The Roo of Kee

When you like or reblog a post, that counts as user engagement for the person you liked or reblogged from, and shows up in their notifications.  

If the person you liked or reblogged a post from wasn’t the original poster (i.e., you’re liking or reblogging a reblog), it also counts as user engagement for the original poster, and shows up in their notifications as well.  

This means that user engagement from your likes and reblogs can potential accrue to two different people, the original poster and the person you liked or reblogged from.  

Consequently, you cannot “steal” user engagement from someone by reblogging their post.  

This is one of the very few areas where Tumblr is actually functions more reasonably than other social media platforms.  

Note that this is only true if you use Tumblr’s built-in reblogging function. If you save someone else’s content to your local device and append it to a new post, you effectively become the original poster from that point on.  

This means that on Tumblr, “reblogging” and “reposting” are two different things; if you see someone complaining about “reposting”, this is not the same as reblogging.  

Commenting when reblogging does not affect any of this – unlike, say, Twitter, where quote-retweeting causes user engagement to accrue to the quote-retweet and not to the original tweet – and you can and should do so freely.  

However, every Tumblr user can see who exactly you reblogged a post from, which functions as a soft disincentive against making inane comments; if you make a dumb comment on a reblog, people who see your reblog may “back up” one step in the reblog chain to reblog a version of the post without your comment.  

Nobody understands tags, and there’s a fair amount of evidence that how tags work changes periodically and without warning.  

DON’T FORGET - *most* Tumblr users DO NOT MIND if you engage with their OLD posts!  (Apparently on Instagram they do? this baffles me.) 

Many also don’t mind if you “spam” their notifications with a bunch of likes or reblogs in a row.  

Tumblr has a rich culture of Very Old Posts continuing to make the reblog rounds, and people become fond of them.

Also, unlike Twitter, you can reblog the same post multiple times.  Heck, you can reblog the same post every hour on the hour for days. (Please don’t.)  But you do see a lot of “oh this came across my dash again, must reblog” with posts users are fond of.  This is fine.

Tags ARE a divine mystery.  People use the tags both for organization (inasmuch as this works, sometimes), and for added commentary.  Commentary added to the tags will generally be seen by those who follow that person and see their reblog on their dash; but the OP and whoever they reblogged it from can also see the tags in the notifications. 

Also, the different ways you can talk to people here: Picture a large auditorium with a huge crowd milling around. If you want to say something to someone in the crowd, you have a few options:

Making a Post: Shouting something in the middle of the auditorium.

Reblogging without comment: Showing all your followers a recording of the shouting guy. Like sharing a meme in group chat, but OP gets internet points too.

Reblogging with a comment: Verbally responding to the person shouting. Like having a conversation in public that anyone can add onto. You don’t have to talk to everyone that talks to you, but talking to people here half the fun of the site.

Reply: Like publicly handing a note to someone that they read, and then leave out. Only the person you’re replying to will get a notification, but anyone reading the notes can read your reply too.

Ask: sending a note to someone without showing the crowd. Only the person you send an ask to will get a notification, and they can decide to respond to it privately, publicly or not at all.

Anonymous ask: slipping a note into someone’s pocket without them noticing, so they don’t know who sent it. It’s meant for asking embarassing stuff or keeping traffic off your own page if you don’t want it, NOT for sending hate, unsolicited sexual content or other nasty crap. But some people do this anyway, so many bloggers have anon turned off.

Submissions: Saying “Hey, I thought you might like this, and also you’re really loud, want to shout about it to the crowd?” Kind of expected to be a collaborative effort where you will talk with the person you submitted to as well, but this is not universal. Some people are assholes with this feature so again, many bloggers have it turned off.

I moved into my current neighborhood in the middle of the 2020 plauge summer, and consequently I know fuck all about my neighbors and they know fuck all about me, except I might have changed that last night.

Herschel is coming up on his first birthday, and like most baby corgi, he is a hyperactive little shitgibbon that thinks everyone in the world exists to pay attention to him, and he's not totally wrong. So every so often he will invent a new trick for funsies, and his lastest one is the "D'aww": He'll pick up one of his toys, carry it over to wherever Husbeast or I are sitting, wait until we look at him, then sit with his back to us and dramatically flip his head back to show off his toy and his beast "Ain't I A Cutie?" face. It is. Dangerously adorable.

Now, he's very good at judging user engagement and will hone his tricks for maximum attention and treats, which means he's got one toy in particular that's his favorite to do this with. My neighbor had given us a box of her former dog's toys when we got him, and one of those toys is a totally plain hard black rubber sausage-shaped tube that you can stuff treats into and entertain a puppy for up to 20 minutes sometimes, but...

Yeah, it looks like a Dildo.

So you can imagine the first time he did the D'aww and suprised me with the Donger Dog Toy, I fucking howled. And now Herschel thinks this is THE toy to do this trick with for maximum attention.

