Limbo

[Domonkos]

Well this site is useless. Yet another internet sensation that supplies the very elite few who have given up on all forms of human interaction to reach and end to their means. Its been over a week and my articles remain in the eternal review process. The omnipotent master of oz will not give passage to me, and honestly, I could care less. The path to great writing is not constant minutia, its not cranking out the first thought that passes through your hollow skull at the suns wakening. Greed has guided me in this direction, this conformist absurdity that hides behind a disguise of literary integrity.

I can feel the corporate tendrils slithering around this site, grabbing for its monetary gain, sedating the public with constant tripe. What sells, what doesn't, what will the people swallow and how much will they pay you to swallow it.

We create our own limbo, and I'm well into mine. We are only given so much energy in this world, and to apply it to this site, to starve as false prophets ration you a survival rate.

The only thing you need to get ahead in this world is sacrifice. By giving up enough things you can gain more then you dreamed. And I would be quite foolish to devote the next year of my life to appease some lazy editor who drains income out of the work of others.

Instead of this , I'm going to devote my time, to not adhering to any of this site's standards. To walk away from the constrictions of corporate enterprise. To avoid the creation of disposable information.

When I'm gone I don't want to look back on a life of manufacturing spontaneous fluff. An existence of distraction, encouraged and financed by a world that thrives off its own delusions of importance.

To be fair this site has done one thing for me, its confirmed that the internet is yet another extension of a soulless hand that strangles creation. Yet another system of rules and standards, designed to extract the maximum amount of energy.

I wish all of you luck in your conquest of global sedation.

[Sharion]

Wow! I've been here less than a month and my take is absolutely the opposite.

The editor is a hard working, fair, decent person with his hands full of cranky writers and wannabes. It amazes me how much he has to put up with and my hat is off to him.

I see Constant-Content as a sort of agent or marketing entity. I write it, they sell it, we both earn money.

Corporate tendrils? They should help us sell our words for free? Every company on the internet that helps me make money, is also making money. That's okay with me. It's a symbiotic relationship. They have a job and I have a job and it takes both jobs to achieve the goal.

I look forward to a long and prosperous relationship with CC. As in prosperous for both of us, because if they do not prosper they will soon go away and in all my research before coming here, I found no better site to work with.

Good luck to you, Domonkos, in finding a better way to sell your words. I'm looking forward to building a relationship with the Master of Oz and becoming a master minion someday. I see CC as an incredible tool to help me achieve my goals. I wish I'd found it sooner...

[Lor]

Thank you for your many lessons in philosophy, Domonkos. I enjoyed your tirade, however overstated. Other than using "then" instead of "than," you used some very good words. All the best in your future endeavors.

[Celeste Stewart]

Goodness. All that concluded because the articles haven't yet been reviewed after a week? Sheesh. It takes six months to hear back from most "traditional" publishers - if at all. And they too are in business to turn a buck or two.

Okay, back I go to not interact with humans.

[Debbi]

Yes, that was quite entertaining. I enjoy a good rant now and then.

[jadedragon]

You should be submitting your work for sale somewhere. Someone should pay for all the five dollar words.

[nichewriter]

Gosh. Such big words.

[Celeste Stewart]

Let me see if I have this right. Domonkos is offended that CC is: too commercial for his tastes; lacks, or claims to have but lacks, "literary integrity"; too conformist; and apparently mind-numbing with its "constant tripe" and "global sedation."

Ironically, in his introduction, Domonkos said that he found CC while searching for places to make money online such as paid survey sites. Sorry that CC didn't live up to your expectations.

[Debbi]

I called this post a rant because there is no basis in fact for the poster's conclusions, especially when he/she has had no experience with CC beyond submitting aritcles that have yet to be reviewed. Certainly not an empirical or even logical approach. If he/she had perused the forums, it would have become evident that a week's wait for review for an unsolicited article is not abnormal, in part due to the care taken by the editor to insure literary integrity, clarity, and adherence to the rules of grammar. Far from being corporate, CC is a haven for writers who want to "do their own thing" since we can write wahtever we like at alength we desire and charge our own prices. Compared to other online writing sites, this is a revolutionary concept.

As far as sacrificing to realize one's dreams, sacrificing unyielding egotism and instant gratification is one avenue to success, especially in an arena where your work must pass muster to be offered to consumers.

[Celeste Stewart]

Even the more esoteric and conceptual publications require "conformity" - perhaps more so as conceptual and literary writing definitely require mastery of the written word. The only place where you can truly write what you want, how you want, is a personal journal. Even bloggers have to conform to the blog host's general guidelines and terms of service. In society and business, some level of conformity is expected. In this case, this is a business. We conform to the site's guidelines, we get to do business here. It's a pretty simple concept and I'm a little surprised that it's something anyone would get upset about but, okay, so be it.

