One Stop Shopping & Other Writing Stuff
I finally got around to putting another old short story up on Scribd. It's called "One Stop Shopping" and it's a simple story about two senior citizens who keep "accidentally" running into each other at the supermarket. I'd call it a light romance.
To other writers who've been thinking of plots featuring "older" people, I should mention that when I put it up on Fiction Press (which is mostly younger folks) that it got a couple of nice comments. I know it's counter to the accepted formula, but I've found that young people are very open to older characters. So, if you have something featuring an older character and the gatekeepers aren't buying it, try sending it out into the world on say Scribd to help increase your readership.
Scribd seems like a pretty good place to get your work seen. There's also Textnovel (which I'm thinking may be more for novels), Authonomy,
AuthorNation, and Bookrix. They're all sort of free story archives where people can read your work for free, sometimes in progress (though I wouldn't put out anything I hadn't copyrighted). Readers can also comment. On Scribd they can download the stories to read and re-read at their leisure. And even buy them. I'd say they're very good for beginning writers, hobby writers, or any writer looking to build a readership/platform.
I'm not including Smashwords, Kindle, or CreateSpace in this list because they're more for selling your work. And I should also add Lulu to this group. Traditional publishers use them as well as self-publishers.
Times they are a changing. Cory Doctorow is now doing a monthly column for Publisher's Weekly. He's at once traditional and new. His traditional publisher allows him to give away ebooks of his work because they've found that it increases the sales of his paper books. His Publisher's Weekly column is supposed to be about his new attempts at self-publishing through Lulu. Of course, he has friends who can help him do the inner and outer designs for his book and he now has a certain amount of notoriety, so it won't be as hard for him to get the book moving as it would be for someone completely unknown. But it's pretty amazing that Publisher's Weekly wants him to write about this "experiment" in their magazine.
Truth be told, there are lots of folks out there experimenting with these venues. Especially now that publishing isn't quite sure where things are leading nowadays amid things like the unhappy Closing of 200 Waldenbooks stores in January.
My hat is off to all the writers, who are following both traditional and non-traditional publication! The business of publishing may be faltering, but you're not!
Special Congrats this week to:
- Vicki of The Price of Innocence, whose book by the same name has just come out this week through Xlibris! I can't wait to read it!
- And to Steph of Steph in the City who's just gotten an agent!
- And to C of Thoughts by Charity Joy Bell who's just gotten a publisher in the UK!
- And to all those who are working hard on NaNoMo!
If you've got a special writing project going on, let us know so we can cheer you on!
- - - - - - - - - -
FUN THINGS:
- The Wall Street Journal had a cute article a couple weeks back entitled: Housework Pays Off Between the Sheets Evidently men who do housework tend to get some extra fringe benefits for their work. LOL
- And for you animal lovers there's "Nubs - The True Story of a Mutt, A Marine and a Miracle." It looks like they might be doing a little book on it. But this link also takes you to a short video. There are also videos of the marine appearing on Ellen and perhaps a bit more.
Labels: Scribd, short_stories, Writing
posted by Mary Anne Gruen at
9:18 AM
31 Comments:
Older couples are great to watch. My hubby and I got together in our later years. We got lots of compliments, especially from young folks how cute we were. The holding hands and lover kinds of things. This post made me smile.
Have a terrific day. :)
Wow...thank you SO MUCH, Mary Anne, for mentioning me. :) I truly, truly appreciate that! :)
Also, I really appreciate how much attention your blog gives to writers and services for writers! :) Thank you! :)
I'm so sorry I haven't picked up your awards for me, yet... I haven't picked up a number of various awards from a number of various people, yet...sigh... I will have to get to that soon...
Again, thank you! I hadn't even known about these services for writers, before!
oh, P.S. ... you mentioned how publishing seems to be looking like a wobbly business these days/ how it looks cloudy/ has lost it's past glamor...well...this is just my opinion, but I think it true, that it's because too many publishers are publishing people who aren't even writers! Like celebrities get paid by publishers to write books, just for the sales they are looking for! Meanwhile, these celebrities are going onto t.v. shows, complaining about how they have to reach a required word count, and that it's such a bother and that they never want to write ever again. This loss of respect for the art of literature is something I find utterly gross and impudent. I hate it completely.
I need to read your story. I have never tried Scribd. I have had 3 stories published on Triond but I am not too pleased with the standard of some of the work on that site so I stopped posting there. Am thinking of giving Helium a try too but my main issue is lack of time.
