Promoting new publications?

In our most recent "how can we help you?" thread, a reader writes:

I am an early-career philosopher who recently got published in a highly ranked journal. Given that I am pretty much unknown in the field, I wonder what would be some good ways to promote my publication?

Sharing on social media and posting a pre-print on PhilPapers are some obvious things I plan to do. I was also considering sending the paper directly to people in my field. However, I am not sure whether this is a good idea or it might backfire. In any case, I would be really glad to hear the thoughts of more experienced philosophers on this matter.

Interesting question! One reader submitted the following reply:

I would encourage you to send the paper to people, BUT only to those whose work you engage with in the paper. When someone I do not know sends me a paper on something I write on, but it does not engage my work, I wonder what they are up to. I am a busy person. I have enough to read. But I have send my work to people I have discussed, and it has been worth it.

I guess I'm a bit torn on this. On the one hand, I've had people send me papers of theirs, and I normally do take a look to see if the paper interests me. I also have sent people papers of mine on relatively rare occasions where we are working on similar stuff and I think they might find it interesting. On the other, I guess sending one's papers to a bunch of people seems to me a bit 'salesperson-ish', and I suppose I've always thought that the best way for one's work to get attention is to just keep publishing good stuff. Finally, though, I guess I doubt there is much risk in sending people your paper. At worst, some people might give you a subtle brush-off, as it were. So, I don't know. What do you all think? 

Comments

[Tammo]

A more subtle way of promoting your paper is to make sure that you upload a list of references to Philpapers. This is a useful thing to do in general, but it also automatically notifies the authors you cite (if they have a Philpapers profile) -- without having to look needy.

I wouldn't personally send new papers to too many people for the reason Marcus mentioned (although I don't think it would massively backfire to do that either). What I have done, though, is send drafts of papers to people who work on this exact issue. I've gotten a pretty good response rate for these emails, and some great input as well. I know it's too late for OP to do this, but in general I think this is a good way to promote your (future) papers, besides being useful for all sorts of other reasons. (You can then also write a thank you note when the paper ultimately gets published.)

[MS]

I think the 'published in a highly ranked journal' part could be relevant. Depending on what OP counts as 'highly ranked', there's a good chance the people they want to see the publication will come across it on their own. Many people make a habit of regularly scanning the Online First section of the top journals.

That also suggests there's maybe a difference between promoting the publication and promoting yourself as the author of that publication. I don't mean that in a derisive way. For early career philosophers that second type of promotion can be important, and letting the Online First section do its thing wouldn't help with that.