Fleen: The Awkward Christmas Dinner Of Our Obligation To Existence

In Search Of … Writers

Edit: Submissions are now closed.

So it’s been a couple weeks since Jeff was able to break radio silence; Tuesday‘s been pretty busy, as well. And as much as I enjoy blathering on here, Fleen’s really set up to provide more than one viewpoint. So if you’re opinionated about webcomics, today is your lucky day.

Jon made an appeal for contributors back when we started up, which was pretty much met with the sound of crickets. And honestly, who would bother applying to write for a brand-new blog with no track record? Well, Jeff and I did, sorta, but we we’re strange. But since today marks four months since we started writing in earnest (in advance of the announcement, actually), and since we seem to have attracted some mindshare, it seems like an opportune moment to re-solicit. To quote Jon:

If you’re interested in being a contributor, send us at least two webcomics-related sample posts and me and the writers will try and pick a couple of candidates from amongst the interested parties. The compensation is so small that you may not even notice it is there, but I promise you it will be a fun gig.

Now that we’re established, Jon’s not really into the day-to-day overseeing of the site; it’s pretty much me that you’ll have get past (although, a copy of your submission will be left for Jeff via a dead-letter drop; when he’s certain he’s not being watched, he’ll send us a coded reply via secure channels). The original criteria remain:

a post a day, barring major circumstances
has to be about webcomics (although perhaps tangentially so)
you have to be able to write in a clear and cogent manner (disciples of Strunk & White, Eats, Shoots & Leaves, and This American Life always appreciated)
you can’t be a webcomics creator; we’re looking for audience perspectives here

Extensive webcomics reading habits are not a prerequisite. In fact, if you’re relatively new to the scene, watching you discover things for the first time and reporting on it would be downright useful. And don’t feel that you have to know lots of people on the inside — trust me, you’ll be getting email from them soon enough, and finding out that they’re pretty much cool people to know. So fire up the text editor of your choice, send us some words — review, analysis, critique, interview, wildly inaccurate jokey piece that gets mistaken for serious — and let us see what you got. Who knows? You could be the next Eric Burns, and then fame, fortune, and Peeps are yours for the asking, my friend.

Oh god, that horrible, late 70’s/early 80’s proto-synth theme music! MY BRAIN!

*SPLORT!*

Yeah, I remember it well. Rock on, Leonard Nimoy. Rock on.

Sounds like a fun job, but it appears I’m a biased writer.

It’s true. I get Peeps on demand.

Sadly, processed sugar is a deadly poison to me.

And you tell me I am not in Hell! HAH!

Two questions:

First, is the contact page the only method of submitting work? I’d much rather send a text document to an email address instead of copying and pasting into a box.

Second, are there any dates associated with this? For instance, when are entries due by, and when would the person be expected to begin work?

Any and all feedback would be much appreciated, as I’m fairly interested in this position. Thanks!

What exactly IS the compensation?

THEORETICALLY, can we be total assholes? Like since we would have to write an entry a day, are we allowed to just talk about why that days installment of a certain webcomic is horrible? Also, about how long do entries have to be?

Can we work from home? How often is an article expected? And when is the application due?

-interested young writer

[…] You said “compensation”. What’s up with that? Actually, what we said was, “The compensation is so small that you may not even notice it is there.” It involves a cut of the ad revenue (my share from inception to date comes to about US$0.20) and you get your beer bought for you when in the physical presence of the publisher, which is helped by a proximity to Manhattan (for me, fairly regular; for Jeff, not so much). There’s also the intangible benefits you get from sharing your opinion with the world, and occasionally annoying William G. […]

Is there a deadline for application? I’d really love to do this, but I need to get some good samples together.

i’m all over this, like a Fat Kid on a smartie.
Applicants, competitors, friends; bring it on.
You’re still goin’ down.

I imagine they’ll keep looking at applicants until they find someone they’re looking for. You’ll need to post an entry every day so it shouldn’t take you very long to come up with 2 sample posts.

I’m getting kinda dizzy from the prospect of meeting the ‘q-list’. I’m in.

[…] Fleen recently put out a call for new writers.Â Among their qualification requirements was to post daily and not be a webcomics creator.Â Posting daily is a sensible request, I suppose, but I have no idea why they would discriminate against webcomic creators.Â So long as a guy doesn’t go writing about his own comic, ever, it just seems like it would be a non-issue.Â Not only that, but it seems like everyone who really cares about webcomics can’t help but try to create one.Â Eric Burns of Websnark remains my favorite webcomics writer and maintains two webcomics (GC and BGJS) .Â He even writes about them sometimes, and honestly, that doesn’t bother me in the slightest.Â In offering a job that requires daily posting and no compensation except being a famous Fleen writer (oooooh) and about $5 a year (if you’re lucky), it seems as though being overly selective is a little ridiculous.Â But then, it is Fleen.Â Somehow, they’ve become a regular part of the “webcomics community”, and I read them, but they as yet have not won me over. […]

I wouldnt mind trying to be a writter for you website. I am new to the webcomics phenomenom, but am fairly adept at reviewing books as well as print materials. Im unsure as to where i should submit the samples you have requested. Please let me know as soon as possible.

Phillipeb@gmail.com

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