Getting Noticed Doesn’t Have to Take Forever

Quality content and marketing acumen can pay off quickly.

Photo by Mimi Thian on Unsplash

I often see stories that encourage authors to keep their chin up because “no one gets noticed when they’re first starting out.” If you keep plugging away, they say, things will pick up. While that may often be good advice, it doesn’t have to be that way. My concern with that commonplace thinking is that we humans so often get what we settle for, and I wouldn’t want those that might reach the stars to be satisfied with a molehill.

I will relay a bit of my journey.

Last year, I decided to write a book. Nothing about my approach was traditional. The entire time I was writing it, I was posting the chapters out in the wide-open on social media for people to read. When I finished it, I posted the whole thing on my website for anyone to download for free. I formatted everything myself, designed my own cover, and ignored a lot of advice about how people normally do things.

Before I published, I gave a talk at an international symposium about what I was working on. I was honestly surprised when I was selected for a prestigious award from among the presenters, many of whom held doctorates (I have a general-equivalency diploma). Right away, many of the top scientists in my field started sending in glowing…