In my ongoing quest to advertise/promote my stories, I made a few submissions to Blogcatalog. I saw that they had a fiction section and thought Scary Mary and Unicorn Bait might fit in nicely. I saw another story site there and some short fiction sites. They declined all of my submissions except my journal site. (Well, I didn't submit Stalking Shadows, which would've been interesting to see if they'd accept it or not.) Their reason for declining the sites was that they weren't blogs. I guess that's fair. I no longer update those sites with new content. I still go back and edit them, but no new entries. I thought they might get a pass because they are on a blog a platform and had other blog trappings like comments, but they said nope.
Now, I wonder if they'd accept Stalking Shadows since that is currently updating with new posts (except for being stalled for a bit). Shit, why I don't I just make up a submission and see? If they decline it, I'll know, but other ongoing stories are listed, so I think I'm on solid ground with this one. We'll see. They don't offer a definition of blog that I could see, which would've helped. They're pretty quick at least to make their decision. I'll know in a day or two if Stalking Shadows is listed.
ETA 4/5/09 - Stalking Shadows was approved. So all ongoing stories will more than probably be accepted by Blogcatalog. How much traffic will be gleaned from listing with them is still to be seen. I think it will be a matter of how much effort is placed in joining the community.
Blogcatalog Declined Me, sort of
I'm Tweeting
Twitter seems to be everywhere. I hear radio stations advertising their twitter. Almost every blog I follow has a Twitter account, and a lot of web authors have gotten them. I still have trouble deciphering people's feeds because like on Facebook, exchanges take place across two locations. It isn't all gathered in one place, at least not in a way I an observer can discern easily.
My reason for finally getting an account is to put it on all my sites and let visitors see what else might be happening. I could tweet about a recent WFG review I'd posted, or warn that an update may be a few hours late. I think this could be a very handy tool for me. I just don't want to get too invested in it socially. I want a tool to use, not another goof off option.
My twitter account is at http://twitter.com/sa_hunter and I'll have feeds for it on the sidebar of the sites.
ETA 4/26 - Why didn't anyone tell me I was using the verb wrong?
Books and Bites Interview
Books and Bites kindly interviewed me about Scary Mary and posted it today.
You can find it here.
You know, talking about your writing isn't as easy as it looks.
