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You want more pageviews, more faves and comments, but especially, you want more recognition for your work. So, you decide to send in your own work as DD suggestion. That is all fair and good, but you have to understand that I get quite a few suggestion notes each day and while I will look at each suggestion no matter who sent it, I have to wonder why some people may think their own work would be deserving of a DD in the first place.
Suggesting someone else...
If you suggest someone else's work for DD, you do it because you like the work. Maybe you find it to be outstanding from a technical point of view, maybe the idea behind it is just too good to pass by, but in any case, the piece must have moved you enough to find the right gm in FAQ #18: Who selects Daily Deviations and how are they chosen? and send your suggestion on its way. I do not need you to explain that to me (though I am always curious), because your actions in this case speak for themselves. And if you were "simply moved", if something inside you just "clicked" upon seeing a certain piece, it may be hard to explain, too.
...versus suggesting yourself
On the other hand, if you suggest your own work, then the "clicking part" doesn't fit the bill any more because you created this image. Of course on some level the two of you "click". But would someone else "click" with it? I do think you should be able to explain why you think it should receive a DD to be displayed for a day prominently where members and visitors alike will see it. Suggesting yourself for DD is a way to advertise yourself. Would you react in favour of an ad that said only "buy me"? I'm sure you'd just shake your head in disbelief. But this is exactly what I've been seeing increasingly these past weeks! People simply begging "may I have a DD on this, please?" or "I worked on this for *insert-number-of-hours-here*, please give me a DD!". Or simply "[link]" with no explanation at all, even though I do have it in my guidelines that I want to hear what a self-suggestor's reasons are. The only thing I "love" more is if they give me a link to their gallery, so I can "pick whatever I like"...
There are two more things that irritate me:
- If you ask me for critique or a DD, how am I supposed to give you the latter if you seem to know that some things are still off with it?!
If you want a critique, you can always ask me to give you one - but please don't combine it with a DD self-suggestion! - People giving me a hand full of suggestions in one note, all for different artists and one for themselves - without comment, as if they were ashamed to send their own stuff and didn't want me to realize that fact.
What to do instead
Let me tell you that I am very, very unlikely to be swayed by any of the above. If you are going to advertise for yourselves, then please, please, PLEASE do it right!
- First off, pick ONE of your deviations and make it a recent one (because your skills are probably progressing with time, so on a technical level, a recent dev is better than one you did three years ago).
- Then note me (don't comment on my userpage where anyone can come by and offer his two cents) and tell me why I should feature this particular deviation.
If you can't tell me what is special about your piece,
then why should I DD it?
Of course, you're hardly objective when it comes to your own images, but that is part of the reason why I want you to think about "what would others see in this?" and then tell me why I should feature it. It doesn't have to be "right" or objective. But if you really like your work then you should be able to come up with something besides throwing the link at my feet or saying "but I worked on it so hard". Because frankly (and I know this may sound harsh), the amount of work or time spent is not an indication for great art. Some people need 3 hours to blend something while others will need 3 days. If the subject is boring and the composition is off, if the lighting is awkward and the idea behind it seems to be nonexistent, then I do not care how long it took, I will not feature it either way.
Oh and before you ask: yes, I have featured self-suggestors before, but the amount of self-suggestor notes that ended up in my "rejected without comment" folder has been far greater than those I was able to shove into the "used" folder.
I hope this clears some things up and hopefully my inbox will be one of those things
Jasmin
EDIT: There's another aspect to all of this "DD stuff" and that is: do you really, actually want to have a million eyes on your image? If you want feedback, a DD is not the way to go about it, trust me! Do you want someone to ask you on your lucky DD day how you got that DD in the first place because s/he can't see what's so special about it anyway? On that dilemma, I invite you to read the follow up journal Do you really want to? [of DDs & Feedback]
