Hey, y'all! It's your neighborhood Tonkus speaking, and in this essay I will thank you for coming to my TED talk. ;) we'll be taking a crash-course through... *gasp* story promotion!

Keep in mind that these are all just suggestions on what you can do, not necessarily what you have to do. Feel free to branch out and find your own styles and methods.

Also, keep in mind that you can only promote M-rated stories using a story embed or an indirect link through your user page.

Also also, this is a thread meant for discussing how to promote your story. Please promote your stories in the appropriate groups, such as the Shameless Self Promotion Bureau, I Just Want a Comment, The Share Center, etc.

Anyhow, let's get on with the 100% shameless self-promotion!

I'm not joking. I'ma plaster my stories all over this post.

The Easy

So. You wanna take the path most taken, eh? Walk the not-so-lonely road, sing a lil' song and clap your hands with the kiddos over in them promotion groups? Well, if you wanna pitch a thingy that's sweet, short and simple, then here's some ideas!

ESplintershard

• MLP: FiM
• Adventure
• Sci-Fi

Once upon a time, Equestria flourished. That time is now long-gone.

• Human
• Alt. Universe
• OC
• Starlight Glimmer

TheMajorTechie · 82k words  ·  67  9 · 1.3k views

Read my story!

Go look at my userpage. There's a story there.

From top to bottom, let's take a look at each post.

ESplintershard

• MLP: FiM
• Adventure
• Sci-Fi

Once upon a time, Equestria flourished. That time is now long-gone.

• Human
• Alt. Universe
• OC
• Starlight Glimmer

TheMajorTechie · 82k words  ·  67  9 · 1.3k views

Copypasta bbcode:
[embed]###PUT A LINK TO YOUR STORY HERE###[/embed]
This one's the good ol' embed your story. What? You mean Fimfiction's got a built-in way for you to just slap a story, description and all into a post? Perposterous!

Read my story!

Copypasta bbcode:
[url=###PUT A LINK TO YOUR STORY HERE###]Read my story![/url]
It's a link. That's it. End of story. Or is it the beginning?

Go look at my userpage. There's a story there.

Copypasta bbcode:
Literally just tell people to go read your story. Don't even try to help them. :P
I wouldn't recommend this. For all we know, your userpage might be filled to the brim with nyan cats! Stick with giving people links and/or embeds if you're gonna promote.

The not-so-easy

For when you wanna jazz things up a little.

ESplintershard

• MLP: FiM
• Adventure
• Sci-Fi

Once upon a time, Equestria flourished. That time is now long-gone.

• Human
• Alt. Universe
• OC
• Starlight Glimmer

TheMajorTechie · 82k words  ·  67  9 · 1.3k views

They lurk in the Everfree-- a remnant of what once was.

They flourish in Canterlot, celebrating the memory of a mare long-gone.

And now they clash-- old versus new, pony versus pony.

The Ashen stand tall, but the Old Guard remains ready.

Not exactly the greatest day for Emily Anderson, to be honest.

ESplintershard

• MLP: FiM
• Adventure
• Sci-Fi

Once upon a time, Equestria flourished. That time is now long-gone.

• Human
• Alt. Universe
• OC
• Starlight Glimmer

TheMajorTechie · 82k words  ·  67  9 · 1.3k views

Alrighty now. These are kinda in an awkward position between easy and hard promos, since... uh, yeah.

ESplintershard

• MLP: FiM
• Adventure
• Sci-Fi

Once upon a time, Equestria flourished. That time is now long-gone.

• Human
• Alt. Universe
• OC
• Starlight Glimmer

TheMajorTechie · 82k words  ·  67  9 · 1.3k views

Copypasta bbcode:
[quote][center][img]###PUT A LINK TO YOUR STORY'S COVER ART HERE###[/img][embed]###PUT A LINK TO YOUR STORY HERE###[/embed][/center][/quote]
Heyyyy, this one's got some fancy art!
But seriously, the only difference between this and the embed-only one is that there's a bigger cover art image and everything is centered.

They lurk in the Everfree-- a remnant of what once was.

