It’s Market Monday and I’m crafting micro “ad stories” by the light of a match….
My plan for today was to post my picture of a favorite birthday cake, then wish myself a happy birthday and take the day off at Daily Shorty. But on a random Web jaunt, I stumbled over a delightful submissions opportunity that I have to share: The online journal matchbook is calling for “Ad Story” submissions, deadline April 30.
For the fourth time (where have I been??) “matchbook will publish very tiny stories in the form of Google Ads found next to search results and on websites in an attempt to use the advertising system to work for art rather than against it.” WHAT?! Oh my goodness. I’m smitten.
Read the full guidelines (the requirements are very specific) then check out their archived Ad Stories for inspiration.
Some of these story bits read like poetry, others like jokes, still others like lovely or jarring hints at full narratives. I would link my favorites, but they’re all collected on that same archives page, and anyway they’re so short, you can eat all of them up in only a few minutes. Enjoy! And then wrangle yourself some little bitty stories.
They’ll take as many as four, so get busy!
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Daily Shorty 
Oh wow, I love this! I think I’ll use it as my writing prompt tonight. Happy birthday, Claire!! Cheers to a beautiful new year ahead! That cake looks delicious!
It’s a cake from a couple of years ago, before I cut down on sugar. Maybe next year I will indulge again. Such a beauty.
I can’t express how much I love this idea of ad stories. I’m definitely going to write some and see if I can come up with 4 worth submitting. I challenge you to do the same!
Wow–way to resist sugar even on your birthday! As for those ad stories, I know you’ll come up with more than 4 worth submitting! I’m thinking some up right now… 🙂
I’m in too! And happy birthday again! Hope it’s been a fun day and that there’s more fun to come. This is such a cool idea all the way around–thank you!
Oh, yay, it’s an ad story party! Ha! We’re all going to CRUSH IT! That’s enough happy birthday for me but yep, plenty of happy evening left for me and the husband, thanks Cyn!
Stopped by to look for this week’s update and realized I wrote “wow” twice on this post. If only comments could be edited!
Ha! I don’t mind an extra “wow” here and there! Sorry for no update, my sis was visiting this whole week, so I gave her 100% of my time. I almost wrote a tiny post explaining and linking to an article about submissions or something else relevant but when it came down to it I just did a lot of staring at my screen before turning in. Back this Monday! Hope your writing and submitting are going well….
So I submitted four tiny ad stories and they accepted one yesterday! Woohoo! There’s nothing like good news in the inbox. Thank you, Claire!
Oh, I’m so happy to hear that! I wound up getting distracted and didn’t submit any I’d drafted, so I’ll have to try again next year. But this news totally makes up for my own neglect. WOOT!!!