How Much Time Should You Spend on Marketing?

I hear writers constantly say they hate self-promotion and can not do it.
It goes against their upbringing.
"Don't toot your own horn." "Be humble. Don't brag on yourself."
Sadly, if the author doesn't promote his work, his excellent book may sit on the shelf instead of resting in the hands of a reader.
More and more it has become the responsibility of the writer to "build a platform" for his book and for his name. In the past few years it has been my pleasure to promote our mountain writers, to make them known to the public through newspaper articles, E-mail, and on this blog. We held blog classes for writers and poets who will take the time to network online. Of course, as soon as we learned to "blog" we learn that Facebook and Twitter are now the the places everyone is using.

Sam Hoffer of Murphy, NC produced an excellent site, http://www.mycarolinakitchen.blogspot.com/ which links to another site for the memoir she is writing. The writer must take the time to learn how to use the Internet to her advantage. Sam's readers come from all over the country and around the world. You can tell by the comments on her posts.

Nancy Simpson set up a most pleasing site at http://www.nancysimpson.blogspot.com/ . Her theme, of course, is poetry. Nancy posts the work of other poets and links to their sites. While Nancy is well known in literary circles for her published works, her blog is a way to reach people who might never have known her poetry or the work of other writers she features on Above the Frost Line, the title of her blog..

Kathryn Stripling Byer, our next Netwest Program Coordinator, posts on three blogs, http://www.kathrynstriplingbyer.blogspot.com/ her personal site, http://www.ncpoetlaureate.blogspot.com the site set up for her poet laureate work, and here at Netwest Writers.

Maria Schneider, former editor at Writers Digest, writes on her blog,
http://editorunleashed.com/2008/12/03/the-6040-rule-of-self-promotion/ and tackles the question of how much time to spend marketing our work and how much time we should spend writing.
She espouses the 60/40 rule.

Maggie Bishop, successful author of mystery and romance novels said at the Blue Ridge Writers Conference that she spends two hours each day on the Internet marketing herself. She has websites, a blog and, I'm sure visits the sites of others. Leaving comments on other sites she reads makes it easy for readers to come and visit her.

The sixty/forty rule sounds plausible to me. But how wonderful it must have been for those writers who came along before the Internet, the computer, and social online networks. They could spend 100 percent of their time writing. The publisher bought the book, sold the book, and sent the checks. The writer sat in his room, in his P.J.s if he wanted, and pecked away on his typewriter, or scribbled away on his next book.

Successful writers can't be shy in today's world. A writer can't hole up and expect someone else to market his books. If he is serious about selling his work, he should take every opportunity to read, speak, sign his books and network with people. We never know when the right person will come along, like what we write, and put us in touch with the person who can made a difference in our writing career.