Self Promotion : Official Whoring Thread

@Keith . Hi. Gail here. Welcome to LitReactor. I see you are new to the site.

I don't know how to respond to your blog really. Is it all your work posted? Is that right? I didn't dig into it, just scanned. Not sure exactly what I thought. I started a blog myself a number of months back, but abandoned it as too isolated and too full of me to carry the weight of popular interest.

So, since I don't understand the medium, and its intent, I probably cannot be of much help, except to say that I feel too exposed to put myself out there in this way. I don't understand why people want to do it. I guess it's to generate followers or something like that. Personally I think we are better off to build relationships as writers rather than followers, and I don't trust the blog to do this.

You do need input from other writers who are familiar with the essential intent of a blog. I am not. I may dig into your blog, not sure...I must say I'm curious, but I feel for me, it caters to my most narcissitic self and might not serve me in a good way. All depends on how you use it. Sorry I cannot be more helpful, but I would review anything you choose to post in the Writer's Workshop. I'm am so much enjoying learning how to give and receive the feedback of other writers. Again, Welcome to the LitReactor site. With regard, gsr.

Hey. Keith. I was thinking and writing at the same time when I looked at your post. This is the Whoring thread where it is totally appropriate to ask people to look at stuff in a different way than in the workshop. So, I apologize if my response sounded a little stodgy. That's a product of ignorance. I don't know much about blogs, and when I tried to do one, I found what I did not know was going to kick me in the ass, and I wasn't sure if I wanted my creative life laying out there in a strange land. I wasn't sure if my writing then somehow became property of entities and ordinances that I have no knowlege of, so I quit with it.

So, when I looked at your blog, I again felt that wave of overwhelm, as to what now? How am I supposed to respond to this? What is the intention here? Is this like a personal magazine? Having said all this I do understand the need in this world of self publishing and self promotion to establish a footprint, or a brand if you will. Just not sure I will ever be able to overcome the resistance to doing that for myself.

Oh, by the way, I did not receive your first response.

Okay, let me backtrack. I am going to reread your original post and see what it is you are asking for in regards to people's response to your blog. If you want me to comment on a story, that's fine, but if you want comment on a story why not throw it in the ring at the Workshop. I guess that's my confusion. Are you asking for feedback on the ambiance of your blog, or do you want writing critique?

So. Two things. I am going to take another look at the blog.  And, may I ask for a more specific line on what feedback you are looking for. The layout? The actual content of the stories?

Okay. I hope this clears up what I may have generated in the area of slamming you for being egotistical. That was not my intent. My intent and my execution don't always align. That's a product of unclear written communication. Please forgive ignorant arrogance. Areas of communications that I don't understand, blogs, tweets, hashtags...blah blah blah trigger my inner asshole response. So educate me about what you need from an observer about your blog. okay. With regard. gsr

I'm a going ablogging, and I will look at yours as if I have never seen one, which is pretty much the case.  Learning is hard for us old farts.

Thanks GSR, some honest feedback there. Very much appreciated.

Just posting this to let you know that I've read it and contemplating it.. Once I decide how to implement said advice, I will post here to let you know.

Thanks again for taking the time to glance at my work.

Thanks gsr, I will perhaps post some stories into the Workshop thread. :)

Hi everyone,

I'm Zac Thompson. I used to be one of the editors at Bloody-Disgusting up until about this time last year. 

Anyway, since leaving the site, I've taken to writing my own horror fiction. I've got a new horror comic coming out next year from Black Mask Studios and currently my new book is taking pre-orders.

My book is funding on Inkshares right now for a contest with CryptTV and Blumhouse. I only win if I get more pre-orders than the competition and right now I'm losing to a book that's called a cross between Ru Paul's Drag Race and The Walking Dead. Fuck that. That can't happen.

Weaponized, my book, is a body horror book about weaponized STI's. It's really, really fucked up. Like a Clive Barker David Cronenberg love child.

A $10 pre-order will bring me closer to first place but above all else, I think you'll dig the book if you give it a chance. Anyone who makes a pre-order can hit me up for the full book too.

https://www.inkshares.com/books/weaponized

We kicked off the fall season at Solarcide with a new story from Valentina Cano—"Crane" is a short and bittersweet read.

Thank you, Valentina! More to come. 

Thanks so much for checking out the story and commenting, Gail -I'll make sure she sees your feedback. It's definitely appreciated, either way. Thanks again for the support! 

Just got word that "Dr. Google" won 2nd place in a short story contest that I entered and now will be published on an online site. Pretty excited about this as Dr. Google was my first nonacademic related piece that I ever shared. Wouldn't have happened without the workshop and support from this awesome community. 

http://channillo.com/2016-short-story-contest/

Congrats, Brooke.

