/ 5 Comments

by Unknown's avatar

Hey Jim,

Just read your post on WordPress titles ‘When to Start?’
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head and your advice is especially useful for novices like me.

I started writing on WordPress about a month and a half back and I write whenever I can steal 15-30 minutes, mostly from my lunch breaks. I see that my posts are evolving into short stories, and are not necessarily ‘blog length’.

Are there other sites out there where I could publish short stories, as opposed to one-page length blogs? Or is that not a good idea at all and should I continue my work on WordPress for a year or more till I am clearer where I could go?

Kind regards

Supratik

Hi Supratik,

In an earlier blog I mentioned that if you’re good at something… NEVER DO IT FOR FREE! This is just my personal opinion, but I’ve always felt that if you’re going to put in work on something, you should be compensated for your time. There’s nothing wrong with charity, but just giving away your work for no reason isn’t necessarily the way I’d go about it.

I would personally stop posting these ‘story blogs’ until you have some sort of coherent story. My advice to you is to get on MS word (or whatever Mac’s equivalent word processor is) and write out a few of these blog posts without posting them. If they evolve into short stories, then I might consider actually getting them published.

Consider it, put all these short stories together behind one cover, title it, get them edited and put them out there either on Nook, KDP, or through traditional publish sources.

So I know that this really doesn’t answer your question, but it’s personally the best advice I can give. Sporadically posting parts of raw stories can hurt your writing in the long run. There are online and print magazines out there that are always looking to publish new short stories. A quick google search will bring up a few selections

(Example)

SUBMISSIONS

So hopefully this helps.

Readers, what do you think? Should Supratik continue posting on WordPress, find another site, or get her writing together and then consider getting her stories published?

Readers,

Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me.
jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com
I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.

I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.
Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.

Also, feel free to check out my works of Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Available on Amazon and where ever books are sold. See the link below:

http://www.amazon.com/James-Harrington/e/B00P7FBXTU

Thanks friends!
Catch you on the flip side!

-Jim

Category: advice, Author, best, blog, literature, Writing Tags: , , , ,

5 Comments on “The Short Story Submission”

  2. I think that the writer should write her story bits in a word document or if she has a smart phone of device with a notes app, she should jot them down until she can put the scenes together into one story, write that story and submit it to a magazine or anthology. If she has more scenes for a longer piece, keep working on it until it’s finished. You are also right about publishing her stories in one large collection as well.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  5. “In an earlier blog I mentioned that if you’re good at something… NEVER DO IT FOR FREE! This is just my personal opinion, but I’ve always felt that if you’re going to put in work on something, you should be compensated for your time.”

    James,

    I generally agree with your sentiments here. In these days of non-paying internships, too often people find themselves working hard, without just compensation for their efforts. For Supratik, your idea of submitting his work to people who might compensate him makes sense. Yet here is more to the story. I began writing blog posts more than five years ago and haven’t realized one cent from it. However, I never went into it as a money-making proposition, but as a way of putting my own thoughts out across the ether. Being retired and concerned about the world around me, the fact that I add my voice against what I see as a growing darkness, give me a personal feeling of accomplishment.

    So then to me, the question devolves on just what Supratik hopes to accomplish with his short story work? If it is to further his career as a writer, then by all means he should seek compensation for his art. If, however, he merely wants to get people to read his stuff, then he should use whatever medium is available, to get it out there.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

Leave a comment

A WordPress.com Website.