So, you want to promote your story so that others will read it right? That is after all why you're in this group. However, a trend I have noticed already here, and in other self-promotion threads in other groups, is that writers tend to be little vague on their descriptions.

Saying 'here's my story, please read it' and putting a link gets the job done, but how does that compel someone to read it? Give a description, tell us who the characters are, give us something to be interested in. If someone has reviewed your story, give the review score.

So as an example here is one of my stories:

The Rising Stars
"After almost being executed for his magical talents, a young Starswirl wanders into a mysterious forest. His life is barely saved by a creature out of legends, an alicorn named Luna, who not only saves his life, but takes the young colt under the care of herself and her older sister.

But Luna isn't the only one who's taken an interest in the young unicorn..."

This is a Starswirl backstory that also delves quite a bit into Celestia and Luna's past as well.

This story has received two reviews:

BronyWriter from The Equestrian Critics Society gave the story a 9/10, calling it "a story that keeps your attention and doesn't let go."

Admujica gave it a. 8.5/10, saying "I highly recommend it because of it’s strength in writing style, dialogue, and world building. This is a story you don't want to miss."

I think this is a much better way to promote a story, and I hope to see more like this and fewer, "hey, read this" threads from now on.

Hey, read this!

Well when you post a story you sorta expect people to read it and find out what it's about. That makes describing it before hand a little redundant, don't you think?

952040

What in tha lawds name is this fuckery? Are yall foreigners tryin ta tell me how to whore? That what this is? Lemme tell yall that I damn right need no damn foreigner ta tell me how ta do mah own darn self promoting whorefuckery. Ah can self promote as ah see feet, y'know why? Cuz I've got...

FREEDOM!

Cool guide, I honestly hope some people on here will learn from it and give better descriptions of their stuff rather than just whoring it out without proper presentation Good job. But don't think I didn't catch your own self promoting... You clever little bastard, trying to teach your methods only to shove your stuff down our throats.

Nice.

952068 Not really, since most people have a specific idea of what they want to read, and telling them what your story is about helps them cut their wheat from the chaff, instead of picking their way through random stories that are posted up

Speaking of, if you like unique ships, why not read The Model Caretaker? It has a ship that has only been done twice, and going by the ratings, is really damn good.

MLP: Mexico is Magic.

Ponies a la El Mariachi/Once upon a time in Mexico.

An Odd Family: The Foundations.

HiE in which the guy is an ass that has to take care of a baby Minotaur, an infant Centaur, and a Gryphon cub.

Speech Increased to 2.5

Skyrim Guard goes to Equestria. He can only speak in-game dialogue phrases.

Reviews from people that matter:
Tom Cruise said the first two were awesome, and that they helped him fap at night.
Angelina Jolie said the last one was like pie, but less crusty.
Tom Hanks slapped me in the face with a salmon and wept over all three of them, claiming that they had changed his life.
Morgan Freeman became god after reading them.

Is that better?

952086 You make it sound like its some huge hassle to click on the story link and read the description. It only takes like five seconds to go to the title page and see what its about there. I just did that with your link and it only took me a split second to see that it was a Fluttershy/Fleur de Lis ship and make the decision that I didn't want to read it out of personal preference.

952126 On the other hand, not everyone has a fast connection, and I'm sure some have limited data plans, and when there are several dozen stories to poke through, it's nice to be able to see if a story might interest you before you bother to click the link