I am the middle child of five. There is a classic characterization of middle children needing attention, feeling left out and always clamoring for validation and acknowledgment. That has never been my experience. I love flying under the radar, doing my thing with no one watching. I love having my work celebrated and have been the last person in line to celebrate myself.
My social media presence as an author has grown out of my books. With each book, I push myself a little further into self promotion. I have always had the attitude that who I am and what I look like shouldn’t make a difference, the work is what matters. Interact with the work and leave me out of it.
That is NOT the current landscape of book promotions (or any kind of hustle). We are all now encouraged to be a brand. Who are you? What are you bringing to the table? What do people need to know about you?
It has taken a number of years for me to get comfortable with standing in the public gaze—and it’s still not a natural place for me to be. As the years wore on, I learned how to share more and more of myself with the public. I am still not someone who lives her private life in the public space, but I’ve learned to share more and to be easefully present with the public.
Here’s some recent evidence.
Exhibit A
I have a new website that I’m about to share with folks. Sneak peek for the Patreon crew! When I shared the site with my agent, she was like, we want to know more about you! It’s so distant and impersonal. Practical as ever, I thought, but why do they need to know about ME—it’s the work that matters. I was grouchy with her, but she persisted and we built some flavor into the site. I also had no plans to put my ebooks on the site, but she asked—what about your ebooks, what about your art? That too? I asked. My art too? But it all came together and I appreciate the push. As you can see, I’m not front and center and dealing with this new world of Author as Brand.
Check it out at: www.kiburabooks.com
Exhibit B
I rarely share pictures of myself anywhere. It’s not that I dislike myself or my image, I’m just protective and not prone to put myself on stage. But to give my books a fair chance, I have to roll with the opportunities that I am offered. One sure opportunity required me to make a video introducing my book. I dove into it, partially because last year during the pandemic, I felt more flexible to put myself out there. I suppose it’s been coming little by little for years. Ultimately, I realize I can be in the game or out of it. I can define my engagement but I have to engage. Last year I made a video to participate in international poetry month. It’s not something I would EVER have done before, but with growth comes expansion and I guess I decided it’s not so scary to have the glare of the public eye on you. I’m glad I made that move because last month Scholastic said they wanted to include me in their video preview of Fall Books. I had to make a video promoting the book. My video is a little more sober than the others (COVID and social justice is not necessarily something to be gleeful about), but I think it’s a nice introduction to When the World Turned Upside Down.
Check it out at: https://www.scholastic.com/onlinepreview/index.html#6257819275001
Exhibit C
It’s taken me a second to understand the difference between Publicity and Marketing. I’ve now learned that publicity is getting you and your name out there to build more awareness about you as an author and/or about your book, while marketing are direct sales pushes to your book. So from a publicity perspective, I might be doing an interview or a podcast or a guest column. Anything to bring more attention to the work. I recently participated in a podcast sharing reflections on Juneteenth.
Check it out at: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/263-reading-with-your-ki-28144310/episode/reading-with-your-kids-juneteenth-83882163/
I’m not sure what’s coming next, but you can be sure it will be all about BEING SEEN!
Onward!