Congratulations on all your writing accomplishments! How long have you been writing stories?
Blessings & Aloha!
Thank you so much for stopping by! (Ah! I have to finish getting ready for work! But wanted to stop in before I left this morning...)
So sad to hear about the closing of those Walden Book stores. :-( I hope ours doesn't close.
I'm going to read your story now. Sounds cute. . .
Sandee, my grandmother met someone many years after she was widowed. She got married again at the age of 70 and I got to be the Maid-of-Honor at her wedding! Not too many people can say that. The bride and groom both acted like 16-year-olds.
C, don't worry about the awards. Think of them as blog-hugs or a round of applause. They're not supposed to be work. I know you're very busy right now. Take a bow and let them go.
As for things like Scribd, my only caution is to get whatever form of copyright makes sense where you are. Or is that not as necessary outside of the U.S.?
I'm afraid publishers for the most part are in a business with a very thin margin of profit. So a lot of times celebs look like a good bet for a book because they have name recognition. The days when publishers would nuture an author along are long gone. They don't have a budget for that. And most times they leave PR to the writers.
I really think there needs to be a minor leagues in the writing world where the big publishers can find their future "majors." Non-traditional publishing ways may help to provide that. That being said, there are still some who are making it the traditional way.
It's the same in most businesses. There are several ways to get ahead. If one isn't working for you personally for some reason, you try something else.
On the side, I hear Harlequin is putting together an imprint that is all e-publishing. And Simon & Schuster are now doing inhouse e-galleys. And there is a push toward e-ARC's for reviewers.
Which to me means that things are finally starting to shift to digital.
Hi Mary Anne,
I just wanted to stop by and thank you for the Lovely Blog Award that you gave me a week or so ago. I appreciate you stopping in and commenting on my articles. You are the best! As soon as I am done with all this commenting, I do plan to read your latest story. I also wanted to let you know that I am encouraging my readers to check out your block. Thanks Mary Anne! See my post here http://kristimaloneyblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/one-lovely-blog-award.html
Loree, I hadn't heard of Triond or Helium before you mentioned them. I looked at them briefly. Have you been able to make any money from Triond? Triond seems to be sort of a subsidy publisher for articles mostly. And you get paid 50% on net for anything they place and get paid for. I'm not sure I understand Helium, but it seems to be more about shared revenue depending on your worth to them. Either way they both sell your content in some form and give you a cut. They both have the rights to edit. Triond doesn't want you to have the content any where else. And Helium can says they can edit things around and not necessarily give you attribution.
Scribd and the places I mentioned are a bit different. You totally own your content and you're not necessarily looking to sell at all. You can sell through Scribd, Smashwords, Kindle, and CreateSpace, but more in the way of a self-publisher.
I guess it depends on what you're looking to do. I'm thinking in terms of self-publishing. So I want control of my content and full attribution. If I sell, I get more of the proceeds, but I also put in all of the work. Triond sounds like it does the selling.
Any place like this is going to have a mix of levels. But it's my experience that the cream tends to get noticed. The most important thing is to be in a place where you're likely to find the readers that fit your work. For me Fiction Press is more likely to fit the fantasy series I'm beginning because of it's younger readers. The other more urban fantasy series I'm contemplating with have a touch wider audience.
It's the Baen Books approach. They found when they gave away early books of their writers that the later books of these authors tended to sell better.
Personalized Sketches, I've been writing way longer than I should probably admit to. LOL I tried the traditional route for a long time and it didn't pan out. So I'm looking in more non-traditional directions that weren't really available until recently.
Brizmus, thank you so much for dropping by! I don't have too many short stories because I tend toward much longer stuff.
Kristi, Congratulations on the Award! And thank you so much for the nice mention on your blog!
Mary Anne this was a wealth of information and I can't thank you enough for the thoughtful blog you share. I'm just now poking my nose around to see if this ebooking is something I can do. I love and value your visits to my blog and always, thank you for that. I'm grateful to know such giving people.
Love and hugs MA! ;)
Mary Anne, you have such a wonderful attitude. I love reading your comments as much as your blog. Thanks for all the insight into self-publishing, and your story sounds so sweet :)
Perfectly Twisted, thank you so much for your kind words!
