Who are /writers/ here? Been published in a literary magazine? Or are you currently submitting?

Who are /writers/ here? Been published in a literary magazine? Or are you currently submitting?

Tell us your stories.

I'll be published in the summer

Wrote novels for a long time, submitted them around and had no luck.

Never was much of a short story writer, but something clicked and I wrote one a few months ago, first place I sent it to said they loved it and would publish it in their summer edition.

I write daily on Veeky Forums. It's pretty cool tbqh. Sometimes there's nothing much to say, though. But still I come back. With hopes.

i write art journalism regularly for a magazine and wrote for a newspaper for a couple years doing art criticism.

Haven't submitted anything because I don't know any publication that would be interested in my writings. my short stories are really silly similar to South Park and I love over-the-top action. It's nothing a literary audience would want. I was thinking of self publishing in audio form on YouTube.

so...why are you replying?

Explaining that I don't know where to submit my work and that I don't think it would get accepted anyway. Do plans to self-publish not count?

probably better I never get published anyway. I would most likely get published as a young adult author and then I'd never be allowed on Veeky Forums again.

>Do plans to self-publish not count?

do plans to lose your virginity count?

>Who are /writers/ here?
Fuck off, idiot. This isn't how you use that slang

I don't expect any publisher being interested into something controversial and politically incorrect, so I don't even try to query and go straight to self-pub

i'm writer (sorry)

I want to shove Dove Cameron's ass in my face and sniff until theres nothing to be sniffed between her pelvic, vagina, and asshole regions.

Congratulations. Can I ask your age and how long you've been writing?

I published two poems right around Christmas 2015 in the first packet I sent out. Two got picked up by Big Muddy. Haven't seen anything else out since.

Post butt shots

I'm 36. Been writing most of my adult life.

God that's fucking depressing

why?

I have a fear of rejection too.

im writer

It's not the fear of rejection. I think it's worth more to do social media marketing than writing query letters to pretentious agents or over-spammed publishers

You wrote novels for a long time and presumably sent around multiple novels at quite a few different joints. Years and years of work. Nothing. Which is what I imagine I have to look forward to.

Well, it certainly will be better for you.

Yeah, but it's not really wasted time, if you're doing it right.

Getting a novel published is almost impossible, especially if you're unpublished elsewhere. I knew that going it, but like I said for a long time I was just terrible at writing short stories, so I never could send those out to get my foot in the door.

Now, I kind of made some positive changes in my life, and as a result I suddenly am good at writing short stories. I got the one being published, and like 5 or 6 others I'm working on that show a lot of promises. Plus, I still got my novels laying around, that I might still be able to sell if I make a name for myself in the short story thing.

So just think of it as stockpiling your work.

hope so, but I'm not the only self-publisher, so it's like playing the lottery

If you're having trouble attracting the interest of publishers, you'll probably have the same trouble attracting readers directly....but nothing is impossible.

Currently trying to deal with the fact that I don't want my genreshit published in genreshit magazines.

where else would it be published....?

Yeah, been published in a few places. You should never give up the dream ... well, some should, and some shouldn't.

I thought there'd be pseud genremags but there aren't, they're all pleb.

...

>says the guy writing pleb genre fiction

Don't be stupid. I'm writing pseud genre fiction.

Seriously, obviously there's lots of literary genreshit (Dhalgren...) but these all want another slush of -- pulp.

I would bet $100 your stuff is identical to all the other genre shit.

ok

I've gotten ten short stories and two poems published in various literary journals, and haven't made a dime. It'll be a nice thing that point to once I try to get my novel published, though.

I currently have two short stories submitted to two literary journals from my country. Hopefully I'll get accepted but the odds are low.

I've been published in a small magazine that doesn't pay anything for stories. They have a pretty respectable little local readership though, so it was nice to know that a few people read my work. Since then, I haven't had anything published, but I also have stopped submitting. I still write a little bit.

Don't fall for the (((publisher))) meme.