Now, I've also been trying to teach him to carry a toy in his mouth when we go on walks because it keeps him from eating garbage, so last night when he picked up The Treat Tube when it was time for his late-night walk, I told him what a good boy he was and let him take it out with him. Would I have preferred one of the stuffed toys? Yeah, but it was 9PM on a Thursday who was gonna be out to see this?

Well, apparently it's the hot new thing to do an Early Trick-Or-Treat with a smaller group of children to only a select few houses, and it's honestly not a bad idea- less risk of covid exposure, since all the houses are in on it you can make sure the treats are all allergy-safe without singling out a kid, and you don't have to do it Halloween Night which is a school night this year.

None of this helped me when I turned a corner to find a gaggle of children and PTA Parents, and the World's Most Outgoing Dog sprinted for them, sat down with his back to them and dramatically revealed his toy- a 10-inch black rubber tube- on a dimly lit street.

The children naturally only saw A Puppy and fawned attention but I was hit with three PTA Moms telepathically beaming the message IS THAT A DILDO?? at me with some Very Intense Eye Contact.

"I Swear To God That's A Dog Toy." I blurt out.

Two of the Mom's break Eye Contact to lecture thier children about "ASK if you can pet the dog!!" But one just starts laughing her ass off about this. She's about 4'10, there's an open wine bottle in her jack-o-lantern bucket, and she and both her sons are Batmen. She's a remarkably convincing Joker.

"I'm so sorry, he loves people, that's his favorite chew toy." I explain as Herschel rolls over, esctatic for belly rubs, hurgling little goblin noises around The Tube.

"He's adorable. I just hope he doesn't sleep in bed with you!" She says, before leaning over conspiratorily. "-He might be a real danger to your husband!"

So now I have a new neighborhood bestie and my dog is determined to show everyone his Moderately Alarming Toy Suprise Trick, which is gonna be a real hit at the Vet's Office next week.

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If you decide to pursue traditional publishing, what are the steps after you've written and self-edited your manuscript?

1. Querying

For traditional publishing, you'll need a literary agent 90% of the time.

In order to get a literary agent, you need to query a bunch of them. It is also possible to secure representation at in-person pitch events or on Twitter events like PitMad.

For querying, it is important to compile a list of agents who are reputable and who represent your genre and age category. Then, decide in how many rounds you will query these agents.

Follow their guidelines!

For most agents, you'll need a query letter - a one-page cover letter pitching your book. You'll also need a synopsis, which sets out the entire work in a few pages. Some agents may also request extracts from the manuscript.

2. Getting an agent

If an agent likes your submission they will contact you. Most likely, this will be to request part of your manuscript, or the entire work.

If they still want to represent you after reading the book, they will offer you representation.

You will then sign a contract of representation and the agent will get a percentage of the proceeds of your published books.

3. Agent edits

Not all agents are editors, but most are. If you get an editorial agent, the agent will work with you to polish your novel even more.

This will take as many rounds of edits as is necessary for both of you to be satisfied.

4. Going on submission

Once your book is ready, your agent will pitch the book to editors at publishing houses.

This will usually take multiple rounds and a lot of time.

This is like querying, only more excruciating.

Once an editor shows interest in your work, this process comes to an end.

This also means that the power is back in your hands. Your agent will now let the other editors know that you have an interested editor and that they will have to respond within a certain period if they still want to represent you.

5. Acquisitions

Even if an editor wants to publish your work, they need the go-ahead of the entire publishing house.

This is what acquisitions meetings are for.

The editor will pitch your book to the rest of the company. The marketing, financial etc teams will then decide whether they think the book can be profitable.

6. Offer and auction

If the publishing house wants to publish your book, you will receive an offer from the publisher.

If more than one publisher is interested, the book will go to auction, where the interested publishing houses will bid to publish the work. The best offer will then be accepted.

7. Contract

Once you've decided to publish with a certain house, contract negotiations will begin.

Your agent will be in charge of negotiating on your behalf. However, it is probably a good idea to educate yourself on the things to look out for and to consult with an Intellectual Property lawyer.

Once you and the publisher are satisfied with the contract, you will sign.

You will receive an advance, which is the amount the publisher predicts you will earn in royalties from the book. The first portion of the advance is usually paid upon signature of the contract.

8. More edits

Then, you will have various rounds of edits with your editor to ensure that the book is the best it can be.

Once this is complete, you will probably receive the second portion of the advance.

9. Behind-the-scenes stuff

Your publisher is then in charge of certain procedures necessary for publication e.g. formatting and cover design.

The publishing house will also create a marketing plan, which you should supplement with your own marketing.

10. Publication

And, presto, your book is published.

The process from offer to publication can take anywhere between just under a year to 6+ years.

Should you earn out your advance, you will receive royalty cheques from your publisher.

So, those are the usual steps in broad terms. Some aspects may vary, but this is what you can expect when pursuing traditional publishing.

Authors 🤝 Readers