Why does self-promotion leave me feeling so icky?

Finding time to write is a challenge. Sure, I'm always writing for clients, but finding time for my own writing - a new short story, the next novel, a play - has been a challenge since I published my debut novel, Dr. Sharma's Fantabulous Fantasies. When I published it over two years ago, I hadn't anticipated how uncomfortable I would feel about promoting it and myself. After all, as far as I was concerned, finishing the novel was reward in itself, and getting it published was merely the cherry on top.

I have never been comfortable putting myself in the spotlight. I have never had a penchant for deliberately drawing attention to myself, something that sounds to me like a kind of masochism. I am all for getting outside of my comfort-zone, but deliberately seeking the limelight definitely makes me uneasy. Talking about myself is just not my bag.

I can guess what you're thinking: "he's talking quite a lot about how he dislikes talking about himself". Well, at the moment, I'm simply writing a blog post, and I'm not sure I'll even hit the publish button. Maybe it'll be like the dozens of other blog posts that I've written and left unpublished because I just hate putting myself out there, feeling exposed.

Publishing a novel I never thought would see the light of day was stressful enough and that was as far "out there" as I wanted to put myself. As a result, I have not been great at promoting the book, or myself, on social media, or anywhere. Clearly I lack the taste for self-promotion that other people seem to have.

I mean, is it just me, or has everything turned into one long parade of people talking themselves up and telling you why they're the best, and why you should believe in them? Everyone is out to sell themselves. For example, TV seems to be full of reality shows where contestants remain in the game by waxing lyrical about their abilities and attributes.

When it comes to promoting Dr. Sharma's Fantabulous Fantasies, I have been AWOL. So it's probably about time that I made more of an effort to become more of an attention-seeker.

Or is there another way?

Can I find some tasteful middle ground that doesn't leave me feeling completely ridiculous?