Just recently read a post by @whatageek on vague tips on how to get published.
Not saying I didn't enjoy the post, I just disagree. So much so that I'm writing this post right now.
I'm sure it won't generate any significant amount of views and upvotes, even if the insight and tips within it are strikingly more valuable than "How To Get A Story Published."
First off, I'm not even going to go in the direction @whatageek took with his post.
I'm going to take you all straight to the year 2018. Month April. Day 9th.
That's right.
Listen up my fellow authors, story writers, dreamers and creative deities... Put your Muse hats on and connect to divinity.
Forget the days of the 1950's, you don't need a publicist to tell you if your story is good or not.
Check out this list I found with five seconds of google.com search of "Famous authors rejected by publishers"
http://www.onlinecollege.org/2010/05/17/50-iconic-writers-who-were-repeatedly-rejected/
Is that the route you all wish to take?
Is persistence the only means of getting your creative gems out there? Is it about thinking "Ok. I'll get there, I just need to write better. They didn't like my last story. Or my last 100 stories. But I'll get there."
NO. It's not, and frankly, that's insanity.
http://quotesta.com/albert-einstein-quotes-insanity-4/
I have a few pen names, and I've written short stories and novels, I've published work.
I can tell you right now, some of my best work has been rejected.
Until one day I woke up and remembered it was the year 2018. There are other options for writers now than before the age of information (internet). That means, you can publish your own content. You DO NOT need a gatekeeper, who may or may not know what the public wants and likes. If they knew always what readers like and would enjoy, they'd write themselves and make millions doing so. I've spoken with publishers, and they, almost always (normally after a few drinks) admit that they are just playing a guessing game. That, they reject 90% of what they get thrown at them because they can't handle the 10% they're already dealing with!
So, besides pretending you're still living in the 1950's, where as publishers have full power over the market; what is brought to the readers. You have these following options to get you started!
I've used this, several times! It's really easy, and you can just youtube how to format your doc so that it fits for Kindle formatting! I personally like KDP, because it's tied in with createspace.com and audible.com (Of which I've also worked with.)
If you're not about working with the giants, you've got;
https://www.smashwords.com/
"FOR AUTHORS, PUBLISHERS AND LITERARY AGENTS, Smashwords offers quick and easy ebook distribution to most of the world's largest ebook retailers. We provide free tools for marketing, distribution, metadata management and sales reporting. At Smashwords, our authors and publishers have complete control over the sampling, pricing and marketing of their written works. Smashwords is ideal for publishing novels, short fiction, poetry, personal memoirs, monographs, non-fiction, research reports, essays, or other written forms that haven’t even been invented yet."
Yep. This site will distribute your work to most of the worlds largest ebook retailers. One stone, and a whole lot of birds! (Excluding amazon.com)
As for tips on how to make it big self-publishing.
Promote and advertise on goodreads.com, facebook.com and using amazon's advertising as well. Additionally, if you want to mess (trade secret), play with amazon's algorithm, go find all those "smaller" book blogs and promotion sites. They'll ask for somewhere around $0-15 to keep you on they're blog for about a week. You probably won't garnish much by doing this, but you're touching amazon's algorithm in several different ways doing this. Amazon might "think" your book is the sh1t, since it's being talked about on a lot of different levels. Last I tried this was back in 2015, I think it still works.
Just PUBLISH, PUBLISH AND PUBLISH. Who cares if no body likes your short story! Definitely who cares if a publisher doesn't! The more content you have out, the better! Gather up all your "rejected" stories and put them online.
You need a GOOD book cover. If you can't draw, paint or CGI ask someone who can, or pay someone to! This is very important. If your book cover sucks, no one will even care to read what your book is about.
Short, not lengthy "back book cover blurb". I even sold books with NO BOOK COVER BLURB! (lol ;) )
You better make sure there are close to zero grammar errors, spellings or holes in your story.
Do not obsess over one story, if it's grammar error and spelling error free, publish it and move on. If you're creative, obsessing over your work will kill your creativity!
Self publishing means you've just entered the realm of fans. If you use ONE day writing one short story, publish it, and gain 10 fans, you're doing exceptionally well. Even if you gain five fans, You're still killing it. Your money is all about your fans, I know, I know if you're like me, you probably just want to hurry up and get a lot of books sold. Well, odds are that won't happen until you have a fan base. It's possible you can have a one hit wonder, though down the line, if you want to make a career out of writing, you will need your fans. Take care of them, listen to them, never respond to them.
NEVER RESPOND TO YOUR FANS. This is important, unless they write to you on your author page, your blog, or even here on steemit. DO NOT RESPOND. Reviews are sacred, especially if you get a good reviewer response to some of your work, don't even say "thank you". Review spots are for reviews, not response. A top 100 amazon reviewer taught me this lesson. Do not even say thank you. Just let review spots be for reviews.
Re-publish your work. Once you get a fanbase going, that first or first few stories/books you published will get kicked into the dark. There is nothing wrong with republishing it! Bump your work up! Advice your readers that it is a "remastered version" so you don't get any bad reviews.
F#uck publishers. They are the dust on the bookshelf. If you have creativity, don't allow these publishing idiots to approve you or disapprove of you. Just go be you! and Good luck. I believe in all of you! More content, more stories! BRING IT ALL the world needs it, our children need it!
Additionally, if you want to be published by publishers, nothing better than already doing most of the work. If you're doing well self publishing, you will get headhunted, instead of throwing your work at them, they will find and contact you.
Like you said, you may not get too many views or upvotes, but I agree. What "whatageek" said applies to people who still want to be published by publishers but for you and me, amazon, kdp and smashwords are the way. Cheers fellow author!! :)
Cheers! :)
Once you start self publishing, publishers will headhunt you. You've done most of the work at that point, and may even decide not to sign a deal. Or, maybe you do :)
I think self publishing is a much better way of getting notice if you really want to get published by publishers.
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