Do You Want to Be a Male Porn Star?

Image via TIME

If you follow this blog, you may recall that I wrote a Forbes blog post back in 2012 that has since proven to be my most-read post there. It's about being a male porn star, and it's since gotten nearly two million views. Around the same time, I started getting emails from men who want to be porn stars. Since, I've received nearly seven hundred emails. At a certain point, I started posting them to a page on this website. Most recently, I updated it with some newer ones.

"I read your article from a few years ago about male porn stars. You probably saved me a lot of time there. I checked out your page, something I generally don't do. Your article spoke to me in the most straightforward of terms so I wanted to thank you for taking such a world view of the matter. I'm considering more realistic work now, not that that's not what I've been doing... but thanks anyway. Your article was very helpful. I'll be keeping my eye out for more of your work I found it to be very piquing of my curiosities. You got a new fan."

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Thoughts on Rejections from Literary Agents

Last week, I posted five Rejections from Literary Agents. I did this because the rejections, which I'd received over the months previous, were depressing. As you can see by the posts, they were also varied, ranging from this proposal is a pile of stinking shit to you are a great writer but I'm not a fit for this to form letter to I can't bother to respond so here is an email from my assistant. Most of the agents I submitted to didn't even respond. Nowadays, most editors in publishing are like that, it seems. I believe it used to be less like this, but email is so easy to ignore, you know? I'm not sure what the conclusion is here. I've written before that I do not particularly care for agents. And I seem to have them and then it doesn't work out in the long run. I've done better by myself, I suppose. I think that is the point. No more intermediaries for me, maybe. We'll see.

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Rejections from Literary Agents: #5

Dear Susannah,

i read your proposal over the long weekend and have some thoughts about it.  My first question to you is what is this book about in your view?  Is it a [redacted] and if so, hasn't that already been done?  It's not clear what your point of view is on the whole issue nor what the point of the book is.  I understand that [redacted] but why should we care?  Why is this a bad thing?  These are not people we care about as characters so I'm not sure we should care that [redacted].

You write about the [redacted] but it's not clear whether you think this is ridiculous or not.  It is interesting that [redacted] but not sure where that takes us.

In reading [redacted] I'm not sure I understand why you [redacted] is a good thing.  What is the point ofthat?  And what is the reason to not condemn [redacted] and the [redacted] and then [redacted] in the beginning of the story?

I guess my response to this is that i don't see the book in this.  I get that you are [redacted] but unless there are reasons to care about this world and make it interesting, I don't see what the purpose of the book is.  Or what your thesis is for writing the book.  So perhaps I am simply not the right agent for you on this topic. Or perhaps I need a clearer and more articulate answer to what this book is meant to be. 

With all best wishes,

[redacted]

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Rejections from Literary Agents: #4

Dear Author,

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to consider your work.  We've read your material, and I'm sorry to say that we don't think it is right for [redacted] at this time.

Publishing is a tough business, and the response of any individual agent—or indeed dozens of agents—is not necessarily a comment on the inherent value of the project. Every agent has individual tastes and individual business requirements. We wish you the best of luck in finding the right path to publication.

Sincerely,

[redacted], assistant to [redacted]

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Rejections from Literary Agents: #3

Hello Susannah,

I very much appreciate the chance to consider your proposal.  I’m sorry that  I’m not the right agent to represent the book but I wish you great luck with it.

Best, [redacted]

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Rejections from Literary Agents: #2

Susannah,

I enjoyed reading [redacted]. The opening section of the proposal is quite compelling. I had thought the book would then be sort of an investigation/memoir of your experience as a [redacted]. I think the wider angle you’ve taken, though—[redacted], [redacted], [redacted], etc---struck me as too diffuse. I’m sure I’m missing something and another agent will jump at the chance to work with you---you are a fine writer---but I think I had better step aside.

Thanks so much for the chance.

[redacted]

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Rejections from Literary Agents: #1

Dear Susannah,

Thank you for all of this and for your patience.

This summer [redacted] has been traveling and so have I.

We have now had a chance to consider and we deeply regret that the demands on our time are such that we are unable to represent your project.

We wish you every success.

Best wishes,

[redacted]

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Nobody Speak

via Kottke

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Mistakes I've Made in My Career

Going on job interviews lately (copywriting for ad agencies) and getting a new gig lately (development for reality TV) have got me thinking about mistakes I've made in my career. There have been many. Here are a few.