Nice cover, Angel. Congrats :)

Everyone!

I finished VR Stone's Psycho Analysis... it's a good read. If you like crime novels, thrillers, anything like that, check it out.

Congratulations Angel Colon. Gail here. You must be feeling proud and excited, at least I hope that is how it feels, and that you are enjoying a sense of having made another scratch in the wall. I went and looked and will again. I'd like to order it to support and get to know your work. High Five ande I think this is great! gail

All this talk about whoring, not one whore posts on here. WTF people?

If it feels normal you are buying the wrong kind of hooker.

I have received eight rejections this month. I want you to know that is the most rejections I have received in a one month period. It's a personal best. Now I'm going to go fill out one of those forms somewhere so helpfulsnowman can put me in the January spotlight. gsr

Thanks Brooke.

Thuggish! Is that a note of encouragement I detect in your voice....Thanks. I do take pride in my rejections.

Brooke. Wow! Good work! I haven't read the article, cruised through to find you, and of course try not to get so bummed I die of heartbreak. What an expose'. I think people think this isn't a problem "these days". Probably moreso than ever. Kudos on your mention in the magazine and the work that could make or break some poor dog day. Jeez! Will we never learn. Ask a kindergartener what the solution is and they can tell you, if you take the $$$ out of the equation, and the nasty human things. High five, good heart! gsr

Thanks Gail...I was hoping for a name or a picture but oh well...lol. A couple of our doctors did the work on these dogs...me being the one doing the dentals/oral surgery

There is a second story that is pretty cool...

http://www.rollingstone.com/becoming-a-dog-what-happens-after-the-puppy-...

That features the story of one of the dogs I worked on that my office manager adopted...provides a happy ending for this horrible story

Congratulations Brooke. Like Thuggish, I just can't bring myself to read that article right now. Maybe someday, when the world's less cold. The good news: all of our pups have been rescues, including our current pooch, a beautiful half Lab half Staffie who was abused her first two years but is now the happiest dog on the planet.

Thanks for the work that you do!   

@Brooke. OMG! Fabulous. Congratulations. Thanks for letting us know. Be sure you post to helpfulsnowman so he can put it in the highlights thing that he writes. Rock on!

Congrats! nothing like placing a piece!

hi.......................

Hello fellow Litreactors!

I'm here to share a project I've been working on for over a year, something that I'm hoping to have a real positive impact on the reading and writing community. Chronicle is a smartphone application and reading/writing ecosystem designed to pitch short, high-quality fiction as an alternative to checking news and social media feeds. During short moments of free time - i.e. waiting for the bus, sitting at the DMW - people tend to lean on low-quality, high-output content like the above mentioned. We believe that short, high-density fiction has a real opportunity in these moments of time. By providing users with a substantial alternative to the mindlessness of news and social media, we're giving fiction a future in the hands of people who might otherwise never pick up a novel. We're beginning our private beta this week, with intentions to launch publicly on the app store in the next 60 days, and we need your help, Litreactors! Our idea only works if we have great fiction to present to our users, and I've been a member of Litreactor since its inception (in fact, since it was a subset of chuckpalahnuik.com), so I know that Litreactor has the highest concentration of dedicated, great writers on the internet. There's tons more information below about who we are, what we're looking for, and how to reach us. I hope you'll consider submitting a story or two!

Submissions:
Submissions are accepted through our website at www.chroniclestories.com/write.

What is Chronicle?
Chronicle is a Minneapolis-based startup seeking to reinvent the format of fiction for the post-internet era: a reading and browsing experience for short stories that allows readers to quickly find something to read that fits into their timeline—3, 5, 10 minutes—by providing instant access to a large library of quality reading options on their smartphones. We believe in democratizing fiction, which means allowing people to read and write whatever they desire without barriers to entry, and we need the help of writers in order to do so. Contributing your voice to Chronicle isn’t just about getting your work seen by readers, it’s about helping to ensure that fiction literature has a place in the lives of everyone. While only the winners of the Democratize Fiction Contest will win cash prizes, all submissions are considered for publication into Chronicle’s library. But this doesn’t mean you’ll lose first-publishing rights to your work—Chronicle will host your content for up to six months, or until you ask that we take it down, and we never own or edit your work without explicit permission.

Information:
More questions about Chronicle? Visit our website at www.chroniclestories.com for more information or email me at write@chroniclestories.com.

Hey all, my blog essay may be shortly picked up by a site I can't name. Anyhoo, it's up on my site right now. Pretty much explains why I refuse to jump on the Hate Wagon re: E.L. James or Meyers.

http://heartseamonkeys.blogspot.com/2017/03/my-left-tit-for-literary-gra...

Comments on the blog are always appreciated.

Thanks.