Blogs, online literary journals, and e-books are here to stay. Amazon’s Kindle looks like the wave of the future, and the surf’s up. So what does all this mean for authors?
In this third post of the series, we wrap up online options with a short list of representatives and brief remarks about each. Last time, we discussed copyright infringement of online works and how being published online affects publication elsewhere. Be sure to read the previous entry if you missed these important points. Now, let us ride the waves and see what shores await us.
(In alphabetical order … )
Amazon Kindle - Not a wildfire in the rainforest but perhaps as far-reaching in its effects, this e-book reader may propel literature and information from the 15th to the 21st century. With wireless connectivity resulting in instant access to a vast electronic library offered for half or third the price of hardbacks, people are again being encouraged to read–any time, any place, and often. For authors, this means a greater opportunity for exposure. Authors with a book for sale on Amazon can sell the e-version as a Kindle book. Whyte Dove Press plans to put Man in the Moon by K. A. Young in the growing library of Kindle e-books this spring. This is one wave worth catching.
Amazon Shorts - Not to be found in the clothing section, these short stories, some written by recognized authors and others by unknowns, some written exceptionally well and others not, can be purchased for a paltry 49 cents. The author gets a whopping 40% royalty (unlike the typical 10%). Sales of shorts won’t make an author rich, but they can contribute towards development of a readership, keep an author’s name in the public’s mind, and help an author’s backlist sales. The story must be unpublished, and Amazon gets exclusive rights to it for six months, after which the author can sell it or publish it anywhere. Granted, publishing such a story is harder because some anthologies and magazines consider them reprints, and they prefer first rights. Not all, however, do. Some popular Amazon Shorts have received favorable attention from publishers. We recommend authors try Amazon Shorts. (K. A. Young plans to try this out with the latest story in her Mothers and Daughters series, White Goose.) Amazon Shorts: they’re more than exotic swim wear.
Blogs - Anyone can blog; not everyone blogs well. Authors need to blog well to show off their skills to prospective readers and publishers. To build a readership, you must blog regularly and not abandon your blog once it attracts visitors. The best blogs are personable but not too personal and focus on the same topics as your published books or work-in-progress. Talk about your book if it doesn’t sound like a sales pitch. Discuss your work-in-progress and even include brief excerpts–if you don’t share too much. An author’s blog is all about creating an audience. It’s like building a beachfront resort on a deserted shore of an over-populated island and trying to get people to come on over and try the water where you are. Another plus, a blog can entice search engines like a siren, leading them to your web site if you mention it often enough. The only real down side to having a blog is the demand on your time. Make it worthwhile.
Fanstory.com - This site and others similar to it offer beginning fiction writers a place to practice their craft in front of other beginning writers and see how they rate among their peers. More experienced fiction writers can use the site’s “lock and key” feature to allow only invited peers to peer over their shoulder while they hammer out a first or final draft, giving them the equivalent of an online writers’ group discussion as they develop their story or novel. The inherent danger for beginners is creating a cocoon of approbation from which some may be loathe to leave for the big sky filled with the winds of publishing trends and the rainstorms of rejection. It could be all too easy to believe the label “professional writer” with the little quill icon by your name actually means something in the real world. The danger for more experienced writers would be producing a story or novel by committe rather than remaining true to your own vision. A danger for both is that it could sap all the time you could be spending writing for publication. Avoid the dangers, and this could be a viable option for authors wanting to test their experiments.
Literary Journals - Every bit as prestigious as their bound counterparts, these online literary magazines are not bound by the restrictions of snail mail and clique audiences, but instead, take advantage of the internet’s instant availability and niche audiences; therefore, their readers number approximately 10 times greater (50K as opposed to 5K). Authors should definitely consider these journals when marketing literary pieces, whether traditional fare, experimental, or sometimes genre. For a list of online literary journals, see: http://www.newpages.com/npguides/litmags_online.htm
Professional and Trade Journals - These journals cater to a specific audience and are often written by insiders, but investigate these markets no less than you would print versions of the same. Communicating your ideas, establishing name recognition and a base of readers, as well as accumulating publishing credentials–these are often worth more than the pay, or lack thereof, that these online journals provide.
