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My drug of choice is writing––writing, art, reading, inspiration, books, creativity, process, craft, blogging, grammar, linguistics, and did I mention writing?

Wednesday, June 9, 2021

F.A.Q. Will I Post Your Writing Blog?

Question: Will I use my platform (here or on social media) to post/promote your or your friend's article/blog about writing?

Short answer: With all the kindness I can muster, I'm sorry, but probably not.

Long answer: I want to make sure I answer this with all the love and kindness and compassion that I possibly can. Because I was you eight years ago, looking everywhere to find an audience for my writing and posting my articles anywhere I could—sometimes even getting myself banned for self-promotion. It's really hard and I want you all to know that I understand and want you to succeed. I want all of us to succeed.

However, in a very real way, what you are asking me to do is (with no reciprocity or compensation) to use the platforms I've spent years building….to promote my competition. Not that I see this as a zero-sum game, but chances are that I've tackled that very subject on my own blog (or intend to). I get a lot of articles that are kind of carbon copies of each other. Listicles without style or flair. Webcontent. Flat prose. I'd like folks to read MY words on the subject. Not that I am the be-all end-all of writing advice, and certainly not that everyone wants one of my pervy jokes thrown into their tips and pointers, but I do sort of have a stake in hoping that people turn to me. And I don't want people I've promoted thinking I've stolen their ideas when I tackle the subject myself or rerun the article in which I did. When I DO point at other writers and their writing advice, it's generally in the form of a guest blog here on Writing About Writing, so while I might not promote your article whole cloth, perhaps we could talk about a guest blog or an exchange.

So, while trying very delicately not to sound like your local mercenary or Lionel Barrymore or something, and sincerely wishing you all the luck in the world if you're trying to get your own writing blog off the ground, I regretfully have to say that if there's no kind of "one hand washing the other" or if you don't have some REALLY novel take on, well….writing about writing…then I'm most likely going to feel like you're trying to use the platform I built over nearly a decade in order to directly compete with me. 

And that doesn't feel very good to me.

Check out the rest of my F.A.Q. here.

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