I assure you that some of us Americans also have an aversion to self-promotion or anything that might smack of bragging. Before the advent of the web, it was really difficult for us to make ourselves heard, but now that’s changed: we can set up a blog, start an online magazine, start or join a blogging network, submit to the welter of new online magazines — all without really ceasing to be shy people in real life. I’ve been blogging for seven years now and have a daily readership in the mid-hundreds — not spectacular for a blog, but GREAT compared to the audience I’d reach through literary magazines or live readings — and I strongly agree with the comments already made here about the importance of generosity in blogging. I wince when I see a writer’s blog with no title other than the name of the writer, no blogroll or links section aside from links to her own material elsewhere on the web, and the clear message that the blog is in service to her real work, which is elsewhere. That’s a perfectly valid way to use a blog if you’re already an established writer and just want to update fans on your latest activities. But if you started a blog to launch a reputation, you’re not going to succeed unless you comment widely on other blogs and link to them often from your front page. There are several weekly writing-prompt sites that attract some top-notch poets (and a bunch of learners, but don’t worry, poet-cooties aren’t contractible over the web). Involvement in discussion lists and other social networks is important, too. All this seems fairly intuitive, but I’d like to add two further, related suggestions:1) Don’t just blog ABOUT poetry; include actual poems!2) Consider blogging about more than just poetry and writing-related stuff. Anything you do or think about might be of interest to fans of your work. But more than that, if your blog gets a reputation as an interesting destination for discussions of art or culture, personal reflections on being a single mom, cooking techniques, photography, sketching, or whatever it is you’re also good at or interested in, you have a real chance of enlarging your readership beyond just other poets — who, let’s face it, are not always the best and most attentive audience anyway. Yes, we have to support each other, together we rise and all that. But a lot of us, shy or otherwise, are self-absorbed bastards. And who wants to live in a world where only poets read poetry?A lot of online writers will advise against posting unpublished poems on your blog, because this will spoil your chances of publishing them elsewhere. Some compromise and post them for a short time, then take them down, or put them in private posts and give out the password to anyone who asks. If you’re already published widely, you can simply share poems a month or two after publication, though this won’t have the excitement and immediacy of posting working drafts, and you won’t get as much benefit from reader feedback. I have a couple responses to this. First, we need to be louder in telling journal editors to make an exception in their submission guidelines for previously blogged work, because in general, I think, publishing the work of popular bloggers who will link to their magazine is something editors should want to do if they care about enlarging their readership, and in any case redundancy of content can’t be prevented since rights in most cases revert to authors after publication, and nothing prevents them from re-posting. That’s our attitude at qarrtsiluni, the online journal I help publish. But I also advise writers to think about their blog as a destination rather than just a way-station. If you’re a socially active blogger with a diverse readership, chances are very good that you’ll develop a larger readership in a year or two than all but the most established of journals — certainly larger than most print magazines. But even online magazines have a struggle getting as many readers as a reasonably popular single-author blog, because I guess online readers are attracted to personalities and to social interaction (and very few literary magazines allow reader comments). Through blogging, you can cultivate a relationship with readers more like what you might get at a good coffee-shop reading than through publication in a magazine, and it can help you grow as a poet. Poems published to the blog can be edited at any time, or you can post new drafts separately and link back to earlier versions — there’s no more wincing to see that earlier, imperfect draft that you submitted a year ago printed for all the world to snigger at. As for whether this ultimately translates into more sales of traditional, printed books: I don’t know. I do know my own first pamphlet-sized print collection (by a friend I met through blogging) has sold somewhere around 150 copies over the past seven months with little effort on my part beyond announcing it on the blog and on Facebook and Twitter. I’m grateful to have it available for those who like such things, and glad that I can still mostly avoid the odious job of self-promoting, but for me, the blog remains my primary outlet and the focus of my energies as a writer. Don’t listen to people who tell you it’s all about building a personal brand: they’re full of crap. The world is already saturated with brands. People are hungry for meaning and for connection, and as a poet, you are uniquely qualified to give them that.

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