“conditions of the skin” by devi laskar

Let’s face it, being a shy writer doesn’t work that well these days what with the world of Twitter, Face Book, and blogs. I’m more exposed as a writer than any other job that I’ve had. Different versions of me (aging me) over the past six years are documented on my blog. My kids’ pictures are there. My husband might still be spared from a public appearance. When moms that I see every day at school pick-up and drop-off tell me that they read my About Me page, I turn bright red.

I’m putting myself out there, yet I’m embarrassed by it. I write about parts of my personal life that I would only tell a close friend, but I blurt it out to the world. And then, I’m surprised when someone who I haven’t “told” begins to talk to me about it. It’s like owning a business but my face, heart, and soul are the business and to succeed I have to promote myself. I write what matters to me and sometimes that leaves me feeling a little vulnerable. These days a writer has to have some guts. Having a blog or website to quickly point to in a submission email to an editor is important and required.

When my writing started to spread across different online periodicals, I needed more than the “about me” page buried in my blog. I needed an “author” site to quickly list the location of my different writing samples. That’s how I found about.me. It’s so easy to use and gets the job done, for now. Do I really need a huge headshot of my wrinkles? I don’t know, probably. As a reader of blogs, the first thing that I do is look for a picture of the author. Eventually, I’ll probably have to make a real web site with my name as the URL, but until I have a book to sell there, about.me/thaisderich works just fine.

How do you promote yourself as a writer?

About the Author: Thais Derich is writing her first book, First Do No Harm: A Memoir, about birth and motherhood. She writes at SpinachandHoney.com and has contributed to Salon.com, SFGate.com’s Mommy Files and was a contributing food blogger for the San Francisco Examiner.