It helps if you're a good writer, have something to say, and believe in yourself. If you are missing one of those key ingredients, it's gonna be hard. Anything that's truly good will sooner or later find a publisher, and it will be at the appropriate time.

Real artists, and by that I meant the ones who are doing it for the art and for posterity, not for publication and fame in their lifetimes, are never too worried about publication.

I have one book of poetry published (not self-published), but before that I didn't publish anything except a couple of excerpts in small virtually unknown magazines that probably no one read.

Yeah, they're the ones who still do the work, regardless of whether it gets published or not, and have the attitude that they're never going to quit, and would even be doing it if they never got any recognition.

It's not as noble as it sounds, however. They write because they don't really have any other choice.

got any tips for writing short stories to make it easier?

Easier?

No.

I'm not interested in being on the cover of some magazine or on TV, but success and an audience means you did something great. And I would like to know if what I do is good. Friends and family are not really neutral.
Look at Van Gogh. He did a great job but he never was told. Pretty sad IMO and nothing anyone likes to experience I guess.

Sounds like a perfectly reasonable fantasy

I think the taktak.nu people are taking submissions if any of you want to try them.

I've had a number of my short stories published in magazines as part of short story competitions, mostly light sci-fi, wherein the stories take place roughly 50 years in the future. A lot of them were inspired by books like City of Bohane and The Windup Girl. Generally my stories centre around a post-information age where culture has declined but endured through an era of extreme reacource scarcity.

Now I've decided to write a full length novel, incorporating some of the characters and themes of my previous work. I'm most of the way done and I'm probably at the stage now where I should start researching how to successfully approach a publisher.

I wrote some video game reviews that were published. Does that count? I even got paid for them.

kys

Self-published. Did some guest articles for a blog that shares similar interests as me. Finished fourth book recently, working on editing my fifth which I started writing months ago and included various grammatical errors I used to have. Should be finished editing within a week I hope and then I figure I should have the book finished in another week, maybe two. Already got over 64,000 words and it'll probably be over 80,000, maybe 100,000+ but I dunno, we'll see. I doubt it'll reach 110,000+.

As for actual publishing instead of self-publishing, it's not a big priority to me. Self-publishing is overcoming traditional publishing, it's a lot more flexible than traditional publishing, and I can make more money in the long run with self-publishing. I don't understand Veeky Forums's distaste for self-publishing. Yeah it takes quite a bit of time and work to start making money, but if you just love to write then it seems like the best way of going about getting your work out there.

Can I ask how you went about self publishing? What lessons have you learned from the process?

I'm looking to do the same. I'm very confident in my work and I want to get it out there, but I'm not really sure how to go about advertising, etc.

Go to CreateSpace, they basically hold your hand through the whole process. You'll need some banking information because due to it being a potential source of income you'll have to pay income tax and what not. It's not all that difficult though; if I can do it, you can do it. You can also self-publish your books COMPLETELY for free if you do your own editing (provided you're good with grammar and sentence structure) and if you use the cover creator (not ideal, but can get the job done). If you want to keep your real name anonymous like me, then you can also write under a pseudonym or pen name, but you have to give CreateSpace your real name of course if you hope to get paid some day. Forewarning; unless you strike gold and your first book(s) become HUGELY popular (like, less than 1% chance), then you probably won't get your first $100 for several months. Keep writing, keep self-publishing, and keep marketing. I'll touch on that soon enough.

When you self-publish a book you'll need your interior (you can get templates on CreateSpace to make it easier), you'll need to make a description, whether your pages will be white or cream-coloured, whether the cover will be matte or glossy, etc. Once you get the cover figured out (if you want a professional one it can cost anywhere from about $40 or more depending on who you look to, can be over $1000) then you provide all the info and it all goes in for review. The quality of your writing is not checked; it can be FULL of grammatical errors, but it'll still go through, so make sure it's WRITTEN WELL otherwise those who DO get your books won't be particularly pleased. The review can take up to 24 hours, and once everything checks out then it'll be up to 2-3 days before it's available on Amazon but will be available for sale on CreateSpace right away. You also get more money from selling paperbacks on CreateSpace than Amazon for some reason. As for Kindle that can also take up to 3 days.

