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Post by The Voice on Apr 11, 2016 6:15:45 GMT -6
This is really what it's all about, right? For those of us that made the choice to pursue writing as something more than just a hobby, publication is the goal (Or maybe fame and fortune, but let's be realistic. We're not all going to become Stephen King).
Members that have been published (either in magazines, journals, publishing houses or even those that self-publish) I'd like to hear from you. Personally, I would like to get a better sense of the steps you took to get to the next level and what success you've had.
Please share your thoughts and experiences. Where did you submit? How long before you finally got your work published? What kind of compensation (if any) did you receive? Are there publications/websites you would avoid in the future?
Thanks.
~V
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Post by Joy Pixley on May 2, 2016 12:09:00 GMT -6
I thin this is a great question, Chris, but I have no answers -- no publications (for fiction) yet.
One thing I would say is that getting a lot of solid critiques first is good. I see writing buddies who send stories off to online magazines or other free publications and think (1) good for them that they're published, but (2) ouch, they really should have sent that through another round or three of revisions before they did that. I recently started getting involved in an online critique group. I sent in a story that I thought was frankly brilliant and almost ready for publication. But BOY did I get a reality check. Some of the critiques were super negative and bad and even mean; I ignored them, naturally. But several of them pointed out real problems that I was too close to the piece to see until then. Will definitely be revising before I submit!
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Post by The Voice on May 2, 2016 16:28:50 GMT -6
I think that's an excellent point, Joy. I have a number of stories I've been collecting for contests/publication, but I've received no feedback on any of them. I won't submit until I get some kind of reasonable critique. Otherwise I feel like I'm only asking for rejection. Even after multiple revisions, I know the stories could be better but my own subjectivity prevents me from going any farther in the re-writing process. That's actually one of the reasons I started this forum. I hoped to gather enough people together so we could offer solid critique to each other. On the flip side of that, I've spoken with writers that seem to hesitate sending anything in even after receiving critique and many revisions because they're just not confident. I think at some point you just have to take the plunge and send your work out into the world and see what happens.
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Post by angietrafford on May 3, 2016 2:33:10 GMT -6
I sent a piece to a professional once and he ripped it apart but I wasn't angry at him because I was expecting it! So, I can handle something being destroyed.
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Post by Joy Pixley on May 4, 2016 10:05:10 GMT -6
I think it would be great to get a critique group going here. I'm already involved in two in-person groups and an online group, though, so I run into the issue of not having enough stories to submit for critique! With my in-person groups, I'm bringing the chapters of my novel, so that's fine. But the online group is stand-alone stories, and I don't have any ready to submit at the moment because I've been focusing on the novel and on flash fiction for my blog. Clearly I just need to up my game. (Gulp.)
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Post by The Voice on May 5, 2016 5:41:50 GMT -6
I think it would be great to get a critique group going here. I'm already involved in two in-person groups and an online group, though, so I run into the issue of not having enough stories to submit for critique! With my in-person groups, I'm bringing the chapters of my novel, so that's fine. But the online group is stand-alone stories, and I don't have any ready to submit at the moment because I've been focusing on the novel and on flash fiction for my blog. Clearly I just need to up my game. (Gulp.) I have a Topic here under Fiction (or Non-Fiction) where you can post anything you want reviewed. I gave Yinglan some feedback on one of her stories and have one of my own out there for review, so feel free to post anything you'd like members to critique.
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Post by Joy Pixley on May 5, 2016 7:35:50 GMT -6
I just spent a few minutes clicking all over this site and couldn't find any story that you'd posted. I found Yinglan's under fiction, but not yours. All these topics confuse me; I feel like I click five things and end up back where I started again...
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Post by The Voice on May 5, 2016 8:02:49 GMT -6
LOL... I promise, you'll get the hang of it. If you click on Fiction under The Writers Desk then Genre you'll see my story, Hide and Seek. (Or just click the link)
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Post by Joy Pixley on May 5, 2016 9:42:19 GMT -6
I went there before and I swear that post wasn't there. That's where I saw Angie's, but hers was the only one that was showing up. Weird.
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Post by Joy Pixley on May 5, 2016 9:45:08 GMT -6
Nope, I was wrong. I never did find this "genre" thing before. I've worked with other boards like this, it's not like I'm totally new to this. There are just too many sub-sub-boards for me to find what I'm looking for, or what's new since last time. For instance, apparently your Hide and Seek post has been up since April 6, and I've tried multiple times to make sure I've seen every sub-sub-board/thread/everything on the site, and I never ran across it before.
