When Brand Becomes Bland: The Fatigue of Promotion

My author’s website is purely an educational project for my MFA right now but I’m already feeling a drastic fatigue from the constant masks I have to wear to create content for the site and social media. Everything I’ve read claims authenticity is the most important factor but if that was true, would I need to be so heavy-handed with marketing and promotion? I do want people to read my writing but I feel like a mosquito in the ear (of all 22 subscribers to my site) and the only posts I’ve wanted to make lately would be lambasting the whole social media platform/promotional vibe. Constantly prodding, poking, researching, and profiling my “ideal readers” feels like pigeon-holing on a mass scale.

Has anyone found a method to promote your writing that actually feels authentic? Or is it always just a projection cast out to get more clicks? I don’t mean any offense with this question but I’ve been stuck between feeling tacky and like I’ve stereotyped and generalized my ideal readers.