Yeah--this PR thing is a little out of control, actually. You only network and acquire leverage *after* you write something that's fucking great. And you don't do it every time you complete and sell a short story. You do it once you've acquired the vestiges of a career with a book out. Or two. And even then you'd best be able to see the dividing line between networking and being a bloodsucking parasite starfucker...and the dividing line between doing some networking/PR and no longer having the time or ability to do the thing that's important in the first place: zee writing.

Oh yeah--and *then* even when you *do* get that right, some idiot will come along and call you a commercial sell-out for doing the leverage/PR, even if you just wrote a novel composed entirely of musical notes and random bits of punctuation.

Cheers,

JeffV