As a poet (or writer/author of any description), the most important activity is, to state the blatantly obvious that of writing. Its tempting to regard promoting one’s work as a chore. So far as my poetry is concerned, most of my promoting consists of posting examples of my work on this site (kmorrispoet.com) and, by so doing bringing my writing to the attention of a wider audience.
Notwithstanding the publication of examples of my poetry on this site (which provides me with pleasure as I know that my readers enjoy reading my work), I fall into the category of those who do, in general find self-promotion somewhat tedious. I am, however aware of its importance and recently kicked myself (metaphorically speaking of course) when I had no business card to give to a lady who indicated to me that she derives pleasure from reading poetry. While I did give the lady the address of this site (kmorrispoet.com), given that she was on her way to the office and doubtless had many things on her mind (the impending working day being formost amongst them), I suspect that she will have forgotten the address of this site.
The above is a lesson to me to order more business cards, and I will perform this chore over the coming weekend. In my experience, one can go for weeks without handing out a card (obviously you should not foist them willy-nilly on members of the public)! However (when people express an interest in your work) they are a good means of jogging memories. “Who was that chap who writes poetry? Ah I have his card here. I will take a look at his site”. Of course some cards will be lost or deliberately filed in the dustbin, but others will be used to find out more about the author/poet/writer in question. So obtaining business cards is in my view a chore worth performing.
Kevin
