Too Shy to speak and promote?

 

This is Terry Burns, sitting in for Kathi Macias. It's no secret that word of mouth buzz is the best possible book promotion. I'm doing programs for a couple of conferences and workshops a month these days which is much better than book signings for generating word of mouth. I offer a number of available topics over on my website and people generally pick and choose a little of this, little of that.

What's the most popular topic? Too shy to speak and promote?

That isn't a problem for those who hang around over on this site I'm sure, but it gets more attention every time I give a program to the point that I now use it as sort of a standard opening. You see, I am painfully shy, always have been. In high school Saundra had to ask me out, I don't order pizza, take things back to the store, and if you serve me a bad meal in a restaurant I won't complain, I just won't come back.

How could a guy with this sort of malady get up in front of a couple of hundred people and speak? When I was in college I had to take speech and the teacher identified my problem and taught me how to invent a "public personna" and hide behind it. It allowed me to be able to do the things I couldn't do to the point that I became a chamber of commerce manager, going right at the thing I feared most.

I've done it for many, many years, and still do. I get in "uniform" (see picture) when I have to be Terry the writer or Terry the agent, and once in character can do what I need to do. This is a fairly common problem with writers as we tend to be drawn to being a writer because we are more comfortable communicating with the written word. That's why so many react to this topic. In fact, I know a number of writers who, either consciously or unconsciously, are sabatoging their own career efforts because they are afraid to do the public part of promotion. I've helped a number learn how to create a public personna of their own and be comfortable hiding behind it to do what they need to do. It isn't hard and it really does work.

We'd be surprised if we knew how many people have to do this to be in public . . . like Johnny Carson had to.

Terry Burns

http://www.terryburns.net

Comments

[Scott neth]

This is a great blog and it holds true for me. I am also painfully shy, still single, don't complain at a restaurant or return merchandise. I am glad I'm not the only one. I can, however stand in front of a crowd and talk about my LORD but not my book. Perhaps this is something i should work on by the time my next manuscript is complete. Thanks for the advice