[Elizabeth Ann West]

Yeah, I'm perplexed. C-C is the LAST site I would label as conformist writing. Look at places like Demand Studios where the guidelines are INSANE. At least here, you pick your topics, you pick your prices, you even pick your license level! I have a presence on a few writing outlets, all with different sales systems, and C-C is by far the one where I have the most amount of control. And just about everything sells. Are there "pop" topics that are for mass audiences? Sure. But there are also niche markets here a writer would be hard pressed to find anywhere else. About the only lack of topic here is fiction, but only because there used to be that categorization I believe when I first began here, and to my knowledge it rarely sold. Most websites focusing on fiction offerings are a user generated CMS.

7 days isn't a terrible long wait period, especially for a first time submitter. Plus, be glad you don't have to waste your time with proposals. Once your article is accepted, it's up ready for purchase. You don't even need to advertise, C-C promotes the website already. You can promote your articles, but I personally haven't found it to make a radical difference in sales.

And I too hate corporate America. I left and never looked back.

[DennisMartz]

We live in a world of people who want "instant gratification", don't understand what patience is and believe they should be able to do any and everything they want and be paid what people who have been in the profession for 40 years are making.

I've been with CC for 6-7 weeks now - have 4 articles approved and haven't sold anything (yet...) but I'm not worried about it (not to say I don't want or need the money), but an old adage, "all good things take time" is what I've learned to live by.

As for having to wait for a week (or longer) to get an article approved - as most of you already know, there's a way around that (if someone doesn't want to stick around long enough to find out "how" they can get their articles through faster - that's THEIR loss...)

I haven't had the time to submit anything more than what I've written (it's our "busy" season) and realize that to make money (no matter how "good" you are) you have to produce a lot of material (which brings to mind another favorite saying, "if you throw enough crap against the wall, some of it's bound to stick" - so I know I need to throw a LOT more (uh) "material" against the wall...

There are a lot of people out there looking for "quick" money - and I'm grateful CC has the huevos to stand up and do business EXACTLY the way they're doing it - I have no doubt I've found THE place I want to be and if someone doesn't want to "go with the flow" - I say, "Don't let the swingin door smack your butt on the way out!"

I value each and every one of you who participate in this forum and can't begin to thank you enough for making it everything it is - it's been a BIG help to me and sets CC off from the (so called) competition...

Later my friends!

Dennis

[Lysis]

Well, I kinda feel dumb. CC articles take me the longest, and after 2-3 articles in a day, I feel kinda tired in the brain.

[Celeste Stewart]

Well Lysis, <sarcastic font> that "soulless hand that strangles creation" is draining indeed, and let's not talk about battling those slithering "corporate tendrils." No wonder we're all beat. CC is exhausting with all those evil corporate intentions and each writer's inherent greed to manufacture spontaneous fluff. And to top it off, the CC site is "useless" (at least to those who aren't among the elite few who have their articles reviewed in under a week after a major holiday - oh wait, I'm sorry, I mean it's useless to those of us who have yet to sacrifice actual human interaction. Sorry for the confusion; it's tough for us money-grabbing fluff manufacturers to get it right. We're so used to evil, greed, and fluff and all). </sarcastic font>

Hmmn, it's odd though. As far as being useful, my earnings from CC have managed to cover my mortgage (in pricey southern California no less) and property taxes as well as fund my kids' college funds (amongst other things) for several years now - even in the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. I dunno. This corporate site doesn't seem to fit the new guy's description. . .

<sarcastic font>Now, off I go to create a new global sedative. One day, we CC writers shall truly rule the world! Ba-wa-ha-ha-ha </sarcastic font>.

PS. Dennis is absolutely right, CC is NOT a place for instant gratification. It takes time to get articles approved and it takes time for customers to find your article and decide it's right for them. Even then, there's that pesky issue of whether or not the price is right for the customer's budget. It's not about writing fluff and selling it to an unsophisticated customer base. Trust me, most customers know fluff when they see it and opt NOT to buy it. (Which is part of why CC doesn't randomly accept submissions). Succeeding at CC takes real work and it's not for everyone. It's sad when someone doesn't "get" it and feels the need to insult others who do.

[Lysis]

<pom poms> Any of my writer buddies will tell you I'm CC's cheerleader. But, I do always say you need patience! I had a few gals from Suite contact me about CC, and I'm proud to say a few got through the process. It's well worth, OP. Just have some patience and proooof! </pom poms>

CC is not a place where you throw out trash. I understand that the OP is frustrated. CC has a learning curve, but even DS Hell has a learning curve. I think the OP needs to reflect on his rant on "instant gratification" and realize he's complaining about a week review time. C'mon, man. That's nothing compared to the real publishing world.