I’m going to do something a little different today – I’m going to talk about self-marketing.

This is something I’ve been terrible at in the past.

I started creating things in college – way back in 2004. I was lucky enough to have ridiculously awesome roommates and we did all kinds of awesome stuff – music, video game recordings, random shenanigans – the normal stuff college kids do. Those first few years of creating content for the sake of creating (for fun) were the best. The idea that I could share these creations hadn’t yet crossed my mind.

Then I started recording music more seriously.

Back in 2004 , there were far fewer places where things could be shared online. For those without a point of reference, Gmail was just starting up, Steam wasn’t even a thing yet, YouTube would arrive in 2006 and twitter in 2007 (Soundcloud would start that year too). To share music, you had to rely on lesser known sites like Guitar War, or go to the forum of your favorite musician. It was a different time, where what you created only reached an audience of dozens, maybe hundreds (and very seldom reached beyond that unless you were active in the local community).

But all of that changed drastically over the next few years.

Youtube arrived, then Twitter, and the landscape shifted. The ability to share music and videos with the masses suddenly became a thing. It was easy to get left behind. I totally did.

For years, I continued recording music and making video game videos. I did upload stuff to YouTube, but I didn’t have an understanding of how it worked. I expected that putting videos up would automatically mean that they got views. I was wrong. When I first joined twitter, I thought the same thing – that sending out occasional tweets would mean people would follow me. I was wrong about that, as well…

So, over the years, my relationship with social media and sharing sites became strained. I was frustrated by endless sea of content and how easily my stuff got lost in it.

Then I started writing.

At first, I did it in a vacuum. A few hours at a time, I would sit in front of my computer and write. Over the course of a year, I finished two novels and was working on the third. In my naiveté, I thought that what I had created was ready to be published, so I started looking. In the search for agents, I discovered something – I was out of my depth.

I knew absolutely nothing about the world of writing, yet had waltzed arrogantly into it like I needed no knowledge to succeed. I was wrong about this, but was lucky enough to find places where I could meet people and develop my skills as a writer. I learned about how to develop my craft (a story for another time), but soon learned about the importance of an online presence.

At first, I was wary of hearing this. I remembered my experience with music all those years ago and how well it had gone. I dreaded wading back into those waters – wanted only to resist – but instead, I listened to what I was being told.

What I know now is that having a solid base, regardless of what art you pursue, is one of the most important aspects of owning that art form. Whether you are a writer, musician, painter, or anything else, taking the time to develop a solid base of followers, or a network that can see what you create, is worth the time. I don’t have statistics to back up my claims or hard data, but I do know that developing a blog (and posting on it regularly), spending time on twitter, getting to know authors in the community, and eventually spending time going to writers conferences is worth it.

I, like many other writers, would love to be published someday, but that is all but impossible to do in a vacuum. Especially now.

There is an old African Proverb that states: It takes a village to raise a child. When I first started writing, I was a child that didn’t know any better. Now, however, I’ve had a community teach me how to be a better writer and a functional member of the writing community. Something I could have never done by myself.

So now it’s time to come full circle and focus back on writing.

As I learned, building a base is one of the most important things you can do. Here’s how I’ve started moving towards that goal:

First, I joined an active community. My community is made up of writers in all stages of the writing process. Aside from critiquing each other’s work, we live the writing life together and support one another. If nothing else, it is imperative to find a community like this – one that can help improve your work on one hand and support you through hard times on the other.

Second, I created a blog (thanks for reading!). At first, I thought that this would be a place where I would post random ramblings from time to time, but it has taken so much shape since that initial idea. I know what I want to write about (getting published) and have made sure to fill these pages with my discoveries regarding that. Further, I’ve made sure to put my creative stuff here, as well. Now, I may have messed up when it comes to the URL of the blog (I used my creative name instead of my real one), but I’ll deal with that if it ever becomes an issue. One other thing to note is that I’ve recently read that authors shouldn’t separate their content. If you have a website/blog, house them in the same place under the same URL. Don’t separate them. Doing that just makes finding all of your content more difficult.

Third, I spend time on twitter. Often. Twitter may be very fast paced, but there are tons of people just like you and me on there. For about an hour a day (broken up into brief snippets of time),  I spend time exploring tweets by authors, agents, and others. I like things that strike my fancy and re-tweet things that really strike my fancy. Believe it or not, I’ve managed to go from less than 50 followers to over 200 in only a few weeks. This may not seem like a lot, but consider the fact that I’ve had twitter since 2013 and hadn’t really gone anywhere in 2+ years. It’s also worth mentioning that there are all kinds of wonderful contests and pitch days that you can take part of if you’re a writer (today is #pitmad, by the way!).

Fourth, I never stop writing. While this doesn’t really grow my base, it’s important to focus on. With all the time I spend on everything else, it’s super easy to forget about why I’m doing all of it. It is imperative that I never forget to continue practicing my craft. After all, that’s why so much time is being spent building a base!

In the end, it all comes down to personal preference. While I’ve read plenty of articles that say writers need an online presence, there are still people that prefer doing things face to face by going to conferences (and if that works for you, have at it). Personally, I haven’t had the ability to try that yet, so I’m not sure how it works for me. Until then, I’m really going to get after expanding my twitter base and beefing up the blog. So far, I’ve been successful, but in order to continue along that path, I have to maintain my long-term commitment.

Considering how things have turned out so far, it’s a commitment I’m more than willing to keep.