The Circular Self-Promotion Debate

Four voices in my head discuss whether I should tell you about the updates on my Patreon page.

Cover montage created in Canva by author. Cover designs by Denisa Trenkle and Charles Bown.

In the past, I’ve written about how I struggle with self-promotion on Medium (and in general). Every time it is necessary, I have to force myself as it feels so deeply distasteful. I sometimes think I’m getting better at being more forthright, only for familiar voices to arise in my head, taking a dim view of what they consider vulgarity.

This might be a cultural thing, but I can’t believe Brits are that repressed. Rather, perhaps it is true that those with artistic temperaments (of any nationality) struggle to market themselves. I think we’re a lot more at home shouting about other artists we believe are worthy of promotion.

To illustrate my point, here’s a debate between four voices in my head about the recent changes on my Patreon page. We’ll call them Self-Loathing, Self-Awareness, Arrogance, and Pragmatism. This is a transcript of their conversation, as I considered penning this piece.

Arrogance: Look at how well we’ve done on Patreon over the past year.

Self-Loathing: What do you mean? We’re not exactly swimming in patrons.

Arrogance: No, but we’re extremely grateful for those we have. Plus, all…