Now, marketing... I find that the most important part is to NOT BE OBNOXIOUS! If you go to blogs, or to threads here on Veeky Forums, or to Youtube vids, and just start going "Hey I wrote this; go buy it!" or "Hey I just read this book that I TOTALLY didn't write myself and I think you guys should get it too!" then you aren't going to have a good time. The best way to market your book is to PROVIDE something first before you MENTION the book. MENTION it. Don't push it. Don't ask people to buy it. Don't say "oh it's so good check it out", just bring it up. Give maybe a VERY brief synopsis on what it's about, and if anyone thinks it sounds interesting then THEY will look it up or click the link. Take this post for example; I am providing information, hopefully in a halfway entertaining manner, and I'm just about finished. So if you like you can check out my 1st book Living amongst the Dead which I wrote under my pen name J N Morgan. It's a zombie survival novel that focuses on survivalism/realism and also has some sex.

As you can see, the vast majority of my post was providing information that was not only relevant to the thread, but also specifically requested, and then I just slid in my book as an example. The thing is though, this thread has NOTHING to do with zombies, post-apocalyptic stuff, or sex. Really, the only reason I brought it up was as an example of how to make the mentioning of your book brief and only AFTER providing some content. Under normal circumstances I wouldn't have brought up any of my books in a thread like this because the topic has nothing to do with any of my books. My second book actually has an amateur writer as one of the main characters but it's still not particularly topical to the thread so still wouldn't be appropriate.

So I've found a blog where the guy who owns it talks about survivalism and firearms. VERY appropriate for my books, but I didn't just start posting comments that mentions my books. That would be rather rude. He was the guy who gave me my first review, I managed to get in contact with him, thanked him profusely for said review that he left for my book on Amazon, and eventually we got to talking about his blog. Said he'd be cool with me writing guest articles and then 'plugging' my book at the end of them, and because I was so grateful I also dedicated my third book, Firearm Valhalla, to him. I think I'll also put him in the Acknowledgement section of my fifth book which is going to be a sequel to my first. This way, his blog is getting some advertising, and via guest articles my books are getting some advertising. At least, the ones that involve firearms and/or survivalism do. The other two have VERY little to do with firearms and NOTHING to do with survivalism so I don't even mention those.

Also, it would help if you first book isn't OVERLY long. I'd suggest keeping it under 100,000 words because people are more likely to get a shorter book than a longer book. Shorter books are also cheaper in paperback but chances are the bulk of your income will come from eReader sales and KENP/KU page reads.

... let me just tell you this up front. If you're getting into self-publishing, be prepared to learn over the next few months. Be prepared to learn A LOT. There is a HUUUUUUUGE learning curve. I've actually been talking about this stuff on my blog on my Goodreads account so you can read more there if you like. Like I said, I write under the name J N Morgan. If you'd like to check out my buddy's survivalism/firearm blog, you can find him at bisonprepper.blogspot.ca

I hope all this helps! Let me know if you've got any other questions; I'll do what I can to help... and will try not to shill anymore. I know how Veeky Forums despises shilling.

Thanks for the advice. I'll certainly give your books a look, albeit with more of an interest how you've formatted your work than enthusiasm for the Zombie genre.

Can I ask, did you have any success with the advertising streams that Amazon provide? Or do you feel that they represent a money-sink?

That's some good advice.
Did you realize a sales increase after your book was mentioned on that blog?

I like how self-publishers give out completely redundant information, thinking it's a brainstorm.

Make sure your book is edited? Advertise, but don't annoy people?

Holy fuck how did you think that up!?

i hope it wasn't that faggy facebook group where all those self-published losers jerk it over that one guy who lies about his credentials, user

huh?