Torching bridges

At one point several years ago, I spent a good period of time working for a communications agency as as copywriter. Eventually, I ended things without sufficient warning. That was dumb. So much for a reference from them, forever. For some reason, Forbes is one of the few companies for which I've worked with which I've kept a (so far as I'm aware) decent relationship. This is smarter. The other way is stupider. Don't be stupid.

Stop moving

Someecards

Right before I left Los Angeles some time ago, I'd interviewed for a job that would've led to me being a part of a think tank of people coming up with reality TV ideas. But in my personal life there was a breakup, and I thought I wanted to get out of LA, and, who knows, maybe I needed to leave. But I've always had an easier time finding work in LA. I think I'm more professionally compatible with that city's ethos: shiny surfaces, bleeding hearts, pulsing insanity.

Raise the stakes

It's hard to imagine a job I've done for which I haven't been underpaid. Ad agencies paid me a good chunk of money for what I did, but it was a drop in the bucket of their budgets. I should've asked for more, more often, more of the time. These new work opportunities push me back into negotiating for my worth. And that's some high stakes shit, right? Because you're not negotiating for money, you're telling somebody: This is what I'm worth: as a person, as a woman, as a talent. Monetize your talent. It's what will earn you the only paycheck you won't be embarrassed to cash because it won't have cost you your soul.

Oh, and if you want to hire me before I get too busy to take on more work, here's my copywriting portfolio, my LinkedIn profile, and the best thing I've ever written.

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Spider in the Sand

🕷 #paulrudolph #architecturelovers #walkerguesthouse #sanibelisland #aspiderinthesand

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I had the great joy recently of seeing this house: the Walker Guest House on Sanibel Island. Designed by Paul Rudolph, it has famously been described thusly: "It crouches like a spider in the sand." Months earlier, I'd seen the delightful replica in Sarasota. In person, the real thing feels more secretive, more special. The gulf is a few yards away. I'd like to own this white box, one day.

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Show Your Love

Like this blog? Read my stuff elsewhere for free and want to show your love? In the mood for some weird fiction? Buy THE TUMOR. I wrote it. It's a short story that's been described as a "masterpiece of short fiction." It's sold via Pay What You Want pricing, which means you pay $1 -- or more, if you want. You'll like it.

Happy Birthday, Dorothy Parker

Image via Silver Birch Press

"If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of 'The Elements of Style.' The first greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they're happy."

--Dorothy Parker

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Hello?

☎️

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Unlike Most Women, I'm Funny

Today is a good day to hire me.

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This Guy

"Is not my happiness precisely the sight of many who are different?" -- Nietzsche

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Mr. Diamond

Don't miss "The Architect Who Became a Diamond." There's some really fascinating stuff about what art is and who delivers it and how. What does it mean to own a legacy?

In 2002, as an artist in residence at the Rijksakademie, in Amsterdam, Magid began noticing the large number of surveillance cameras in the city—anonymous gray boxes, mounted on everything from the corners of buildings to coffee-shop awnings. One February morning, she went to the police headquarters and explained that she was an artist interested in decorating the municipal cameras with rhinestones. She was directed to the appropriate police administrators, who told her that they did not work with artists. She thanked them and left. A few weeks later, Magid returned, armed with business cards and a corporate-speak sales pitch, presenting herself as the Head Security Ornamentation Professional at System Azure, a company that she had made up. The police not only allowed her to bedazzle the cameras but even paid her a couple of thousand dollars. “I realized that they could not hear me when I spoke as an artist,” Magid later said. “This had nothing to do with what I proposed but with who I was.”

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#Florida

🎟 #Florida

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On the Block

Earlier this week, I went to Miami and met with some ad agencies. Interested in hiring me for your word needs before I get snapped up by someone else? Email me here.

Things I do:

• Create killer content
• Help drive traffic to your site
• My superpower is digital outreach
• I'm a journalist
• And a digital copywriter
• Also: an award-winning blogger

Check out my portfolio.

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I Get Email

I real all paragraph about male porn star.
these guys dont have any interest in sex or as a porn star . they belong to poor families or countries they have dreams live like rich they want they have very thing . finely when they cannot have bright future chance . so they try to find bad ways for get money . like some body join terrorist group for money . some body join gang and do bad thing in street . Some guys find Job in Porn industry Some are thief.
when we see to rich we saw dreams . and then we find good way for get money . when we tired then we find bad way for get money.
thats it.

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Mannequins in Miami

😍 #mannequinsinlove

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