Shvoong - While scouring the bottom of the web ocean where scammers offer to pay writers for essays, supposedly sold to college students who agree not to plagiarize them (rofl), we at WDP stumbled upon this pearl. It could be worth little. It could be worth much. It is, however, legit. You can write summary-reviews of books and articles (even your own) in English or other languages or translate summaries. At 500-750 words, it isn’t an enormous investment of time, and it can be fun. If you write enough of these on popular subjects, you could even make enough money for Shvoong to send you a pittance. Your summary is displayed amidst numerous appropriate and tasteful Google ads. The more people who read your summaries, the more pennies you make. A good rating with readers attracts more readers. Shvoong won’t make you rich, but it provides a place to show off your non-fiction skills and gain some discipline over long and winding words. You can disagree with a book and recommend no one read it, but you are expected to present reasons, not rantings–no vitriol–a decent environment. You might want to give it a try. You’ve nothing to lose and a pennies to gain!
Whyte Dove Press - Finally, our favorite, this web site (ours) gives anyone who writes well on topics suitable to our site an opportunity to appear online. We post each piece in an attractive pdf file, alongside other well-written pieces appealing to similar readers, on a tasteful, well-maintained web site. Three features set this site apart from the crowd. 1) We pay. While we do encourage donations of pieces 250 words or less, we are willing to pay writers to rent their work. See our Submission Guidelines for details. 2) We post Creative Commons Licenses or All Rights Reserved notices plainly. 3) WDP’s 10 Tenets means you won’t be embarrassed by the language or topics readers may encounter when going from your piece to a neighboring one on the site. For writers who have something to say and who say it well, Whyte Dove Press is a good place to showcase your writing and ideas, express your opinion on an important topic appropriate to one of our several pages, and interact with readers via our forum.
Online options are more viable than ever for authors. They do not yet rival print options for potential monetary reward, but they offer a much more valuable commodity: readers. Even if you choose to save your best, full-length works for offline publishing, consider online avenues to build the increasingly important platform–i.e., ready-made audience or reader base. At worst, online options give you the opportunity to write and be read. At best, you could ride the tide to a lucrative publishing deal elsewhere.
3 Comments
February 25, 2008 at 1:35 pm
I have seen how very important it is to create a base of readers, particularly in the field of non-fiction. A work which I recently read on the topic of the philosophy of religion was published as a print-on-demand project and it has, nevertheless, rivaled in sales and popularity on Amazon works which are well-known and rather torrid best-sellers, today. I admit that I didn’t expect this to happen so quickly but the author’s energetic attempts at self-exposure through a popular blog, internet audio sources, positive reviews and even the controversy of critical attention has ushered him into the bigger publishing market and name recognition.
Do you think that the options you listed above would be the best available for authors of non-fiction as well?
February 27, 2008 at 1:43 pm
You mentioned POD. Our next post in this series will explore self-publishing with a focus on POD options. To answer your question, here is a breakdown more specifically attuned to nonfiction writers’ interests.
Whyte Dove Press features nonfiction of all types–articles, mini-articles, essays, short info-papers, how-to pieces, recipes, Bible study outlines and word studies, etc.–on every page but Whyte Lambs, which will soon include some nonfiction suitable for children. Only one page contains fiction, and even that page includes a humorous essay, an amalgam of fiction and non. This imbalance in favor of nonfiction may seem odd considering WDP’s single title is a children’s novel. But the online publishing world mirrors the traditional in recognizing today’s readers prefer “truth” to fiction, however dubious at times.
As for the other options listed …
Shvoong offers nonfiction writers a great way to showcase their ability to write clearly and concisely, to zero in on key points, and to fairly assess others’ ideas. Writing abstracts won’t jeopardize your ability to publish your own articles or books, meanwhile establishing you as someone whose views, logic, and insights a reader can trust. Unless you desire to display versatility, you want to review books and articles relevant to your own writing goals. Readers interested in such abstracts will be the audience you seek.
Trade journals and professional journals are great places for nonfiction writers to actually publish articles. Readers tend to be peers in your chosen field of expertise. If well-written, such publishing credits can propel you in your rise to the upper echelons of your profession. Indeed, some professions require periodic publication. Or by being published in trade e-zines, you can carve a niche for yourself if your next book will appeal largely to members of those trades or organizations.
Fanstory actually offers contests for literary nonfiction, essays, memoirs. For writers of narrative nonfiction, this option is as viable as for fiction writers. Even literary journals could be an option if a nonfiction writer wanted to hone his narrative skills with a fictionalized account of a factual event. Blogs typically offer nonfiction fare, even the blogs of fiction authors.
Amazon Kindle offers more nonfiction than fiction by far if you include the newspapers and magazines they offer for e-subscription.
Amazon Shorts, on the other hand, is an option exclusively for fiction–but what a great way for a nonfiction writer to oil his mental motor (perhaps under a pseudonym)!
March 3, 2008 at 1:00 am
Thank you for the generous provision which provides so many ways to establish that essential platform. I’ve learned a good deal that has been helpful to me in this place alone.
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