The thing is, I've got no disposable money. Very little money at all in fact. If my situation were any worse then I'd basically be a typical 'starving artist', so I can't give you any advice or experience on where to spend money for advertising because I've never done it. As for success in terms of my own marketing, I've had a little. From Mar 13-19, a one-week period, I had a free promotional campaign to give my books away from the 14th-16th and I had also wrote a guest article or two on said blog to tell people that the books are going for free. I did this in the hope for reviews, and who knows, maybe some of the people will like my stuff and mention it to friends.

I also went to /k/ (the 'Weapons' board here on Veeky Forums) and told my fellow /k/ommandos that I was giving my three books (at the time) away for free. Well, I only really mentioned Living amongst the Dead and Firearm Valhalla, and Firearm Valhalla was actually dedicated 'to my fellow Kommandos' as it says in the book as well as to the fellow who gave me my first review and lets me write guest articles on his blog. Well those beautiful bastards who frequent said blog as well as the people on /k/ were quite supportive of my efforts. In the 3-day period that my books were going for free, I gave away 126 eReader copies in total which hopefully will earn me some reviews in time, and I also ended up with 6 paperback sales along with a few hundred KENP/KU page reads which also earned me a bit of money.

So in my own marketing experience, I'd say I've had success. I made almost $13 USD in a one-week period from Mar 13-19 (to get back to the point i was going to make in the first paragraph here), which is over $17 Canadian. Now if I can maintain that, which is going to be difficult but not impossible, then I will make over $600/year, or in my own Canadian dollars almost $900/year which I consider AMAZING considering how new I am to all this. Keep in mind though, it's likely going to take months before your receive any money; my first book was published in October and I've yet to get a dime even though I've accumulated some sales. I also have my prices REALLY low. $0.99 for Kindle (I get 35 cents out of it), and I basically make around a dollar per paperback sale. This is to try and aid in sales to try and get reviews. Reviews will help in the long run.

No problem; hope the advice helps, and no worries if you get my books or not. Keep in mind that I'm new to all this too so I'm just providing what info I can; I'm far from an expert in any of this. Tim Knox is a great guy to look up, and Derek Murphy. Check them out on Youtube; you'll learn A LOT! God knows I have.

>Years and years of work. Nothing

Seems quite natural to assume becoming a published writer should take years of hard work.

Once again, thanks user. And good luck with your future projects.

Yup, I did get a sales increase, but only marginal. Writing isn't the kind of thing you want to get into if you just want to get rich quick, whether it's self-publishing or traditional publishing. I write because I love it, and I dare say I'll be writing for as long as I'm physically able whether or not I ever make any real money. Still, that 5-star review from a guy who LOVES post-apocalyptic/survivalism books and have reviewed quite a lot of books before (some with only 1-2 stars given) along with the assessment a retired English teacher gave me of my writings who is also a traditionally published author, I do believe I can make a career out of this passion. From what I've heard, having made over $10 in just a 1-week period (almost $20CAD), I'm already doing at least SLIGHTLY better than the majority of new self-published authors, so that's something. Admittedly I only made about 3.4 US pennies yesterday (7 KENP/KU page views with no sales), but all in all I've definitely been improving lately. Hoping to maintain $1-2 a day average, but we'll see if I can manage that. I might just go another month with barely any sales or page views, we'll just have to wait and see.

I realize it sounds simple, but not all the self-publishers out there realize this stuff starting out. For example I edited my first book a couple times before self-publishing. I wrote it, then read it over to make grammatical fixes/revisements, then read it over AGAIN, and turns out I still had some mistakes that were inherent in my writing style. I was USING ALL-CAPS in some words even outside of dialogue when really I should be focusing on italics, only using all-CAPS very sparingly when things are particularly loud, like an explosion, or gunfire when no ear-protection is being worn. I also capitalized the directions of the compass when in most cases north/south/east/west are not capitalized. I learned that this was wrong only AFTER self-publishing, so I then spent quite a while reading over and further fixing these mistakes in my book in basically a 3rd or 4th draft, but now it's finished. I believe my first book is as good as it's going to get, and so far it's easily been my best-selling piece of work.

