I'm just curious what everyones experience here has been regarding the pros and cons of "self publishing" on e-readers and trying to find a literary agent or publisher. Earlier I was reading a thread about "how having content online can or can't hurt you" and I got to thinking I have a bunch of my stuff online even if it is only rough and unfinished drafts! Thus I shall presume to take a shot in the dark that there is a 50/50 ratio between published persons on here, and others like myself who are still refining their craft but have not made any significant splashes in the publishing(or e-publishing) world yet. Since for the most part it seems derogatory to some degree having pieces online of your work in any phase, it would seem a wise route for an unpublished person with material posted online to go the self publishing route. (the thread referred to earlier was 17 pages or long with in depths posts. I skimmed through it. Sorry, not reading that entire thing thoroughly this late.) So, I'm a fellow with poems posted online, pieces of rough drafts to multiple stories online, short stories posted online. Never been published. Whats the best route for me to go? I of course as time goes on and projects reach completion, explore all avenues. e-readers just seem the most convenient way to "get your story out there and tell it to the world" Thoughts, advice? correct me on any misconceptions, or if this type thread exists already feel free to point me in the right direction. Thanks.
Published = made available to the public. Therefore, you are published. You published all those poems, and short stories. As for if it hurts you, not likely. As for best route - that's totally a personal choice, but I think you should make your decision based on all the information you can get. That means you SHOULD go and read all 17 pages of that other thread. Good luck, I hope you have tons of success!
I have to start by saying that e-publishing isn't self-publishing. It's simply the digital publishing of books, stories, poems, etc. Since you've written stories, you want to submit to magazines and not publishers. Short story collections aren't taken on by publishers very often because there isn't much of a market for them. The stories you've posted online are considered published, so unless a magazine accepts previously published work, you're going to have to submit new ones. Definitely take this route over self-publishing. Chances are you'll make more money (some of these magazines pay very well) and have more readers.
Perhaps. I'm to tired right now for it. Definitely got the F'its right now. At the expense of sounding greedy, I'm looking at publishing more along the lines of "desiring to see the fruits of my labors" whether it be literary or otherwise. Not that currency is my primary concern, I'm too old and at the stage in life where I'm grasping at whatever straws I can to make a buck without sacrificing quality. Thanks for the input swhibs123.
Thirdwind---I've given thought to magazines but honestly have no frigging clue who I would write to haha. Mens Healthy living? Science and physics? Readers Digest, etc? I read magazines and newspapers about once a month. Maybe more >.> , but yea, I'm cut off from the internet 90% of the time so I have no idea who's got a contest going on, or what magazine to target for a specific genre of story. I'm definitely out of touch I guess. Is there a way to find out what magazines have contests open on some random board out there? I guess I could pick out 10-20 random magazines and go check their websites just to see what is mentioned about story applications being accepted.
Most magazines with web sites should have submission guidelines available online, and many accept electronic submissions these days. If you can sell a story to a magazine you're likely to make money faster than self-publishing (though some people make good money from self-published short stories), and it's good advertising.
Poets and Writers has a free list of markets you browse. Duotrope is another great resource (it's probably the best), but it costs money now. I think it's around $50 a year. It's actually not a bad deal.
I'm having trouble following the logic here. If you have posted Work X online, then Work X has been published, and it is unlikely that you will ever sell it to a traditional publisher. However, that should have no significant impact on the hopes for Work Y and Work Z, which you have carefully kept unpublished. So I see no reason to abandon traditional-publishing hopes for Works Y and Z. Now, sure, the fact that you have published Work X for free is not something that adds to your reputation, but I don't think that it's something that will put you on some forever "do not publish" blacklist, either. If you just keep quiet about it--assuming, of course, that it isn't one of the rare self-publishing successes--I suspect that it won't affect your chances to any significant degree.
Self publishing rarely hurts your chances of traditionally publishing. It might not help at all, but it rarely hurts it (as long as we're talking about different projects). You don't need to keep quiet about it, but it's just not worth mentioning. It's not impressive unless it IS impressive (i.e. sold +10,000 copies in six months or something).
...you should never post anything more than a brief excerpt of anything you hope to sell to a publisher [or readers] anywhere on the internet... that includes your own personal website... if it's available to be read for free, who's going to want to pay for it?... ...the vast majority of members are like you... not yet published for pay... while a significant number here have self-published some form of written work, only a rare few have been paid by publishers or producers who make their writings available to folks who have to pay to enjoy them... ...see first reply above... if it's already out there to be read for free, who's going to buy the self-published version?... ...write off your old stuff and write some new stuff... and do NOT put any more than a brief excerpt of the new stuff anywhere on the internet... ...there are countless threads on the site devoted to the various publishing options... do a site search and you'll find them...
You'd be surprised how many people will pay for something that's also available for free - especially when it doesn't cost much. People don't just pay for the content - they pay for the format and the convenience. You can put a set of short stories up on a website and sell a self-pubbed e-book of them - in this case, the people who come to your website and read your stories are your best market. If you like, you could add a couple that weren't put up on the internet, but you don't even have to do that. Some people will want a copy of your stories they can read when they're not online. Some people don't like reading off a computer screen. Some people will just want to support what you do. I'd agree that if you want to go the trad publishing route, though, having your stories up for free is going to be a turn-off. For the more general self vs trad question - if you fancy being the publisher yourself, so handling all the editing and marketing as well as the writing, go the self-publishing route. If all you want to do is write, keep writing and submit your best stuff to an agent.
Collect your poems into a collection, create an ePub version with a proper introduction, a cover, toc etc. and go ahead and publish it on Amazon and/or Smashwords. Don't wait. Life is short and time is passing by. People may buy it or they may not. What is lost ? Nothing.
