By Edward Nawotka

Today’s article by Isobella Jade describes how she built a powerful personal brand in three short years. While it’s no secret that writers need to be able to take the lead on their own marketing and promotion these days — whether it’s DIY or hiring someone to help you — many are reticent to get out and “sell.” After all, this is a group who has picked a job (or a hobby) that entails sitting alone in a room for long stretches of the day. Salesmanship doesn’t often come naturally to authors.

Of course, that is by necessity changing. On Publishing Perspectives, we’ve looked at some of the reservations people have about using social media and other forms of self-promotion, especially when it blurs the line between their professional and personal lives . . . and I wonder, can an author push self-promotion too far? How long will it be, to take one extreme example, before some ambitious young author releases their own sex tape? Perhaps one of them en flagrante with another (hopefully hot) author, or perhaps even an editor, agent or exec. After all, publishing is not above using scandal to sell books — especially from their own kind, i.e. Bill Clegg’s (opportunistic) memoir Portrait of the Artist as a Young Addict.

Let us know what you think in the comments.