1. Male
2. Twenty-something
3. American
4. Caucasian (Italian ancestry)
5. Oldest sibling
6. Small (5’4”ish)
7. Queer-asexual (aromantic, possibly)
8. Single
9. Liberal
10. Atheist (evolution: Catholic > Christian/pseudo-Agnostic > Agnostic > Atheist)
11. Feminist
12. Transhumanist (in theory)
13. Writer
14. Voted “mostly likely to be published” in my AP English class
15. Nominated for prettiest eyes for senior superlatives in yearbook (didn’t win though, because everything is a popularity contest)
16. Voted “most goth” by my friends
17. Gamer
18. Reader
19. Blogger
20. Introvert
21. Schizoid
22. Impassive empath
He and I could be bitter curmudgeons together.
"I dreamed vividly again, more in fact by day than at night. Images, pictures, desires arose freely within me, drew me away from the outside world so that I had a more substantial and livelier relationship with the world of my own creation, with these images and dreams and shadows, than the actual world around me."
— Hermann Hesse, Demian
I’ve received a few messages recently in regards to the topics of publishing and writing communities. Namely, where to begin and how to go about getting involved with these things. But I think what makes it interesting at this point in time is that there really isn’t a single answer. So let’s break down a few options for your literary adventures on the horizon:
1. You could do what I’m doing and possibly scour the internet for good literary magazines and sites to submit to. Duotrope is a really useful database that can help you in your search for the right home for your story, poem, etc. I recommend just reading a lot of journals and perhaps submitting to ones that you seem to enjoy—you can probably gauge what they’re looking for better after a good sampling, obviously. And maybe someday, when you’re confident enough, you can write a book and query agents about it. Maybe they’ll like your street cred or maybe you’ll have the luck of catching someone’s eye with your synopsis alone. Who knows.
2. You could also try to sell yourself like Amanda Hocking or J.A. Konrath and get friendly with book bloggers. You could self-publish some short stories on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, etc. Many people are saying to hell with the publishing world and taking to these other resources and outlets. I think it is probably noteworthy, however, that most self-published success stories you hear about today are genre-specific books that are easily categorized. If you’re more of the “literary” type or too weird to fit in a niche, you should probably really try going the other route first. In general, I don’t why people actually don’t give the first option a try, unless you’re actually just trying to make the most $$$. I guess it depends on your individual priorities and motivations.
3. I was also mentioning the possible alternative of writing communities to Ivona (I mean, outside of Tumblr and blogs). There are other places out there like Fictionaut where you can post writing and receive feedback, as well as whole other new kinds of hybrid experiences, such as the likes of Red Lemonade, a small press + passionate writing community which is attempting to turn traditional publishing completely on its head by having their books available online for free in a serial format—although physical and digital copies of their published books are purchased. These spaces are basically relying on people to buy books by people they actually care about in a similar way people legally download music they care about, I suppose.
(Shout outs go to Red Lemonade, by the way, who have actually reblogged/retweeted my posts before. They seem like good people.)
