More Thoughts On Supporting Other Vocal Writers

Introduction

We all write to get our thoughts and ideas down in a permanent form and share them with others. Vocal is a brilliant platform for doing this because you can write and then you can publish very quickly.

We also like our stories to be read and maybe even win a challenge or get a Top Story, because, let's face it, that gives us a little extra coffee money.

I think as Vocal Creators our primary aim is to create and share and hopefully have our stories read. If the primary aim is to make money you need to write for a periodical or publish books and market them well.

The music for this piece is "Give A Little Bit" by Supertramp.

Before I go any further, and this will contain my annoyances as well as suggestions, take a look at this piece on reciprocity by Judey Kalchik.

So, Supporting Others

Thanks to Vocal flooding our notifications with publications we miss hearts on stories so we don't know if or who has read them, so it is always good to leave a comment or even a heart. You can easily leave an emoji when you comment by right clicking your mouse over the comment box.

Leaving a comment, however short, lets the writer know you have been there, whereas a heart is virtually anonymous. If someone leaves a comment on my story I will always try to reciprocate especially if they are a new reader of my stories.

Most of my readers are not Vocal Creators so I cannot thank them unless they leave a comment on my Facebook post of a particular story.

I tend to read and comment on at least ten stories for everyone that I publish, though I feel I do not do enough in this area, but you can only do what you have time to do.

It The Vocal Social Society we encourage interaction by commenting and hearting stories in the group and we have a Wednesday Microfiction Challenge that gets many people involved. When they share their microfiction on the thread other creators get to know them and then maybe read one of their Vocal pieces. Here is this weeks:

In VSS we reward two creators each week who have commented on an supported other Vocal Creators by giving them a little extra exposure on our Dynamic Duo thread:

An unexpected benefit from this is that certain Creators form friendships after having been paired together.

We have many other threads that we use to highlight Creators in VSS.

Just dropping stories in any group won't get you many reads. You need to read others' stories and let them know you have read them. There are a few Creators who do not seem to reciprocate with anyone so I ignore anything they post unless it really interests me.

I still miss a lot of stories, even from Creators that I subscribe to, just because I don't have time, or they have slipped down my published subscription list, so I am sorry if you feel you are being ignored by me.

Conclusion

Please read Judey's piece, and comment on any story you read if you think it is good, and I think that should bring you some reciprocal reads.

Thank you so much for reading.