In the past couple of days, a number of people at various online places (livejournal, myspace, flickr) have asked to read my work - or told me they "look forward to reading my work". While on the one hand it's flattering, on the other hand it's frustrating. Clearly I can't just point to the Blue Moon anthology and say "buy it and read my novella", as most people assume that, like many other writers in this day and age, I'll also have something online that they can read for free (besides, many people aren't interested in erotica). So, whether one is a professional writer, a neopro, or a wannabe, it seems to be expected that one will have at least something online, so they can figure out if they like your writing or not - and so they can see for themselves if you really know how to write, or are just full of shit.

So I have a problem. I don't have anything online, and I'm very hesitant to start posting stories or "snippets" of work here. I know all the stories about how people were "discovered" online by posting chapters (Cherie Priest) or entire novels (John Scalzi) or even fan fiction (Cassie Claire). However, I've posted chapters and stories before (on livejournal), and the reaction has always been less than enthusiastic. I tend not to get "I love this!" but lengthy critiques about how my first paragraph utterly failed to prove that I can write, or that I've plagiarized some other writer, or that only wannabes post their own work online. Clearly, I'm not writing at the level of the authors I listed, so I guess the answer then would be to not post anything at all. Anything less than brilliance simply doesn't cut it when it comes to posting free fiction on your own blog.

But then I'm back to the first problem - that no one knows what my writing style is like, or if I can even write. If anyone read "Brimstone Orange" when it was on ChiZine, or if they read the erotic novella, I don't know about it. I've never come across any post or comment online saying "Oh, I read her story and I loved/hated it". I don't have that much writing out there to begin with, and what's out there might as well not exist. It's very frustrating, because I'm beginning to think that I come across online not as a neopro, but as a wannabe, and an invisible one at that. In my opinion, the implication behind all these requests is, "if you're a real writer, then I should easily be able to read your work - but I can't, so I can't take your claims of professionalism very seriously".

Then again, I supposed people could be telling me they want to read my work only to be polite, and they really don't give a shit at all. In which case, I guess I'm off the hook....