My skills of salesmanship are nothing to crow about. If I try to show off too much I’m far more likely to end up eating crow.
Self promotion is a gift. Some people are born wheeling and dealing or have inborn salesmanship, and others are born artists. Okay, that’s an unfair generalization, to be sure, but as an artist myself, and one admittedly devoid of any sort of business acumen or PR skills, I also know a ton of other artists of all stripes who, left to their own devices, would or will forever work, then die, in obscurity. I am glad and relieved that there are people for whom the promotion of others is an interest, skill set and/or gift.
If it weren’t for the practitioners of good business, whether as active promoters of artists’ work or more indirectly as patrons (buyers or spouses, for example), lots of us in the arts would either have to give up our artistic vocations or starve in the legendary garrets of the unsuccessful, regardless of talent or commitment.
There’s no obvious solution to this perennial artists’ dilemma, since being self-promotion-challenged so often includes being confused and intimidated by even knowing how to find and secure an able and supportive agent to carry the weight. What a conundrum.
This post, as you would naturally guess, is not a how-to. If I had the answers, any of them, I probably wouldn’t be here talking to you or even cognizant of this puzzle at all. This is, instead, a note on my own perpetual wrestling with the questions of what to do with my creative impulses besides rambling around with them towing me by the heartstrings. I may forever stand in mystified awe and envy of those who know how to crow.
Art-Colored Glasses 
An interesting read. 🍀
Thanks, my friend!
Boy, do I relate to this, Kathryn!! I have struggled with the concept (and reality) of self promotion all along and still don’t get it!
I am so Not Surprised! Maybe someday the good PR Fairy will land and bonk us introverts on the head. 😉
I’ve noticed for years that birds have taken to scavenging in supermarket parking lots, especially those of stores like Whole Foods and Central Market that have outdoor tables for people to sit and eat. When we were in Ft. Worth a couple of months ago I took some pictures of birds under tables and in the fountain outside Central Market.
I think I’m an honorary member of your Not-Good-at-Self-Promotion Club.
You, at least, have an excellent excuse in being such a polymath that I can’t quite feature where you’d find *time* to fuss with self promotion!
Birds are clearly no bird-brains–after all, they have the smarts to choose places with outdoor dining tables *and* (I’ve often noticed) ones that have some pretty good eats. The little guy in the second shot was obviously feeling pretty territorial about his chosen dining spot when I approached, but despite his bluster he didn’t actually fly away or come after me, just made a bit of a show and then was apparently content when I’d moseyed far enough away again.
What makes self-promotion successful? I do not know the caws. 🙂
((Laughs like a crow squawking))