Please don't ever feel like this is some obligation. Consider this a creative promotional activity starring You. You're always invited; Never obligated. Know someone who else who'd like to participate? Invite them.
I created this short story blog with the hope of expanding our independent author platforms. Most, if not all of us, are hoping our writing will pay for itself and allow us to write for a living. That requires an ongoing marketing effort and most of us are not marketers. So, what do we do? We should try all kinds of things from traditional avenues like radio and TV ads to blogging to book signings to giving a way writing samples like short stories. We'll never know who might stumble upon one of our shorts and love what what we've written enough to seek out what else we've done.
This Clever Fiction website will soon offer individual author pages with links back to your own websites and blogs, as well as a way for readers to anonymously rate each story. If you're like me, you crave the encouragement, but also want someone to gently say, "Here's how I think it could be a little better..." With each other's help, we'll keep growing into better, more clever writers.
This is only the beginning...