Do you have any advice for self-promotion for people who feel anxious about promoting themselves? Sometimes I fear I sound too "arrogant" or "overconfident" when I'm trying to promote. I don't want to come across as self-important, but I want to hype myself up to an extent. Thank you!
I think it comes down to identifying what "arrogance" and "overconfidence" actually are and how they would actually look in this situation. Being arrogant about promoting your fic would be:
Going on about how your work is inherently amazing or that you're objectively talented. Or that writing fic is easy and implying that anyone who struggles with it has something wrong with them.
Putting down other writers, fics, tropes, or ships to try and make yourself and your work look better.
Declaring anyone who hates your work a "hater" who is "jealous" or has "bad taste."
Being blind to your own flaws.
Promoting your work on other people's work without any kind of prompting, or only using certain communities (such as discord servers) as a place to promote your work instead of interact.
And plot twist! Putting down your own work or lampshading all the problems is a type of arrogance as well, because you're already assuming the reader will hate what you've done. The reality is that if they do like your work, those kinds of comments from the author will make the reader feel stupid for liking it anyway.
Basically, arrogance is trying to tell other people how they should feel about your work. That's what puts a bad taste in people's mouth.
The following is not being arrogant about your own fic:
Sharing snippets of your work so people have the opportunity to decide for themselves if it interests them and would be worth checking out.
Saying how proud you are of your work, or how hard you've worked on it to get it to where it is. There's nothing wrong with showing pride in what you do, and often when people see how much work has gone into something, they get even more interested in it.
Creating memes, graphics, artworks, or shitposts about your own fics. Be your own fandom! I promise it's like the most normal thing ever.
Recommending your own fic to someone when they express a desire to read something like whatever you already happen to have written.
Pointing out particular elements of your own work that you enjoy. People will post about how they write their dream fics all the time.
Providing behind-the-scenes commentary on what you've written or pointing out particular moments from your story you love. E.g. "Omg I just wrote this super fluffy scene and it's sooooooo cute! I can't wait for you to read it and I hope you all squee~!"
Pitching your fic. This is when you try to appeal to your "target audience". E.g. "Are you looking for a spicy enemies-to-lovers slowburn about [Ship Name]? Then boy howdy have I got the fic for you!" Basically, you're describing the premise of your story and elements people might be interested in and then throwing it out there.
The difference here is that you aren't telling other people how they should feel about your work. You can say you're aiming to evoke a certain feeling, but ultimately, you aren't making it sound there's an objectively correct way to go about it.
In conclusion, as long as you aren't trying to tell people how to think or feel about your fic (or promote it in inappropriate situations), you're never going to come across as arrogant or overconfident about your work. If anyone does think that, it's worth asking yourself if that's a "them" problem first and foremost, or even get a second opinion from someone you trust.
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Not sure if this has been brought up before, but I don’t think that there’s that significant of a secret behind the mural man. LIke? Apparently the political figures of Vinyl City are determined not by public voting (alone) or running for candidacy, but through the Lights Up competition for a combination of 1) completing the arena, 2) ‘lighting up’ the stage as the competition implies, and 3) passing the final vote from the NSRtists and the Head. If there was only 5 musicians and a head with NO vacancies, why would any of the Charters vote ‘yes’ to the contestant/s if there’s a risk in getting replaced?
I would think that the mural man filled in that 6th artist slot present even on DJ Subatomic Supernova’s satellite, and I suppose the mystery then would be if their absence was either through retiring, quitting or simply the end of their term as a Charter. Like, instead of an election season or whatever, Vinyl City holds Lights Up Auditions during a set period during that 6th Charter’s crossover or something; on the satellite again, it’s not as if we see the mural man’s name in 6th (we see Bunk Bed Junction’s), maybe they’re already gone or are archiving stuff from their district. Does Tatiana temporarily hold ‘charter’ to the district? Does she hold the platinum disc until a new position is filled? Is Festival Plaza that district that once had mural man as a Charter? Do you think with the Rock Revolution and the subsequent approval of indie bands that the position was left empty or even completely abolished?
idk, lmao-
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