Elite's Advice, tips & etc.

How to Publish (some tips)

To VioletSun5:

What is your advised to unpublished writer?

start small. The first thing you publish shouldn't be a full novel. In fact it probably shouldn't even be fiction. I started with SEO writing and graduated from there to flash fiction pieces and doing a bit of ghostwriting.

Start small and the bigger stuff will come.

And to answer your question regarding short stories... not really no. The short story publishing process is a little different (actually a lot different). You want to approach anthology producers (like chicken soup for the soul, though it's hard to get in there), contests, etc, and submit your work.

As for brochure writing, etc, this kind of stuff can often be found on websites like craigslist and elegance. I started on a site called blogmutt writing SEO articles, which are both nonfiction and also boring as piss but teach you how to write to someone ELSE'S standard instead of your own.

Once you've gotten your feet wet and learned to take direction a little bit it's much much easier to get something like a full length book published, though the process there is different and often involves querying and pitching to editors.

NEVER EVER EVER EVER write anything for anyone unless THEY are paying YOU, not the other way around. And if you are doing nonfiction dreg work (seo articles, brochures, blurbs) NEVER DO IT FOR FREE. Value your work. Don't do things for exposure unless it's fiction and specific situations.

Some freelance/contest/otherwise unpaid work is fine as long as it's fiction or a narrative of some kind, but you should NEVER pay anyone to have anything published. Ever.

Me: omg!! Thank you so much for this!! I'd definitely add this into the upcoming side book of the club's advice to share to everyone. This is fantastic! But wait, so we have to sign up to that boring site you said to get noticed? I'd tried making a query letter once. But it was ignored. Lol I read chicken soup! Wow that book is just amazing though. Do you have like a published book now?? That is a full length novel? And why do we have to write, how to write someone's work?

VioletSun5:

You aren't trying to get noticed. You are trying to learn to write for an audience, using someone else's wants and needs and someone else's rules. You NEED to learn this to be successful as a writer, because unfortunately writing is not rainbows and kittens and getting to do what you want every single time. Unless you're famous as FUCK no one cares how well known you are on wattpad or as a freelancer or wherever the fuck else.

Start small. Learn to write to someone else's specifications. THEN publish what you want. There's a reason you need to learn to do this:

One of the big dark secrets of writing is that no one cares how good your writing is. They care how well it sells. The difference between these two things is night and day and is why shit like divergent and twilight and 50 shades is so fucking popular while far better books are banished to the far corner of the bookstore. Agents aren't looking to see if you're a good writer. They're looking to see if whatever you're handing them is marketable, and then it's very likely an editor is gonna carve the shit out of it (the plot will stay intact, the writing will not) so it sells better.

Learn to write so someone else enjoys it. THEN you can worry about your own shit.

Sc0pe374:

Though what you say dose have some level of truth, writing what you like and what they want is all a matter of prospective. sure they can do there home work and find that book that although is trash might sell but what it boils down ti is weather what you like is what most people like, or at-least a solid group of people like?

The way i see it is we are bound to find a number of people who resonate with our teats. Sure that is the hardest part but in the quest of getting yourself out there but that's just part of the parcel. I hear that J.K was struggling to even get harry potter out there until one or a few of her fans at the time stepped up.

I mean sure you could sell your soul and make the more generic thing that everyone could maybe find some enjoyment, it could work but again it still comes down to hooking readers, maybe that 'trend' has being over done, maybe yours is just not up to scruff with it, you missed the 'switch' that other big books triggered because you strayed out your comfort zone, denied what made your style and testes unique to chase some trend.

But it could work, you could hit the big times but again it's no sure fir way like you preaching it. The one thing i like about writing is that no matter who you are or where you're at in the writhing stage we all have to tread our own paths in the field. Sure we can stick out heads over the fence and see others paths and where that took them, learn form there successes and mistakes.

We can try and follow in there foot steps at the loss of out own to try and 'copy' that successes or change there own style to please a set group of people at the loss of yourself.

It's your choice and there is a fair amount of truth to what you said but please don't sit there and make it sound like that is the only sure fire way of getting noticed.

There are tons of people with different tastes and there's bound to be someone who gravitates to your work. The hard part is finding them.

The world is too vast and there is too meany people on it to go and make such static claims.

VioletSun5:

Sure, you could get really lucky and get noticed with something that's not marketable. But in the traditional publishing space that's so incredibly unlikely. If you're doing this, do it online because agents want two things: niche or mass market stuff. Both tend to sell well. If you have something else it's better to prove it has appeal somewhere like wattpad.

I'm sure someone would love a story about fairies that lick each others feet every night before bed, but will lots of people like that? No. And you need lots of people to like it in order to get "noticed".

Remember that if your book doesn't sell the agent doesn't get paid. They're more interested in what will sell (i.e. what is the most likely to get noticed) than what's actually written well.

Honestly? Harry potter is mediocre writing. I fucking LOVE Harry potter. It's easy to digest, it's fun, it's gut wrenching, and it's wildly popular. Most things that are wildly popular aren't literary masterpieces and that's fine.

But concentrate at least the first few times on that piece you like that you know might sell well than one that you like more that doesn't. You don't need to sell your soul and you can still write things you enjoy (even a lot!), but you do need to be marketable, and smaller stuff will help you learn to do that.

sc0pe374:

I totally agree. I was just thinking more about that guy who unknowingly had that book a lot of people like or a book that may seem like a rear read on paper but turns out to be the next trend.

yeah but even then it did not gain it's fame so smoothly is all i'm saying. Hard to imagine my childhood without harry potter. XD

True, it is the agents who's the one who makes the choice to give the book a chance so it will have to be something that they think will sell.

When i first read your comment I kind of miss understood it for being kind of angry what with all the caps and what not. I did respond in a way that detached me form that as to answer in the fairest way possible but encase it seemed otherwise it was because of my miss understanding so my bad XD

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Well if you have more tips