I’ve always had a difficult time with networking and marketing. I’m at my happiest building websites, and applications and stories, and at my worst putting my work about.

Back in the 90s I ran a Web design/coding company and I hated the pitching side of the job so much I gave up the favoured-partner status a big agency had conferred upon us so I could focus on the Web pages. That’s Great Decisions I Have Made No. 27, by the way

But networking is just meeting your peers, and marketing is just talking about what you love to do. Given that publishers have almost no marketing budget for new authors and self-publishing means just that, perhaps it’s time I learned my lesson. To that end I’m signing Inflatable up for The Third Writers’ Platform Building Campaign, run by Rachel Harrie at her blog Rach Writes.

I’m looking forward to making contact with more writers in the coming weeks, and I’ll document the process here. Of course, I’m going to be on the road for much of September, so it should be an interesting challenge.