Eyes on the Prize: Getting More Exposure

 This isn't what I had in mind when I said I wanted more exposure...

Good lord, it's Wednesday already and I haven't made a post. Parenting and recovering from a wicked chest cold sure do take up a lot of time. Anyway, I'm here to rectify that situation. Today I want to talk about something that's been on my mind a lot lately, something I think needs addressed right quick for my career to progress. I'm talking, as if you haven't guessed by the above picture and the clever title, about exposure. No, not that kind of exposure. No one wants that. Besides, I don't own a coat that long. What I am talking about is more exposure in the gaming industry at large.




So, I mentioned in an earlier post that part of my plan for ginning up more work was "getting exposure". When I say exposure, I mean getting my name and my work out there. Earlier this year, around the time of that "professionally unemployed" post, I went on a big old branding and self promotion kick. I retooled my resume, added a bibliography and some other networking options to the site here, and bombarded the inboxes of every game publisher I could find with my sexy new resume and cover letter. I blogged, I tweeted, I did some link sharing, and generally tried to make as big a nuisance as possible. For my efforts, I got some good leads and, of course, more work from Fantasy Flight Games.

What it didn't get me was a lot of new work from other publishers. I got some promising leads from Crafty Games and Margaret Weis Productions, a whole lot of "thanks for asking, we'll put you on the pile", and still no love from Privateer Press (you'll call, won't you?). Now, I know things are slow, and I know I'm one of probably a bazillion freelancers (many who are better than me) out there who want work from a contracting and changing industry. I know that I've only been at this freelancing thing since October. I know that Rome wasn't built in a day, and all things considered I'm making good progress so far. The problem is, while I know this, I'm still kinda panicky about it, and that panic has only been intensified since I became a dad a couple of weeks ago.

Instead of letting this panic consume me, which it may have done in previous years, I'm going to attempt to turn it into fuel. The fact that babby needs diapers and clothes and doctor visits is a great motivator. Let me lay it out for you, gentle readers. I'm coming to you for advice. I'd like some advice on getting more eyes on this here blog, more eyes on my Twitter feed, and more eyes on my work. I'm making up business cards, going to Origins and (maybe) GenCon to do some face to face networking, keeping a fairly regular schedule here, sending out resumes and follow-up emails, and dicking around with the HTML of the site to make it easier to find via searches. I'm a member of a couple of feed aggregators, I'm working on more link sharing, and I'm trying to forge essentially a name brand for myself.

The question now is, "what next?" What next, indeed. Where do I go from here? What more can I be doing? Any advice from those of you more experienced in self-promotion about what I can and should be doing to, in essence, grow my brand? Any and all input is welcome. And, hey. When I finally make it big, you can tell people, "I knew him when..."