How to Promote Online Writing? Like this.

WHEN A FRIEND PUBLISHES a book, you buy it and read it. It’s a simple rule, and one I am delighted to follow. You tell your friends about it. In short, you do what you can. How much is too much? Well, my friend Jack’s southern aunty pins reviews of his books to her dress and wears them all over town, an ethic I think is right in line with normal, acceptable behavior, and while to date I have convinced no relative of mine to do such things, there is always the next book. But how about when something by a friend is published online? How to promote online work? You do this.

READ THIS PIECE BY JILL SMOLOWE. Is that enough encouragement for you? No? OK: Please read this piece in the Opinionator Column of The New York Times by Jill Smolowe. It will educate you, provoke you and inform you. If you are writing memoir, this is the level of thinking, as well as writing, that you want to shoot for.

I’ve known Jill for almost 40 years. We were copyboys (don’t correct me, please, that is what we were called) together at The New York Times. We both left there long ago. I have always appreciated her depth and breadth as a thinker and writer. But this time, well, she has a simply astonished me in her wisdom and talent. Apparently The New York Times felt the same.

If Jill’s name look familiar, it is because she was a guest columnist here, featuring her most recent book, Four Funerals and a Wedding some months ago.

Read and learn, writers. Read and learn.