I am going to open Story Time to public submissions in a few weeks. Although the problematic video (about literary cut-ups) still gets abnormally high views with viewers then watching videos that have nothing to do with writing techniques, my other videos, particularly the Story Time ones have the types of viewers you would expect. So that means, open submissions soon and we can have some fun with them.
Some Guidelines:
I've included some of the videos from previous stories below so you can see how sending them in different formats works. And what happens if I have to put an age restriction on your story.
Some Guidelines:
- I prefer stories that have already been published. It can be a short story or part of a novel. Send me stuff to promote you.
- If you are sending me something that is unpublished, be aware that having it on Story Time means that it is now published and will impact where you can submit it in the future. As I can't pay for your story, please consider that.
- If you are sending me something from an upcoming release or recent release and want to use Story Time in your promo, let me know. I can't make any promises about accommodating it (life happens) but I will do my best.
- Keep them to around 1,000 words. This isn't set in stone. I've had stuff longer and stuff that is shorter. But 1,000 words is around ten minutes, especially as I'll be giving some bio information on you.
- If for some reason, me reading your story violates Youtube's terms and conditions (so far, Necro Sutra is still up), I will do my best to put it onto Only Fans (I don't currently have an Only Fans account so I will need to look more into that, but apparently you can open accounts to post free content and hopefully videos are included in that).
- As erotic-twinged stories had no impact whatsoever on the creeps, you can send me sexy stories, but not pure-erotica/porn lit and no romance (for the time being). However, creature feature romance is allowed (so werewolves in love are perfectly acceptable). Something like 56 Seconds is allowed even though that hits a lot of the erotica conventions. If you are unsure, the worst that is going to happen is I won't read it - no hard feelings.
- Genres - pretty much anything except what is mentioned above.
- If your story is with a publisher, check with them before sending it in. Some publishers can be temperamental about such things, even though this is free promo for you.
- I will put more detailed submission information up in a few weeks (like where to send your story and what links I need, bio information, etc).
- The more you share your video, the more views it gets, the more likely it is to be noticed by people that have no clue who you are and discover your books for the first time. That is how you get readers. You can't just promote to other writers all the time. However, sharing is no guarantee of video views. Views are not a guarantee of sales either (although I have noticed an increase in my sales, I don't know about other people who had their stories included on Story Time so far).
- I will try to schedule videos to go out on a Friday evening (UK time).
I've included some of the videos from previous stories below so you can see how sending them in different formats works. And what happens if I have to put an age restriction on your story.
Above is Necro Sutra. As you can see you have to go direct to Youtube to view it. Also, as Kevin was having tech issues that weekend, I went into this story blind. I have a lot of trouble pronouncing words (it relates to abuse and I don't want to go into it right now, I have stuff to do). If you send me an e-pub book, I will be going in blind. I can't promise that I will get pronunciation right. Even if I look up how to pronounce something, I often times get it wrong. Also, telling me how to pronounce something does not help.
This is Starving Zoe. I read from a paperback for this. I did skim through a bit to find a segment that wouldn't be too difficult to pronounce.
This is from Death Walks With Me. Nat did send me a segment she picked as a word file. That did mean I looked up how to pronounce words that I struggle with and included them directly on the document.
This was obviously filmed before I started editing. I am still learning how to edit, so editing will not be perfect. I am hoping to have some ring lights before the end of the summer so I can have better lighting when the nights start to get longer.
Check back here next weekend (hopefully) for details of how to send me your stories. As I've posted on my social media, I need to force through an OS update to get inDesign to work on my computer. I'm about halfway there, with one more thing to try before I wipe the harddrive and install the OS that I want (which is already on a flashdrive). The other half of that will be taking my attention next weekend. If you use Apple, you might be familiar with what I'm talking about (I use a refurbed Airbook, and the APFS simple upgrade a few operating systems back never went through).
This was obviously filmed before I started editing. I am still learning how to edit, so editing will not be perfect. I am hoping to have some ring lights before the end of the summer so I can have better lighting when the nights start to get longer.
Check back here next weekend (hopefully) for details of how to send me your stories. As I've posted on my social media, I need to force through an OS update to get inDesign to work on my computer. I'm about halfway there, with one more thing to try before I wipe the harddrive and install the OS that I want (which is already on a flashdrive). The other half of that will be taking my attention next weekend. If you use Apple, you might be familiar with what I'm talking about (I use a refurbed Airbook, and the APFS simple upgrade a few operating systems back never went through).