I’ve never been good at promoting myself on social media. I don’t have a strong urge to spam feeds with links to every story I write or share updates about being on assignment for whoever is currently paying me. I’m (happily) an introvert. I also grew up in a culture where it wasn’t normal to talk yourself up; in fact, it was more likely to be frowned upon. Perhaps that’s why I sometimes feel (possibly unfairly) that writers who make the most self-promoting noise on social media are either compensating for having the least to shout about or possess an unhealthy preoccupation with themselves and their achievements. Maybe they are just free of my inhibitions and I shouldn’t feel uncomfortable about doing it myself. I don’t know.
But, writers do need to connect with others and share their work (I’ve touched upon that here in terms of techniques for finding work). So, here’s one compromise to myself: a post every two or three months where I roundup some highlights. It’s for me more than anything else, as a way to reflect on my output and make me feel like I’ve ticked a marketing box.
Books and Branded
Much of summer was spent sweating in Shikoku, Hokuriku and Chubu to update Fodors’ Japan guide, plus work closer to home on their Tokyo guide. Summer was also branded content heavy, although all of it was desk-only work and there’s not much to say about writing advertorials or working on tourism marketing projects…actually, that’s not true, there’s lots to say, but it would take me off on a meandering tangent. Briefly: it pays well and can be an enjoyable process, but the way such projects are organized often results in products that could be much better, especially given how much money is invested in them.
A Few Features, A Pair of LP Books & A Poem
On the editorial side of things, I barely wrote any articles in summer other than stories about autumn in Japan for Afar and Kyoto for Living Luxe. There’s also some work with TripAdvisor that will be out soon. A book review site called Shepherd asked me to pick out some of my favorite books on Japan: Oku no Hosomichi was my obvious first choice, but after that it was tricky to select a list.
Beyond that, I’ve been plodding along with a haiku collection and had one haiku published in the Asahi Shinbun – something about empty nest syndrome now that my son is preparing for college. A couple of books I co-authored on Kyoto for Lonely Planet just appeared on Amazon too: a city guide and a pocket guide.
Mentoring Again
That’s about that. Not the busiest summer, but draining enough because of the ridiculous heat and humidity, which is why I haven’t done any mentoring sessions for a few months. They are open again now, if anyone trying to get into freelance writing or travel writing (especially if based in Japan like me) wants a chat. Info on that here: https://www.tokyofreelance.com/first-fridays-travel-writing-mentoring.