I am excited to announce I am entering a small writing contest in my home state. :) I can't post the short story here until after winners are announced in April. Wish me luck! 😃 I'm really hoping to at least place in my category 🤞. |
OOoo...EXCITING! Good luck! |
That is lovely. Wishing you luck! |
Sometimes I worry about ever being published. That it's such a competitive market. But I just joined a Facebook group of readers and I realized; avid readers absorb books like they're going out of style! The market is there and flourishing. At least, that's what I've chosen to believe. There's hope. |
If you like to read, you can get rewards for reviewing people's books. Here's a link to my Newsfeed note on that, plus I included my last 3 book reviews. "Note: If you like reading (or listening to audiobook..." |
It is a competitive market, yes, but you are right - readers will read. The thing is, one industry that has done well in COVID has been the publishing industry. A number of companies have folded, yes (including three I had stories pending with), but those that have not have actually done surprisingly well. People have been stuck at home and TV becomes boring, so a book is it. And, according to my publishers, it's physical copies of books. E-book sales remained constant, but people seemed to want the real thing. The biggest issue is that many people know this and submissions are increasing. That does seem to indicate that it is more competitive. However, my publishers have told me that the sheer number of those submitting who (a) do not follow their guidelines, (b) have not editted their work (and so have lots of grammar/spelling mistakes), and/or (c) have stories that don't make sense is also huge, so if your work is finely polished, you will stand out. Good luck! |
I'm sorry to hear about the publishers you had stories with, Santeven Quokklaus. That sucks. As for submissions, I don't know about (a), but I can say from the quality of a lot of the self-published stuff I've read, I am not surprised about (b) and (c). It's amazing what people think is ready to be read. |
While writing more of Ballad of the Blackfish, I've found inspiration for several other YA projects. I thought I had forgotten what it was like to be a teen but perhaps I've found my niche. It is quite a lot of fun writing these characters with an abundance of room for growth. I just hope I don't get too side tracked. Is writer specific ADHD a thing? Anyone else struggle on focusing on just one project at a time? |