Bready, Steady, Go · 9:16pm Jan 23rd, 2019
Over the past few days, I've been wondering why I was getting a major uptick in new views/likes on the extremely random Dobbinfic You Are What You Wheat. "Did Present Perfect's review two weeks ago generate a bunch of secondary buzz?" I asked myself. "Or did Equestria's pettiest thief pull off a meta-heist and steal attention the way he stole blame?"
Then I discovered the source of the attention. Equestria Daily featured it! Which was really news to me, because I hadn't actually submitted it there. Apparently they liked it enough to add it on their own!
So I'd like to take a moment to recognize my co-authors — Georg, Not_A_Hat, CoffeeMinion, and Morning Sun — and congratulate them on the little story that just keeps giving.
I'd also like to give Monarch Dodora a shout-out for an awesome commentfic that was added a few days back. While I've written my fair share of 'em, it's super flattering to receive one — especially one so hilarious.
Finally, I'd like to note that YAWYW was a product of the Writeoff Association — which is hosting a My Little Pony art and short-story competition this weekend! Right now, artists are creating works to the round's prompt, "Reversal of Fortune"; you've got until early Friday morning to submit one. Once the art is up in the gallery, authors have 72 hours to write a short story of 2000-8000 words, choosing one or more of the source pics to use as their prompt. It's a wonderful exercise in being creative under time and topic constraints, and since stories are submitted anonymously, it's a fantastic way to get feedback from readers (and pit yourself against competition) based solely on the quality of the written work. If you're willing to put on the emotional armor to take critique on a rushed rough draft, you can get some stellar editing suggestions. If this sounds like a good thing, read a little more about their structure or give the Writeoffs a look!
I have to express a certain amount of trepidation. >.>
Sethisto's been skimming off my reviews over the last few months, just posting anything I recommend when fanfic submissions are low. Admittedly, they never are, it's more that there aren't as many pre-readers these days as there used to be. I'm just waiting for someone to get upset about showing up on EQD when they didn't want to, because that's definitely a thing that could happen. And it will be my fault somehow, because I could be working harder on the PR queue than I do, even though I cannot control this man. :|
But let it be known, that's why that happened.
So they added your story to their site without telling/asking you?
5001592
Yes. I don't mind, but yes.
Honestly though, that's the norm. I don't think there's a single reviewer or feature group which is strictly opt-in. EqD traditionally has gone from submissions but that appears to not always be the case. The RCL interviews require permission but occasionally we'll feature stories without interviews from authors we've been unable to contact. Everyone else just posts, although most (like PP) do respect opt-out.
I'm so sorry. I promise never to encourage a story like this again. Unless I get the urge.
Hm, I don't think I have a story in the EqD queue. I've been so busy helping with No Nose Knows edits.
5001643
Interesting.
Most times I've seen EQD mentioned, it's been in context of their stringent acceptance guidelines and why the author writing the blog post or comment didn't bother submitting it to them. Either that or mentioning that they had had the story knocked back for some reason.
I guess like the saying goes, "better to ask forgiveness than beg permission".
Must be nice.
Nah, I'm happy for you.
5001504
This is the best possible case for EQD. You are an industry thought leader