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The golden....uh.....rule here is to remember that lots of people are going to be posting and that this is for all of you. I may add to or amend this list as we iron out what works and what is sub-optimal.
- Limit yourself to sharing one piece. I'll do this "event" every other week or so if it stays popular. You'll have other chances to promote other stuff. I'm not going to dig through dozens or hundreds of comments to check that everyone only posted once, but if I notice, I'll remove all of them.
- I will remove links that go to crap. (Consequently, PM me if you find one because I won't have time to check them all.) I don't mean a blog you wrote where a pop up asks you to be a subscriber–though that is annoying on the very first visit, justsoyaknow. But anything that goes to a subscription site, a pop-up fest, an obvious marketing scheme of some kind, a completely non-writing site (see #4), or any kind of bad-faith crap will be removed. If it really looks like someone decided to just be Spammy McSpamkins, I'll ban them as well.
- This is a post to share writing. I love other art forms, and I periodically have a link/post like this one for other art. But let's keep it to writing for now. Mixed media is okay if there's writing involved.
- This is a post to share writing. Not your editing business or your e-pub agent page.
- You can post any writing you want to share--even a link to a an Amazon page selling your book or your own Facebook page. But this post will likely get dozens, maybe hundreds of replies. People are far far far less likely to just drop money if they don't know you and your writing first. It might be better to link to something you've written WHERE you mention your book.
- Please don't put the text directly into the comment. No matter how short your poem or microfiction is, that will make the comments very hard to navigate. If you absolutely can't link your work for some reason, describe it in the first comment you make, and then reply to yourself with the text of your work (so that the reply "threads"). But best just to link something.
- Tell people what your writing is about! There will be a lot of folks posting, and unless they recognize your name, a mere title (or worse, just a URL) will not grab their attention long enough to even give a click. However...a description might entice them: ("The first three chapters of my science fiction novel about how dragons are actually a race from space and humans and dragons used to live together on Earth, but then dragons left because humans became too brutal. Now they're back. If you like the three chapters, you can buy the book on Kindle for 99 cents.")
- This isn't a peer review post. (I tried that and out of a million of you, no one was really interested.) If you give feedback, remember that the person is a human being with feelings who has put themselves "out there," and that is a hard thing to do. These are completed works. The author may not necessarily be asking for feedback–certainly not of the "here's what I would change" or "this is why it sucks" variety. It might be nice to ask if they want criticism before giving it unsolicited. You don't have to limit yourself to only praise, but for fuck's sake play nice. Other writers, of all people, should know how hard this can be.
- Though I can't enforce this in any way, and no one will even know, it is considered rude in any writing environment to take without giving back. You won't get invited back if you read at literary events but leave without listening to others (or if you only come on nights when you're reading). You won't be given good feedback in review groups if you take feedback and give none (or don't give as good as you get). And so if you post a link, for the sake of your writer's celestial balance in the universe, please try to find something you might be interested in reading as well. I have no way to force this. Just consider it the great writing karma.
- Since this is happening on Facebook, if you read something (and like it) consider giving it a like. I may feature post the ones that do the best if they're appropriate for the page.
- Be excellent to each other.
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