  Short Stories
This week: What's Your Platform? Edited by: Shannon  
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Welcome to the Short Stories Newsletter. I am Shannon and I'm your editor this week. |
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A decade or so ago I attended my first writers conference--Boise Idaho's Murder in the Grove, and I returned every year until they cancelled it altogether. Back then I saw myself and other writers as artists, not promoters. We're Muhammad Ali, I thought. We're Joe Frazier and George Foreman, not Don King, and I was appalled when agents and editors spoke about the importance of building your platform. They repeated it ad nauseum and I thought, Wait a minute. I'm the one investing my time and effort here. I'm the one writing a novel. If they accept my work, the least they can do is promote it! I mean, doesn't it behoove them to promote it? Looking back, I cringe at my naiveté. I still see myself and other writers as artists, but nowadays artists must embrace *self-promotion if they want anyone other than Aunt Edna to read their work.
Since I attended that first writing conference, social networking has exploded. In addition to blogging we've got Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, Happier, deviantART, Ello, Flickr, Goodreads, Myspace, and Pinterest, just to name a few. We post photos of our families at Christmas, tweet about our work in progress, blog about yesterday's midnight run to the animal ER because Fluffy got ran over by a car. We build relationships with followers, friends, and fans, and they are your audience. How you connect with them is your platform.
I've learned a lot about social networking and self-promotion over the years, and I've grown to love it. It's another outlet that allows me to flex my creative muscles and share my art with the world, albeit in small (sometimes 140-character) increments. I've found that while some of my followers prefer Facebook and Twitter, others use Happier exclusively. The key is to pick several you like (I currently use Facebook, Tumblr, Happier, Twitter, Flickr, and Instagram) and update them regularly, preferably daily. You may be thinking, Ain't nobody got time for that! but I can update all six of my apps in less than five minutes. I also recommend using the same username across the board to make it easy for people to find you. While it seems most fair to post the same information to every social networking site you use (I wouldn't want those who use Twitter, for example, to feel shortchanged should they discover my Happier followers are privy to things they are not), it's not always possible. Instagram, for instance, only allows the posting of photographs. There are ways around it, however: if you're using a smart phone you can type in your Notes app, snap a screen shot, and post the pic to Instagram. My Facebook followers definitely get the most information--everything from vacation photos to irreverent family quips, but I've been using Facebook the longest and feel sort of sentimental about it.
Many writers will tell you to only post updates about writing. BORING. I don't care how good of a writer you are, no one wants to read about your latest work in progress day in and day out. People follow you because something you've done, said, or created touched them. They are following you for you. They like to see pictures of your cats and read about how your daughter got the lead role in her kindergarten play. Some of my favorite artists (Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, Robert Downey Jr., Shane Koyczan, and Anne Lamott, for example) post very personal stuff, like pics of their new puppies, photos of them with their spouses, stories of tragic losses they've endured. Each post makes their readers feel a little closer to them and we want them to succeed. Your followers want you to succeed, too.
Be yourself. Be real. Be open and honest and fearless (within your sharing comfort zone, of course). Respond to messages and answer questions. Give stuff away (post your most recent short story in daily 140-character increments on Twitter). Be true to yourself and kind to others, and the readership will be kind to you.
Thank you for reading.
*For more self-promotion ideas, check out Writer's Digest's 50 Simple Ways to Build Your Platform in 5 minutes a Day .
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In the December 3 issue of the Short Stories Newsletter I posted a short story collaborative writing contest. It probably wasn't a great idea to hold such an elaborate writing challenge in the month of December--everyone's so busy with the holidays and family, etc. Needless to say, I didn't receive any submissions,  so there obviously isn't a winning entry to feature in this edition. Stay tuned, though. I plan to hold my first short story contest of 2015 in the January issue of the Short Stories Newsletter.
I hope you enjoy this week's featured selections. Please do the authors the courtesy of reviewing the ones you read. Thank you, and have a great week!
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And let's not forget the 8th annual Quill Awards! You have until mid-January 2015 to nominate your favorites. The deadline is just around the corner, so if there's a piece of writing that really touched you, please take a few minutes to nominate it for an award.
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The following is in response to "Collaborative Writing" :
Quick-Quill  writes, "I read The Chopin Manuscript by Jeffery Deaver and a number of other authors. It was good story, but I didn't feel the story was cohesive when each chapter was written by a different author. I think collaboration is good with the idea making, but if the styles are different, a reader can tell." I read that one too, and I couldn't get into it either. I think collaborative writing might be fun to an extent, but I also think it has the potential to be frustrating. One of these days I'd like to try it just to say I did, though. 
Mara ♣ McBain  writes, "Interesting NL on collaborating. I'm working on a series with Adriana Noir  right now and we do things a little differently. We log into Yahoo Messenger while we are writing so we can share and discuss. We take turns working on a 'post.' Sometimes we write as little as 300 words and bounce the document back to the other one. At other times we write a 2-3K. It just depends on the scene and if we get on a roll. The way we do it makes it fun, keeps things moving, and the word count builds quickly.  We're having a blast!" Yay! I'm so glad to hear something positive about collaborative writing for a change!  I think the concept terrifies a lot of writers, so it's good to hear from someone who's actually done it and likes it. Thank you, Mara! 
The following is in reposnse to "Say It Ain't So-So" :
Elfin Dragon-finally published  writes, "I am in total agreement with the fact we tend to pick apart stories, movies and TV series in our own fields. And it certainly detracts from the enjoyment of it. I will also let you know military folk are probably as bad, if not worse, than doctors & nurses. We nit-pick down to what the person may be wearing. Point in fact. While watching the movie Broken Arrow, I was so stunned that John Travolta was wearing the most current stripes for the Air Force (for his rank), I couldn't help but mention it to my ex during the movie. Of course I did it by poking him in the shoulder and it was more than a whisper. But I'm just as bad when writers and costume designers get military things wrong in a film. It's incredibly difficult to not say anything." Yes, it totally is! I'm glad I'm not the only one. Thank you for sharing! 
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Short Stories: December 31, 2014 Issue [#6737]
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