If You Don’t Know Me, You’re Exactly Who I’m Looking For

In response to Coffee Challenge: Promotional article to my weekly newsletter.

Every skilled writer knows not to give away the secret at the beginning of a story. Instead, we need to dangle a tidbit, let the reader bite, and then carry them hooked, line, and sinker through the article until the end. While I’d love to wait, frankly I haven’t got the time. Desperation calls for desperate measures.

It’s a simple request. Readers, I need you to please read my Substack weekly newsletter entitled, “Sugar and Spice — it’s free, there’s no price” and click on the heart to like it.

Here it is,

I’ve entered the Coffee Times newsletter challenge and am in the Bootcamp leg of the race. I’m not in it for the prize; I can accept not winning. But losing is out of the question.

How can I lose?

If I don’t reach 100 likes on my story featured above by February 10th, I’m done! I’m busted! Out of the challenge! It’s as simple as that.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you. Now can you please read and click the heart in my story featured in the above link. You’ll be helping me succeed in the challenge and reach my goal.

It isn’t easy being a self-promotor, and as a novice one, I’ve got so much to learn.

Since the start of the contest, I’ve pushed myself to the limit — all in three weeks.

I,

• created a Substack account.
• created three newsletters.
• wrote a promotional newsletter.
• wrote a promotional story to notify others about said promotional newsletter.
• wrote several promotional stories, tweets, and made several phone calls searching for the required 100 likes.

And here we are. I stand at 46 likes.

It’s been tortuous yet invigorating journey. Still, I learned something new through the process. While finding my way as a novice promoter, I went through seven stages of growth. Maybe you’ll find them recognizable.

Here are the seven stages: The Ask ~ Sales Pitch ~ Holding Your Breath ~ Begging and Pushing ~ Building a Community ~ Strong Dose of Faith ~ Evaluating the Rewards.

The “Ask.”

The ask was the simple part because, at the start, I was hopeful and naïve. I felt I had a solid support system and all I’d have to do was ask for what I needed.

The Sales Pitch.

My staunchest supporters subscribed to my newsletter immediately through the ask, but I knew I had a long way to go with numbers so low. I loved writing my newsletters and hoped that my pleasure showed. I believed in the product and told everyone I knew.

Holding My Breath.

Hearing I wrote a newsletter was one thing, but my sales pitch was hardly far-reaching, so I wrote my first promotional letter at the request of the challenge. It’s the one featured above. In addition, after Coffee Times published “Sugar and Spice — it’s free, there’s no price” on Substack, I wrote another promotional letter on Medium highlighting my promotional letter.

It was all becoming quite confusing. First, it asked people to please click the heart to like my story, then subscribe to my newsletter. I had done what the contest requested of me. After that, I held my breath.

Begging and pushing.

Despite having limited promotional skills, my subscriptions climbed, and the hearts on my story grew. But not fast enough. To reach the 100 like benchmark, I’d need to find many more readers willing to click on my heart.

To make matters worse, Winston, the contest’s creator, offered kind words of encouragement and asked us to promote our stories and watch our story hearts climb. At this point I panicked. I had tapped out — I had already asked everyone I knew. And in this moment of reckoning, I realized if I were to convince those who hadn’t yet liked my story, I’d need to beg.

So, I did. I begged family, friends, Mediumites, and even strangers to show me their random act of kindness and help me reach my 100 hearts. While I got several more likes, it left me with an uneasy feeling. I had sold myself out. My newsletters and story were no longer speaking for themselves, and I still lacked the required number of hearts.

I recognized this couldn’t be the right way to self-promote. I presumed that sacrificing myself and downplaying the quality of my writing was the workings of a newbie promoter. Selling myself out wasn’t how I wanted to continue my quest to stay in the challenge.

Begging and being pushy weren’t how I wanted to be. Yet a small yearning in my heart told me there must be something more.

Building a Community.

With two weeks left before the deadline, I currently sit at 46 hearts on my story as I write this article. I don’t know another 54 people left to ask to help me reach this goal. Do you?

I will no longer beg, push, or drive loved ones crazy to stay in the challenge, but I will not go down without a fight or with a heavy heart.

I trust there are readers out there, friends and strangers alike, who can find kindness in their heart to offer me their heart by liking my story and sharing the request with their friends and followers to help me succeed.

Together, we can help build a community of supporters willing to lift writers and help them succeed in their writing endeavours. While helping me, please consider supporting the other contest entrants who face the same challenge with their promotional stories, too.

Strong Dose of Faith.

Reaching the 100 likes benchmark will help me complete this challenging phase, but the actual winning ticket is for readers to recognize I have created a newsletter full of value and subscribe.

Karen’s newsletter highlights “A Day in the Life of a personal essayist.” I encourage readers to look at my first three issues (contained in my story above), and I believe they will find my words fun and relatable.

As a newbie promoter, I have laid all my cards on the table. I have faith I’ve presented my newsletter well.

Evaluating the Rewards.

I have not yet reached this stage. When I started this venture, I couldn’t have known how intense becoming a promoter can be for an inexperienced, shy writer like me.

If I have learned anything, it’s believing in myself. In such a short time, I have accomplished so much.

I want to thank my growing list of subscribers who encourage me to continue writing and inspiring others. To those who haven’t jumped on the bandwagon yet, what are you waiting for?

Why not subscribe to my free newsletter and don’t miss out on exciting stories and news?

You’ll find the subscribe button in the linked story above. And while you’re there, won’t you please give that story, my promotional story, a heart for good measure?

Meanwhile, I will work on perfecting my promotional skills, knowing there’s so much more to becoming a successful writer than writing.

Thank you to Benny Lim and Writer’s Blokke for offering me this amazing venue to share my story. And a big thank you to all of you who choose to like my Substack story and those who subscribe.

If you’re feeling generous, please support these other entrants to the challenge too by liking their promotional newsletter stories. We’re all in this together.

Yan Huang, @KathyK, Ida Johannesen, Drashti Shroff, Sharing Randomly, Ellie Jacobson, Libby Walkup, T Mann, @Ashley, Marilyn Flower, Zaha Hyatt, Tamil, Rhea Anglesey, Kathryn Eriksen, Robert Shaneyfelt, Rosa de Saron C.