On Magic, Marketing For Writers And A Call For Stories To Boost On Medium

The people who are most magical at their craft are often just the absolute worst at getting their work out into the world.

In The Magic Strings Of Frankie Presto, Mitch Albom says before babies open their eyes for the first time, the talents surround them as bright lights and when they clutch their fists for the first time, they’re choosing the talents that will be with them for life.

It struck me as such a lovely thought, almost impossibly romantic and of course words like that could only come from the hands of a writer. Content creators don’t type words like that. ChatGPT couldn’t type that in a million prompts.

Couple of weeks ago, I went to a candlelight orchestra in a historic old church. I sat in the balcony and it was utterly dark save for hundreds of candles circling the orchestra as they played Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker and more.

When the concert ended, the audience stood in a thundering wave of ovation and they played on, into the night. As I left and walked out into the cold and dark, the music had not yet left me and it reminded me a little of finishing a good book.

Sometimes, you close the last pages of a book but you can’t open another one yet because your head is still living in the one you just finished. Maybe that’s why Stephen King calls books a uniquely portable magic, I don’t know. They transport you.

One of the things that occurs to me is that the people who are most magical at their craft are often just the absolute worst at getting their work out into the world. It doesn’t even matter what that craft is. Music, writing, painting. They all struggle.

Maybe when they reached out their little fists and grabbed the talents that would be with them for life, they didn’t grab marketing and even in saying that, I laugh to think of marketing as a talent. But when it’s done right, it really and truly is.

When marketing is done right, it’s almost magical. It doesn’t feel smarmy and hawking, like you’re selling your soul to get your work out into the world.

I remember once, working with a new client. Ripping everything down and saying no, no, this is not how you do it. This cheapens your work. Deleting the entire website. Ripping down social media garbage.

Later, having her say she didn’t know getting her work into the world could feel uplifting instead of being a chore, one of those dreaded things one “has to” do.

And marketing often feels that way because mostly, it isn’t done right.

Mostly, it’s a whole lot of buy my book, buy my book, sign up for my list, begging and pleading and shilling and getting results that are weak to pathetic until you turn that frustration onto your work, and feel like maybe you’re just not any good at this, because if you were, they’d respond, wouldn’t they?

It reminds me of a man who posted on Medium to say please help, my book is dying on Amazon and so I looked and his book was glorious and it was such a damn shame I wrote back, a public post, to tell him all the things he didn’t know he didn’t know.

In January I’ll be writing more about that, how to market your writing without feeling like you’re selling your damn soul, but for now, I’d really like to know what you’re doing in that vein. Where are you promoting your writing, if anywhere?

Do you have a mailing list and if you do, what platform are you using? Do you use Mailchimp or Substack or some other program and how is it going? Because if I see a platform mentioned more than a couple of times, I’ll be sure to include it.

Because here’s the thing. The world is filled with people churning out content that doesn’t speak to anyone’s soul.

I read about a guy who uses ChatGPT to write ten or twenty posts a week to drive traffic to a site where he sells affiliate programs and I get it, we all need to eat. But Christ, we need more real artists to float to the top.

Speaking of artists floating to the top, it’s the 22nd of December and I have not used all my boost nominations for the month. If you know of a truly killer story that went up in the last couple of weeks and has not got nearly the views it deserves, please share a link in comments and I’ll go have a look tomorrow.

And if you’re feeling kindly, when you're done here, maybe read one of my pieces on Medium, too. The three below are my most recent.

But let me know where you’re at with marketing first, okay? :)

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On Medium…

• A Beautiful Little Book About What’s Really Important In Life

• Stunning Writing And A Little Boy Named Bird

• Dickens “A Christmas Carol” Was A Beautiful Christmas Wish

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Monday is Christmas and if you celebrate, I hope it’s a wonderful one. If you enjoy my writing, please click the heart or share this post. Thanks. :)

xo,
Linda