I have a few favourite blogs I visit everyday. Some I’ve been visiting for some time and others are newly discovered gems. I visit these particular writer sites because the people producing them are genuine, talented and have incredible sentiments to share. I’ve pared my list considerably over the past month and the sure fire way to make me hot foot it to the nearest blog exit is the ’give away’. A number of writers are using this gimmick to increase hits on their blogs and thus display their popularity. I’m supposing they are using this as some sort of quasi marketing technique for their work.
Whenever I witness this I’m reminded of the kid in elementary school who would buy friends with extra candy or a new toy no one else could afford. I realize the desire to market your work, but just as the kid in elementary school may have bought some pseudo friendship for a period of time , the loyalty always disappeared when the gifts stopped being provided. There is something about this process that is inately sad and smacks of desperation. One rather ugly aspect of all this “Can I buy you so you’ll buy my book”? malarkey, is that not one of them will post a story, poem or anything else beyond their opinions, for free. I’ve read a great deal of ”I won’t let anyone steal my work off my site” and “I get paid for my words, I’m a writer goddammit!” Then, just to really torch their reader’s retinas and insult their intelligence, they recycle posts from the previous month. If I were an editor, I know what I would think. What do you think? Let me know in the comments. I’ll be interested in your thoughts regarding this growing phenomenon.
