Sell yourself, sell your work

Publicizing your work, will certainly let it be known to the masses, but aiming for the masses means that the half life of your work is in years. Work that stands the test of time, does not need publicizing. People of a high caliber will find it and proceed to further honor you for your work, your focus should be only on excellence which truly matters in standing the test of time.

This is a romantic notion, made even more appealing by the fact that it has actually happened a handful of times throughout history, and they loom large in our collective memory.

But the cold, hard, distasteful reality is that most useful work does not rise to the level of brilliance, and even that which does might never find appreciation among people of any calibre, even after death. Disdaining self-promotion is a conceit available to a select talented few.