G'day, all. I've an enourmous volume of short stories, novella's and novels - all of which are so far unpublished. I've sent a number in recently to publishing agents, magazines, and writing competitions. Some short stories I will also self-publish. The point is, I'm thinking of starting a blog to both promote myself, and serve as a hub for people to find where to buy my work. Just a few question, and I hope somebody can help me with these. It's a little hard to sell something if somebody does not know what they are getting. Now, my idea is to post samples of my short stories from magazines after the magazine is published, with links to the magazine. Once "first privelage" runs it's course with the magazine, I would then self-publish the short, and update links to buy the self-published versions. For ones that win competitions, a similar sort of thing - only, indicating also that the work in question had won X competition. For entirely self-published titles, I would just have the sample and the links to buy it. I also intend to, if I get a large enough userbase, run competitions to win free copies. I suppose my main question is for my unpublished novels. I will not self-publish my novels. I only self-publish shorter work because there is only a very small marker for such things in Australia. Basically, if I post on this blog a short (500 words) excerpt of a novel, that I hope to get published, will this have any effect, positive or negative? I want to post such samples to: a) round out my profile, b) advertise my abilities, c) spark interest in longer works of mine. I know publishers will always be "on the fence" on a new author. If I get people to, in a nutshell, clamour for a full-length novel of mine, would that in any way help publishers say yay or nea? Or should I just leave unpublished excerpts off the site? Thanks!
Anything you ever plan to publish, I would leave off the site. If nothing else, an unpublished work for which an excerpt sits for two or three years won't look good when a potential publisher sees it on your web site.
True, that might impact negatively - but, if they aren't good enough to be read as an excerpt, how could I expect them to be published in any case?
The query/submission process can be lengthy, even if the quality is fine. It's still to your advantage to not confirm that the manuscript you are submitting is coated with dust and cobwebs.
i have to agree... besides, the chances of selling any of your work off your site are slim to none... plus, the cost of using paypal, or whatever for the few sales you might manage would make it even less of a money-maker... if you really want to see your work published, you'll have to do what all writers do... keep submitting it till someone wants it... if you're not sure it's sellable, then post some excerpts here for critique, or send me a few samples, if you don't want to do it in public... love and hugs, maia
