echo effect, and maybe afford some of us the respect that allows us to set our own parameters without your being angry about it, that would be a great thing.
 
posted 8:30 pm PST | Permalink
 

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