Publishing/writing online - help needed!

[sylvia_saint]

Hey guys, new on here so go easy!

Just wanted to ask if any of you have experience of getting your writing out online. How easy is this to do and what kind of sites are there out there? I see it as a good first step towards being a published writer - I hope it will help me build up a portfolio and some experience.

Any experiences and recommendations are very much welcome.

Btw does anyone here freelance write or have a history of doing so? I'm thinking this might be a good way to support the time I need to finish my burgeoning vampire/undead novel!

many thanks and looking forward to your responses.

 

[iansales]

Check out duotrope.com for writing markets. You can search for online, print, or both. And for paying and non-paying markets.

 

[pdurrant]

Just wanted to ask if any of you have experience of getting your writing out online. How easy is this to do and what kind of sites are there out there? I see it as a good first step towards being a published writer - I hope it will help me build up a portfolio and some experience.

Any experiences and recommendations are very much welcome.

Publishing your own stuff online is easy, but possibly not very lucrative.

If you don't want to create the various formats yourself, but are preety good about producing a clean manuscript in word, Smashwords.com is probably the place to go. If you work on it, you can get reasonable results, at least for linear text, from them in a variety of formats. they then sell the ebook on their site, and also distribute it to lots of other places - B&N, Amazon (soon), Apple, Sony....

If you'd rather tweak the formatting yourself, direct to Amazon at dtp.amazon.com - although they currently pay a miserly 35% of RRP.

If you create an ePub, you can sell through lulu.com although this isn't a well-known ebooks store, being more associated with PoD books.

If you get seriously into self-publishing, Lightning Source is good. You can upload ePubs to them for distribution to places like booksonboard.com and get 75% of the RRP from each sale.

But currently Amazon is the big ebook market. Around the middle of this year they'll be adding another sales option that'll give up to 65% of RRP from each sale. I'm looking forward to that!

Mobileread.com is an excellent forum for ebook matters. Internatinal, but obviously with quite a US bias, though less than most since the owner is Swiss and the servers are in Canada.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I approved the previous post (pulling it out of the netherworld of moderated posts) because the links look useful and don't appear to violate the spirit of the rules. But pdurrant, you need more posts before you can post links, or the software will disappear your messages.

 

[pdurrant]

But pdurrant, you need more posts before you can post links, or the software will disappear your messages.

Thanks for rescuing the post. I don't like to post messages just to bump up my posting number if I have nothing much to say. Although I can be quite voluble on some subjects.

 

[iansales]

Bear in mind that a "portfolio" of self-published works counts for nothing when trying to sell a novel to a publisher. It might even be held against you...

 

[Brian G Turner]

To myself, the only benefit to writing online is to develop *experience* of writing for an audience.

This is probably underlined by Stephen King in his "On writing" when he talks about how he learned to write better for a college paper, where the editor would force any unnecessary word to be cut. He credits that experience with making his writing tighter.

Similar may apply online - *anyone* can publish online, and most of it is likely irrelevant for publishing purposes. But if you can learn to write for an audience, get to it - all experience if useful, if nothing else, for your own progression.

Publishers, on the otherhand, I would think just want to see a polished writer they can work with from the off - how that writer got there is probably going to be irrelevant.

2c.

 

[ValerieJLong]

...hmmm

What I like most about online publishing is the immediate feedback from readers. It's quite rewarding to see their reactions - cheers, okay, but also valuable questions and critique. That's quite a difference to placing a book out in the wild and then eventually have occasional sighting reports.

Valerie

 

[Paradox 99]

I've found that getting short stories published on-line is a good stepping-stone.
It prepares you in several ways. Not only does it thicken your skin when it comes to getting rejected, it helps you to craft submission letters. When you get that first short story accepted, it does wonders for your confidence. And when it comes to getting a novel published, it's nice to list a string of accepted stories at various places when submitting to agents or publishers, because they can see that you're serious about the craft.

But yes, it's a good way to go. As Ian says, have a look at duotrope - there's plenty of places there to get you going.

 

[A_J_Lath]

Personally, I'd recommend Smashwords. It's pretty easy - all you need is your story in an MS Word Doc file, and their automated process will translate it into a large variety of ebook formats. However, you need to follow their formatting guide TO THE LETTER in order to get your work available on as many formats as possible. Also, there's likely to be a bit of a queue when you submit, so be prepared to leave your computer on for several hours (after which, if you find you've not formatted correctly, you may have to go through the frustration of re-formatting and re-submitting all over again).

Smash doesn't market your work, but it's all pretty much free, and they do e-publish free marketing and style (formatting) guides, which are a big help.

 

[jaydenwoods]

I strongly second the recommendation of Smashwords, which distributes to the iBookstore, Sony, Barnes and Noble, and other places. You can also publish through Amazon's kindle.

But if you are willing to give your work away for free, try Feedbooks. I have found Feedbooks to be the easiest place to publish, and I can vouch that I have gathered far more readers there than anywhere else. To gather an online audience, I think providing your work for free is a good way to start!

 

[marklord]

Very interesting to follow this discussion. I think it's right that it can be a good idea to give away some of your content for free to attract readers, not 100% sure about doing this for short stories above getting them published in recognized magazines, but having heard about Feedbooks and Smashwords I thought I would give it a go. Today I posted a couple of stories in Feedbooks - it was really easy to do and it's quite a rush to see your downloads mount up. 10 already for one of them! I also like the idea of readers being able to comment right next to the story. Could sites like these replace online fiction magazines in the future?

 

[Susan Boulton]

Suggest you read this about smashwords before you sign anything.

Not nay saying, just giving info.

[Publisher] Smashwords, Inc. - Absolute Write Water Cooler

 

[Scarfy]

Any writing that you do will always be useful - you'll be refining your craft and learning from the mistake you make. These are all good things.

Putting your work online will be useful in mainly two ways - getting your work read and receiving feedback, and also potentially gaining a readership.

What it won't do is get you noticed by a publisher (okay, it might, but you probably have more chance of winning to lotto) and it won't make you rich, either. Any money you might make will be pocket change, enough to buy an office lunch (£3.50 meal deal from Boots).

Sorry if that sounds harsh, it's not supposed to be - just basing things off my own experiences.