Your Latest Facebook Post About Being Curated or Getting a Bunch of Claps
In Which You Pretend that It’s All About Us. But Really, It’s All About You
I belong to four fabulous Facebook groups for Medium writers where daily threads are provided on which writers can post links to current work.
(Check them out: Medium Mastery. Medium Magic. Medium Partner Program Friends. Medium Dreamers.)
The assumption is that we’ll not only post our own stuff on the daily thread, but we’ll also read and clap for as many of the other links posted on the thread as possible.
It’s a great system. It’s fun to be discovered by readers and even more fun to discover new writers whose work I love.
But I have a pet peeve.
(Of course, I do. I’m a kvetch. I always have a pet peeve.)
My pet peeve is writers who ignore the daily thread, and instead, post a stand-alone link about something fabulous that just happened to one of their Medium stories. (With, of course, a link.) With an explanation about why they are posting their news as a stand-alone post instead of on the daily thread.
I am posting this because I am so grateful to you wonderful readers for making this happen. they’ll say. I couldn’t have gotten all these fabulous claps without you.
Or
I am posting this to inspire you with this wonderful news.
I am here to call bullshit on that.
You are posting this, not on the daily thread where it belongs, but as a stand-alone post, to show off, brag, boast or otherwise toot your own horn.
I have nothing against writers tooting their own horn. If you don’t toot the damn thing, who will? I am all for self-promotional horn-tooting. I’ve even written an essay about why we should all be doing more of it.
It’s the horn-tooting in the guise of something else (not to mention the assumption that the specialness of your link somehow transcends the daily thread) (and the fact that all of these self-promotional stand-alone posts clutter up the Facebook page) that sticks in my craw.
Just come out and promote yourself! There’s nothing to be ashamed of. On the daily thread. Where your link belongs. (Or on one of the weekly threads devoted to Curation and similar Medium successes.)
And don’t tell me that you’re sharing the link to thank or inspire me. Be honest. Just say: I am posting this because I am proud of it, it has done well, and I want you to read and clap for it.
If you do? I promise that I will.
Writing Coach and editor-for-hire Roz Warren, who writes for everyone from the Funny Times to the New York Times, can help you improve and publish your work. Drop her a line at [email protected]. (That’s Ros with an “s,” not a “z.”)
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