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Having a genuine Think about what makes it so hard to self-promote writing. I've done marketing in tech (it was also my undergrad major). With other products it seems fair game to say "here's what I'm offering! you may want to buy it!" but with writing it's not...quite...okay. 
A theory: many of us have internalized that being proud of our work = bragging? So let's just not mention it so that we're not bragging? It feels a bit like the sliding scale between being egotistical about our work/ourselves and being humble is just one extreme or the other.
Another theory: I get the notion that writing is subjective and we can't be good judges of our own work because we're impartial. Promoting work feels a bit like judgement: "this could be worth your time."
Because that seems off, it's preferable to let others do it for us.
Because that seems off, it's preferable to let others do it for us.
I've definitely internalized somehow that "good work will find its audience & spread by word of mouth" so I just kinda expect stories to do their thing, sink or swim accordingly, but that presupposes things like discovery are easy and working. Or that we talk about what we like.
I definitely don't talk about every story that I like. I try to, but I also disappear from Twitter often, and tbh I get guilty about the things I am *not* recommending, because I am also 1000% sure that I am missing out on really great stories I *would* like.
The outcome of this, though, is that the same stories that are up for awards or get published in Year's Best are the only stories that get widely read. Because no one has the time! And this is not to knock the very wonderful dedicated short fiction reviewers doing amazing work.
Yet another theory: art is precious and mystical, it feels icky to commercialize it, and to "sell" by way of promotion seems heavy-handed and not super graceful, damaging the Le Art. This is not said, but it lurks in the subconscious like an evil crab. https://twitter.com/TiresiasFelis/status/1344466167881150464?s=20
I mean, I get it, it's not nice to be sold to always, and that's why you want to finesse things and not create a persona that's all promotion all the time. That's good advice! But I think too many people just think "I don't want to be That Guy" and never...promote...at all.
Or promote with like a lot of apologies. Which again: UNDERSTANDABLE. Because I often feel it too: the mysterious not-okay-ness. The necessary bashfulness with which to offer up your product to the world. Let the market do what it will to this; let's NOT mess with the story-gods.
Anyway y'all know I'm always trying to keep it real on this platform. And I do self-promote. (I mean, I'm not only asking because I have a book coming out, but that's One Reason Why.) I do feel a bit like a human sludge when I do it, but I do it anyway.
It's puzzling--because again, other products (even other arts, imho) seem to have less of this! I wish we could self-promote within reason and feel more okay doing it. I hope someday things shift enough so that that becomes the case.
OMG another theory. As per the hidden panel in the comic below. We carry a secret shame about being writers and wanting to write, hence a weird feeling of guilt when we invite people to read?! Why are brains like this. https://twitter.com/MrLovenstein/status/1342840154541711367