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Jade
Junior Member
"Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self."
Posts: 63
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Post by Jade on Jun 1, 2016 18:10:27 GMT -6
Ooh, very important thread Chris. I would love to hear from anyone who's been published or trying to get published. I always read up on my favorite authors and their struggles on getting an agent/getting published. J.K.Rowling for example is pretty well-known for having Harry Potter be rejected from 12 publishers, before it finally got picked up. And we all know how that book series turned out . As for me, technically I have been published, only once though, a fiction piece in an online magazine called The Ghouls' Review. The magazine is a small one, it doesn't boast a large audience, and it doesn't pay either. However, authors retain rights to their work, and one's gotta start somewhere, you know? I've heard that when you submit your query letter & manuscript to an agent, you have a higher chance of having an agent read your manuscript if they see you've been published before. I think it's a good idea to start small, especially if you're a writer who is a little scared of the whole submitting/rejection/publishing process. In regards to feedback, after the ridiculous amounts of revising I do myself on a story, I then pass it along to a second pair of eyes, usually my best friend who is not a writer, but a bookworm in her own right, so the critique I get from her is tailored more on how captivating the story is and any plot holes there are vs grammar and sentence structure. And because she is my best friend, she is bluntly honest in her critique. No sugarcoating. At all lol. Anyway, I don't really think I'm that qualified to be giving advice, since I still have a long way to go, but for me personally, I didn't submit Glow-In-The-Dark Stars (the story in the magazine) until I had revised it an umpteenth amount of times, and had my best friend look it over. Then, I looked it over again another umpteenth amount of times, until I could practically recite the short story lol and then I just...clicked...submit. It was the strangest contradicting feeling: I was proud of my story and knew I had done the best I could at that time with it but I still felt like the story wasn't good enough and I worried if I should've had a third person look it over. But damn it, I wanted to be published already, and the only way to get published is to submit something so I just went for it. I always remind myself, the worst thing that can happen is the story gets rejected, and that's okay because J.K. Rowling got rejected a dozen times, and if she can keep believing in her story, then so can I. (In case you guys can't tell by now, I love J.K.Rowling and she is my go-to author inspiration. )
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Post by Joy Pixley on Jun 1, 2016 18:40:28 GMT -6
I've heard that when you submit your query letter & manuscript to an agent, you have a higher chance of having an agent read your manuscript if they see you've been published before. That's the plan I'm working under too, at least in theory. My idea is to get some of my short stories published, hopefully even in some places that pay you (gasp!), and then I'll have a little more resume to show when I'm pitching the novel. I say this is the "theory" because so far, I haven't even sent OUT any stories for publication, much less been accepted. This is apparently a long term plan.
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Jade
Junior Member
"Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self."
Posts: 63
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Post by Jade on Jun 1, 2016 18:47:08 GMT -6
I've heard that when you submit your query letter & manuscript to an agent, you have a higher chance of having an agent read your manuscript if they see you've been published before. That's the plan I'm working under too, at least in theory. My idea is to get some of my short stories published, hopefully even in some places that pay you (gasp!), and then I'll have a little more resume to show when I'm pitching the novel. I say this is the "theory" because so far, I haven't even sent OUT any stories for publication, much less been accepted. This is apparently a long term plan. That's my plan too! Sending out short stories to magazines as well as to writing contests, so then when I finally sit my butt down and have a complete manuscript to pitch, I'll have a "writer's resume" for some credibility lol.
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Post by Joy Pixley on Jun 1, 2016 18:51:49 GMT -6
Good luck to both of us!!!
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Post by The Voice on Jun 2, 2016 8:02:51 GMT -6
That's the plan I'm working under too, at least in theory. My idea is to get some of my short stories published, hopefully even in some places that pay you (gasp!), and then I'll have a little more resume to show when I'm pitching the novel. I say this is the "theory" because so far, I haven't even sent OUT any stories for publication, much less been accepted. This is apparently a long term plan. That's my plan too! Sending out short stories to magazines as well as to writing contests, so then when I finally sit my butt down and have a complete manuscript to pitch, I'll have a "writer's resume" for some credibility lol. *Raises hand* Yup, same here. I've been a bit lax in my submissions lately and like you, Jade, I get that strange feeling of "I'm proud of it but it probably still sucks and they'll hate it" whenever I send off my work. Good luck to us all! (And please let the forum know if anyone does get published, no matter how small the publication)
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