Blurb

In a crisis torn, South American country, only little Ann's faith, her determination, and one young woman could help keep her dreams of escape alive.

A true story...
Find a synopsis and other details about Sunday’s Child at my confidence blog (linked). Read excerpts here: List of Books on Amazon
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Establishing a Writing Platform

One of the requirements of modern agents and publishers is for the new writers they take on, to have already done the ground work in establishing their own ‘platform.’
However, that’s not such an easy task if you’re being turned away at every point. How does one acquire fans, a steady readership, and a good support system which guarantees that your works will get sold, if you haven’t even been given the chance?
The answer is simple - make your own chances.
I’ve found a simple, cheap way of starting this process on your own, a process through which you’ll be able to connect with potential fans from all over the world. Simply, this idea is writing for paying internet sites.


Easy to get into (non-fussy publishers and editors)

Granted, serious, career writers will be slush-piled with ones who are not so careful about what they produce. This is one of the down-sides. However, professional writing soon shines through. It makes sense therefore, to provide entertainment and information for your fans while waiting to have your big break, because in the end these fans/readers are the ones your potential publisher seems to be looking for before they commission your work.

Practice makes perfect

You can spend ten years perfecting a novel. Nevertheless, you will never know what other people (sisters don’t count) think of it, and how a reader will react to it, unless you put it out there for real readers to peruse. Writing for internet sites enables readers to give you feedback. Whether positive or negative, each comment will potentially nurture and hone your artistic and creative skills, as it gives you an indication of how real readers react to your particular style.

The good news is that feedback is only a side dish of the main course that constant commercial writing serves up. The meat of course, is practice, practice in generating the kind of material people react favourably to. Most of all, short spurts of article-based writing give your fans a taste of what your work is really like. There is hardly any better form of commercial writing which gives you a fast turn over and reason to write every day, than a paid web-content site (or your own blog – but that’s work for nothing in most cases).

You can become a well-known before your book is published

While sitting on your book, no one knows who you are except for the agents and publishers who’re doling out your standard rejection letters. Even they don’t remember your name once the letter has been shoved into your SASE pack and shifted off to you with stamps for which you’ve already paid. This time could be better spent honing your art, and establishing the platform you will need in the future. All this work will certainly be paid off when you can include in your query letter, links to popular articles you’ve published on the web. If your work is good - and it should be if you’re considering writing as a career - your fans will respond favourably to your creations. This gives you a valuable asset as a new writer – the platform the agents do so diligently seek.

On-line writing allows you easy access to fans. Every time you carefully dish out something you prepared earlier, they’re a click away, waiting to be served. One article is all it would take for you to inform the fans you already have, of your new work as soon as it gets published. Think of all the work you’ll save yourself then.
Not only will people all around the world know who you are, they will also have access to your work, and you to their loyalty

World-wide knowledge of what people like, and where you fit in among the mess

Publishing on the web, through trial and error – and sometimes downright failure – gives you much-needed insight about where your particular talent as a writer can fit in on a universal level. This insight is something writing content for internet sites will afford you easily, because if you fail at one or two short pieces, this failure gives you vital information for larger projects like your books. Magazine editors and publishers looking for information on the internet are sure to come across your work if you publish material in their field. After all, the web is where everyone, including editors look for information these days. Get your stuff out there so that it can be accessed.

My last article that was accepted for a magazine happened because I was able to send links of all the similar things I’d done previously. The editor was able to see, not only my articles on her subject, but my readers’ reaction and feedback to the things I’d written. With dozens of comments on my article (I have got stuff with few comments, but I’m not going to send those out, now am I), the editor was able to see that I already had a platform – my own fans, whom, by printing my stuff, she could cash in on for herself.

So, if you think that as an author, you would be dirtying your hands by publishing web-content material because you’d be wallowing with all the other wannabes, maybe it’s time to re-think that. Your talent could be out there garnering views and reviews from real readers, or they could be festering in some mediocre agent/publisher’s slush pile. What’s it going to be?

If you're looking for write-for-web tutorials. This link below will help you.

Write for web tutorials

4 comments:

•°°• IcyBC •°°• said...

This is a very smart take, and valuable idea!

Anne Lyken-Garner said...

Thanks, BC

Diane AZ said...

I never realized the benefits of establishing a platform until reading your interesting article.

Middle Ditch said...

An interesting read Anne.

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