Author:
After reading this, I'm guessing most will be more than grateful to the ladies running BCTS. Here writers and authors may publish their stories without an agent, or a NYT Best Seller pitch behind them. It is almost too easy as many don't realize the meat grinder of getting published in the cut throat business of selling a story. I want everyone to think what will happen if Erin and the girls can't keep the doors open? Will you open your own domain or possibly find another site to post on? Lots of luck as hundreds, possibly thousands of those sites have come and gone. If one starts their own domain who will come? It's like me sitting in the pasture passing out hundred dollar bills. At the end of the day I'll take all my money and go back to the house. No one knew I was there and even if they did they wouldn't stop not knowing what I was doing. That's the story of writers, agents, publishers.
https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/a60924704/debut-...
I have no pearls of wisdom in how to get published other than thank Erin and the girls for allowing us to post our efforts. Write your stories for your own self gratification and you'll never be disappointed. If you're writing for fame, glory, money, call me. I have ocean front property in Oklahoma to sell along with a guaranteed multi million dollar book contract. I will make you rich and famous says the agent who took all your money and disappeared.
I kid you not some of the finest writers I have ever had the pleasure to read post their stories on BCTS. We will never see their name mentioned in any of the newspapers book reviews or the NYT Best Seller list of authors. Maybe they can take pleasure in knowing a hundred years or more from now, if the net and society survives, their story will be giving pleasure to others reading the story.
I have a domain and a publisher and yet here I am on BCTS. All my novels and short stories are out of print. Does that give you a clue how hard and yes expensive it is to get into the world as a dead tree published author? I'm in heaven here as I get to read so many up and coming authors the rest of the world is missing out on.
Write for yourself for your own entertainment. If one gets picked up by a publishing company that would be cream on the top.
Hugs people
Barbie Jean Lee
Comments
Well Said Barbie
I had a place on an MA (Creative Writing) course but decided not to take up the offer. Why? Because the second year was almost all about publishing and the somersaults and backflips that you have to go through even of you can get an Agent let alone a publisherhe market for TG fiction outside the LGBT community is tiny. (perhaps someone can correct me on that... please do).
I write to keep myself sane. I'm not alone with that.
I have my own site where I post my stories before final editing and posting here. I get what... around a 100 unique visitors a week. As I don't go out of my way to let google bots slurp my site, I don't consider that to be bad.
Could I make some money publishing on Kindle etc? Possibly, but TBH, I can't be bovvered. That's one reason why I have not 1) got an editor and 2) approached Erin and co about publishing. Life is busy enough as it is without spending lots of time dealing with the trials and tribulations of a traditional publisher.
I know that some of my stories are fairly commercial and I hope that my forthcoming novel, 'Redress' is as well.
One thing that I do know is, when I do pop my clogs, the copyright of all my work published here will transfer to Erin who can do with them what she wants (including putting them in the bin)
Carry on writing people and supporting this site any way you can.
Samantha
Totally agree about writing
I generally think there's three reasons to write, with only one of them being completely necessary. 1.) You have to want to write and get personal satisfaction from writing. 2.) You want people to read your writing and you want to communicate with them. Generally in a way you all appreciate. And 3.) To make money.
1.) is the only one necessary because with 3.) it's extremely difficult to make money from writing; enough money to live a comfortable life on. There are far easier ways for the majority of people to make decent money. If you're only in it for money and don't enjoy it make money not enjoying something else. It's also not a case of just being good at writing. There are plenty of authors who went unrecognised in their lifetime, died as paupers, and are now held up as some of the greatest ever. And those are the ones we know of, how many more (even on this site) go unrecognised. Making money is extremely hard in writing, despite how often the media talks of breakout stars earning millions, and more media talk about "lazy artists."
I think 1.) and 2.) are the best combination. You have something you want to say, and you want to say it via writing. Or you have something you want to communicate with people about (I enjoy reader comments, broadly. Not just in an "I'm great!" self-congratulatory way, but because it provides me with things to consider. The other aspect of "just enjoying writing" that benefits the wanting people to read your writing is that no-one starts out good (broad rule.) To get decent at writing you have to work on it, and be pretty bad at first. If you enjoy writing you'll be happy to work on it.
Of course there are people who write purely for themselves, and never share their work with anyone. Those people can be very special. I think every major artform that can be done by a single person has encountered someone who dies with no-one knowing they created that art until a family members shares some of their work, and it turns out they were amazing. Mostly the completely hidden people were useless, though, but they don't care because it was for themselves.
Self-publishing has never
Self-publishing has never been easier. The old days of the risk-averse retailer having to think about what a unit of shelf space costs them and what's most likely to sell in quantity... those are far behind us. Likewise the wholesaler who breaks bulk so that small retailers can sell small quantities of a wide range of books, and the publisher who prefers 'safe' multi-sequels over giving new authors a shot: the economics of all that were swept away by the concept of 'print on demand' in the early 2000s. With the advent of the eBook reader, another barrier to publishing was done away with. Nobody has to 'take a chance' on an unknown author: it's just one file held in a data centre, to be sent out when a sale is made.
Basically, the publisher-as-gatekeeper and the agent as your guy on the inside is very last century. You don't need them! If you can produce a manuscript to the standard you would have prepared in the old days (spelling, grammar, etc.) and you've got a story to tell, set up an account with Lulu/Kindle Direct/whatever and you're on your way. (My Wordpress blog is hosted completely free, too. Basically, the economics of putting your words 'out there' have changed - and I doubt that particular genie will ever be put back in the bottle.)
Have fun with it!
B.
Sugar and Spiiice – TG Fiction by Bryony Marsh