Our New Idea

Writers want to write. That’s the fun part.

But writers also want to be read. And we want to sell, of course. To sell beyond a small circle, we need to have a robust presence in the world.

With or without a publisher behind us, we have to do the legwork ourselves. We have to set up a table at a flea market with a stack of books, interact with browsers, and push our product. Or pack a pickup truck with books, sell out of the bed on the side of a highway, as I understand Faulkner did at the start of his career. Do I remember that right? Was that Faulkner, or someone else? It was somebody big, that I’m sure of.

You and I have a superhighway to sell from. It’s called the internet.

A few of us have the idea to set up a gallery/blog, displaying short stories, excerpts, opinions, in some cases, art, featuring rotating content, so folks come back and back. And to amuse ourselves.

I’m already amusing myself, despite my struggle with a new editor in WordPress, nothing like the old ‘Classic’ editor, that was a breeze to operate.

After how-so-many years Writer Co-op has been in business, we’ve covered pretty much every topic, as far as writing goes. Motley is the place to comment on a wider range of issues, possibly appealing to a general readership.

That’s my theory, anyway. I’m willing to give it a shot. I plan to be playful as hell on my individual page. With Sly and Maisie to work with, that won’t be hard to do. Sandy will post her art. Sue, her marvelous photographic illustrations.

The best thing about the new WordPress editor is, you can have a different theme (format) on every page. There are many free looks to choose from. You can select a simple layout and swap in your text with little effort. Or Sue and I could create a few pages with easy templates. Choose one, slap your name on it, it’s yours.

I’ve constructed the homepage with slots for seven participants. We have a solid four. Who else is game?

Sandy has a site, in progress. I have a site. Some of us may have blogs. We have Writer Co-op and we will have Motley. We can link up, amplify one another’s voices.

Who’s active on Twitter, Instagram, etc.? I’m registered with several of those sites but I’ve never posted on them, they are a mystery to me. I’m on Facebook. I will crank up my presence there.

Take a look at MotleyTry.wordpress.com (the name will change), and tell me what you think.

No, this is not the answer to the challenge of visibility. But it’s a piece of the puzzle. I have other pieces scattered around the web. Maybe my Hansel-and-Gretel approach–dropped bread crumbs–will do something for me, maybe not.

I just visited medium.com, where I have the entirely of Maisie in Hollywood posted. My messages tell me three new people, names I’ve not seen before, have read a good chunk of my thirteen installments. God knows how they found me. I haven’t interacted there for a year (the best way to spark interest). Medium is certainly not the place to post fiction. Advice is the thing there, and political commentary. The saga of a forgotten silent-movie-star mouse? Forget it.

I believe in Maisie and she believes in me and I’m not going to let her down. Nor Sly neither.