There truly is a huge learning curve to becoming a self-published author, and it's very common for people to make mistakes starting out. I certainly did, but I'm steadily learning, and hopefully as I continue to write and self-publish my work, I'll continue to increase how much money I make. I do write because I love it, not for the money, but obviously if I can make a career out of something I love then I'm going to go for it, so I do hope that my work makes money. So far it is... albeit veeeery slowly.

I just won first prize in a short story competition for the first time, there's a cash reward too.

But I've emailed them asking to correct some grammatical errors, and if they refuse to do that I'm going to withdraw my entry.

This is true, sadly. That's why it's so important to write because you love writing rather than to write to try and make money. Chances are it'll take a LONG time before you make any sort of reasonable income. Frankly, I'm surprised that just 5 months into being a self-published author that I've had a one-week period that made me over $10USD! I see that as a FANTASTIC week considering how new I am, and a sign that I'm doing at least SOMETHING right. From what I've read, most new self-published authors would be lucky to make more than $100 in their first year. I've even heard from successful self-published authors that probably more than 50% of self-published authors make less than $100 in their first year. So don't anticipate much money, in fact it's best not to anticipate any money. Yeah I've been improving as of late, but it's still entirely possible that the next 7 months will remain utterly dead and so I won't make that $100 mark by October this year.

No problem at all, I find it fun discussing writing and even the more laborious stuff like marketing or editing. God I hate editing. Anyways, thanks, and good luck to you as well!

That shouldn't be a problem. So long as the story is functionally the same, I've found that competitions are incredibly receptive to grammar and syntax fixes. After all, it reflects poorly on their publication to include a piece with errors.

I agree, I just have to wait until he replies.

I've written only 3 stories, a combined ~12 pages worth of material that I really think is good. Should I even bother sending it anywhere or continue to work for the time being?

If you post one of them on a pastebin I will critique it for you.

If you're happy with them, try applying to short story competitions. There's really nothing more envigerating, I find, than applying yourself to a competition.

I find getting a bj from two strippers is slightly better

>There's really nothing more envigerating

You're an absolute retard. Not only is applying to such things stressful and embarrassing, but any form of "competition" in life between different sentient beings is simply a waste of time and an ideological quagmire.

Is it though? You probably would have to consider the fact that one of them has HIV

It's not in English.
I've had two people who are as or more interested in literature than me look at them and they generally said positive things. I'm just worried because I write very little, and even less that I think is worth anything

The challenge and the chance for victory are what drive me to improve. I want to win. I want to prove that my own self-belief isn't delusional and facile.

You can call that "retarded" if you wish, but such thinking has served me well in life.

>It's not in English

Not gonna make it.

...

>I want to prove that my own self-belief isn't delusional and facile.

it probably is, especially seeing your obsession with "Winning". Watch The King of Comedy sometime.

Just submitting your stories around and getting them published should be more than enough to satisfy you.

>Just submitting your stories around and getting them published should be more than enough to satisfy you.

Wow so this is what it sounds like to be cucked.

How sad.

You think Marx would be content having three people in his local bar agree with his hatred of the burgoieasi (I don't know how to spell it). You think Abraham Lincoln would be content running as a town mayor in Maine?

You're retarded, and you've falsely interpreted your weakness as humility.

Yeah, you're definitely delusional.

Get help before you get serious into writing.

It does. That's what I consider winning. Though perhaps "winning" is the incorrect term. "Persevering" or "Succeeding" might be more accurate.

maybe a simple life well lived isn't so bad, friendo.

Maya, Maya!

My self worth isn't predicated on depreciating others. Hence I didn't stoop to petty insults when someone disagreed with me and what I consider important. I get what you're trying to argue, but that ain't me. I'm no Marx and I'm sure as shit not Lincoln. I'm a guy that writes stories. And I'd like to think I'm pretty good at it, too.