Answer:
#inspiration #words of wisdom #self promotion #never stop tryingAlright, sit down, because I need to rip this myth open.
First, let’s talk about the advertising industry. Hundreds of millions of dollars spent by corporations and business of every size, in every market imaginable, to promote– you guessed it– themselves. They want you to buy their product, they don’t want you to buy their competitor’s products, they want you to believe they’re not a horrible souless entity that is callously destroying the environment, they want you to vote for their candidate of choice. They pay, and advertising companies– including their employed artists, craftspeople, and designers– get paid. It’s a legitimate, if showy and backbreaking, profession. No one bats an eye at this.
Now let’s talk about being one person with a new webcomic on the internet. You are posting that comic for free. You want people to read it and enjoy it, and maybe you want enough of a readership to be able to sell books when you print them. Maybe you want to run a kickstarter someday.
On your own. By yourself. You’re an artist, or, at least, you draw. Maybe you’ve had an arts education, but you probably haven’t. If you’re chiefly interested in webcomics, maybe you’re shut out of the mainstream comics industry– you’re a woman, you’re not white, you’re queer, you’re trans, you’re poor. Okay.
When you go to do the most sensible, logical thing– to proudly talk about your comic to your followers, to boost your own tumblr posts, to link to it on twitter, to post it on multiple platforms, to start a Patreon or a Kickstarter, to promote, advertise, and otherwise remind people that you and your comic exist– you get people who tell you to stop. That you’re an egotistical, overblown narcissist. That you’re annoying. That you’re a tacky self-promoting nuisance.
This is bullshit.
Never apologize for promoting yourself. Never shut up about your comic.
That is how you build an audience.