I’ve always been puzzled by the fairly widespread custom in the blawgosphere, on listservs, etc. of referencing “shameless self- promotionâ€? when promoting one’s work (scroll down for recent examples on this blog). The reason this puzzles me is because it implies that some people are ashamed of self promotion or perhaps that self-promotion is unseemly. Do people actually think this? If so, they must be in the minority because my mailbox sees a constant flood of self-promoting law porn and reprints, and none of them include a “shameless self-promotion” reference. Is self-promotion through the mail different than through blogs and listservs so no need for the reference?
One of the benefits of having your own blog is that you can promote your work cheaply, easily, and repeatedly. I want people to read my work, so I’ve done some self-promotion on this blog and others and will do more in the future. Among other things, I think it adds credibility to a post if people know that I’ve done in depth research on the topic and provides a useful reference for those who want to know more. I don’t feel at all ashamed of doing this nor do I feel it is unseemly. Hence, I propose we drop the custom of including a “shameless self-promotion” reference when engaging in self-promotion. Anyway, our self-promotion policy makes the reference redundant, at least on this blog:
Self-Promotion. We will engage in self-promotion on this blog. All such promotion will be of the “shameless� variety, whether expressly prefaced as such or not.