They flourish in Canterlot, celebrating the memory of a mare long-gone.

And now they clash-- old versus new, pony versus pony.

The Ashen stand tall, but the Old Guard remains ready.

Not exactly the greatest day for Emily Anderson, to be honest.

ESplintershard

• MLP: FiM
• Adventure
• Sci-Fi

Once upon a time, Equestria flourished. That time is now long-gone.

• Human
• Alt. Universe
• OC
• Starlight Glimmer

TheMajorTechie · 82k words  ·  67  9 · 1.3k views

Copypasta bbcode:
###WRITE AN INTERESTING HOOK FOR YOUR STORY! ADVERTISE IT, AND HINT AT THE MAIN POINTS WITHOUT REVEALING TOO MUCH.###[center][embed]###PUT A LINK TO YOUR STORY HERE###[/embed][/center]
This one's a little higher-effort, 'cause now you're writing extra stuff to pitch your story!

The hard way

AKA the tryhard's path. And also the way I personally like promoting my stuff. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Splintershard

---

They lurk in the Everfree-- a remnant of what once was.

They flourish in Canterlot, celebrating the memory of a mare long-gone.

And now they clash-- old versus new, pony versus pony.

The Ashen stand tall, but the Old Guard remains ready.

Not exactly the greatest day for Emily Anderson, to be honest.

ESplintershard

• MLP: FiM
• Adventure
• Sci-Fi

Once upon a time, Equestria flourished. That time is now long-gone.

• Human
• Alt. Universe
• OC
• Starlight Glimmer

TheMajorTechie · 82k words  ·  67  9 · 1.3k views

There's only one? Yeah, so what? Like I said before, these don't have to be the way that you promote your stuff. Anyway, onto a deconstruction of the thing!

Splintershard

---

They lurk in the Everfree-- a remnant of what once was.

They flourish in Canterlot, celebrating the memory of a mare long-gone.

And now they clash-- old versus new, pony versus pony.

The Ashen stand tall, but the Old Guard remains ready.

Not exactly the greatest day for Emily Anderson, to be honest.

ESplintershard

• MLP: FiM
• Adventure
• Sci-Fi

Once upon a time, Equestria flourished. That time is now long-gone.

• Human
• Alt. Universe
• OC
• Starlight Glimmer

TheMajorTechie · 82k words  ·  67  9 · 1.3k views

Copypasta bbcode:
[quote][figure=left][url=###STORY LINK GOES HERE###][img]###STORY COVER ART LINK HERE###[/img][/url][/figure][size=2em][center][url=###STORY LINK###][b]###STORY TITLE###[/b][/url][/size][/center][hr]###BIG OL' STORY PITCH. BE CREATIVE-- DON'T JUST SLAP ON YOUR STORY'S LONG DESCRIPTION!###[/quote] [center][embed]###STORY LINK FOR EMBED###[/embed][/center] [center][img]###OPTIONAL FOOTER IMAGE###/img][/center]
Aight, this one's a biggy. Let's start from the very beginning, and work our way through.

Firstly, there's a spot for your cover art (again). How is it that it's showing to the side of the story title in a way that's made purposely to look like the full story page itself? With the amazing power of the [figure] tag! By tacking "=left" or "=right" to the inside of that tag and finishing things off with a [/figure] on the other end of things, we can display multiple things side-by-side!

Moving on, we've got the title of the story. It's literally just a title with a link taking you back to the story itself. Also, the cover art does that too.

After that, we get the usual extended story pitch, an embed, and a nice little footer image to finish things off, 'cause you have a lonely cover art at the top, and everybody needs a friend. :V

Anyhow, that's all, folks! Catch y'all later!

Uh... didn't mean to post so soon.

Dangit, broke the site's formatting again.

7264432
Thank you kindly for the guide, Mr. Splintershard! (Or is it Mrs. Or Ms?)

7267722
I'm bread on a board. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

7267724
I donʼt know what that means.

7267728
Just talking about my avatar. I'm a dude.

7267730
Oh, so it is Mr. Splintershard! As I was saying, thanks for this little guide. Really helpful for my future stories.

7267738
Neato.