I bought your ebook on Smashwords, but I haven't had time to read it yet. This is going to be a quiet weekend, so maybe I can start it today! I hope you've been getting lots of sales on your book! A list that I'm on recently talked about selling and publishing poetry and I think they would agree that you're going about this the right way.
Diana, thank you so much for your kind comments about my comments! This time I think I really overdid my answers. LOL I do tend to go on and on and on!
I went right over and read your short story and I really did enjoy it. To often older people are overlooked. It's nice to read a story that shows older ones have feelings also. Even tho' I'm not a writer, I am a reader and reading is one of my favorite things to do.
On the subject of being older... I like this quote by James A. Farley: "Never think any oldish thoughts. It's oldish thoughts that make a person old." And I totally agree with his viewpoint.
Thank you, Ann! I totally agree about oldish thoughts. I'm trying not to do that. My grandmother used to say, "If I get like that shoot me!" LOL
Completely agree with that between the sheets comment. Hubby makes me so happy when he unexpectedly does a chore (unless it's laundry because he sucks at doing laundry and it just ticks me off) that I actually feel like interacting with him aside from nagging him to be helpful. Thanks for stopping by my blog, hope to see you again soon!
Thanks for dropping by Parenting By Dummies! LOL My husband is the same way with laundry!
I hope to read your story ASAP. I'm one of those NaNoWriMo crazies and I'm pressed for time at the moment. I'll catch you hopefully tomorrow while I'm (not working) at work. (Don't tell anybody though).
I'm always sad when I hear of bookstores closing. There is something magical about books. I prefer to read a real book.
I chuckled when I read "Evidently men who do housework tend to get some extra fringe benefits for their work."
Just forget the flowers and diamonds, honey -- scrub out the toilet instead. :-)
Shaddy, I know you're doing NaNo. Write on and don't worry about my story. The durn thing has been around for some seven years, it'll still there. You carry on with you work!
Jo, how true! "Forget the flowers and diamonds, honey -- scrub out the toilet instead."
About books...I remember sitting in front of books and trying to will myself to read at the age of four. It wasn't love for the book itself I had, so much as frustration that there was a world of things going on that I couldn't know about. That was before Sesame Street and all the interactive toys they have now. I was sooo disappointed when they only had picture books in Kindergarten!
Good insight!
Thanks, Libbie! Thanks for dropping by!
My SIL writes (though hasn't in awhile) Childrens Books, so wanted to ask you what the scrib thing is you referred to.
Thanks
Sandy
Sandy, you didn't say if your SIL was traditionally published or not. More traditional people may not be interested in Scribd. And I'm not sure how good it would be for Children's books, although it seems to handle my "cover art" well enough from Word 2007.
http://www.Scribd.com is like giant archive of writings by authors. You can list your books for sale, I think. Although I haven't done that myself. What I do is present my work for free to anyone who's interested. I think it's a good way to get your stories out and read. But they should always be copyrighted first. And they shouldn't be legally contracted with a traditional publisher without their permission.
If you're thinking of peddling them to a traditional publisher, you should also hold off.
However, if your SIL has some work that she doesn't intend to traditionally publish. Or she's more interested in self-publishing like I am, it's a good place to get your work seen and perhaps gauge people's reaction to it. Then Scribd might be a good place for her.
Even traditionally published authors have works that are unlikely to be traditionally published because of market considerations. Or they may have gotten back the rights from books that were originally published traditionally and they'd like to give these old stories to their fans.
It depends on what you're SIL is looking to do with her stories. And what she's already done.
I know my work doesn't appeal to gatekeepers. And I know publishers don't like people over 50 much. So I'm interested in self-publishing and Scribd makes sense for me.
Now... for your work, you might want to write up some pieces about the people you serve or the work you do. Just be sure if you write about specific people that you get the proper permissions if you go beyond generalities.
ill have to try scribd
Shelli, give Scribd and some other stuff a look and see. I don't think it's for the traditionally minded. But nowadays it's good to keep your options open. At the very least it can be part of developing a "platform."
Here's an example of how Scribd info can be used, whether you're into traditional publishing or not.
I just dropped over at Scribd to look at my stats and two of my stories have done pretty well and have high ratings. That tells me what the reading audience finds most appealing...at least in terms of the short blurbs in front of them. LOL That's valuable info.
For me, the highest stats are on the historical piece. I've been thinking of doing more of those stories and those stats tell me those historical heroines might do well. That can help me whether I'm aiming in traditional directions or not.
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