Grimsby Poets Forums

Get paid for your stories, for more information go to <shortstorybookclub.co.uk>

Silky

Hi John, I like that website but notice that it has no actual contact address on it. Websites with no contact address do poorly in search engines like Google and Yahoo - and some visiting them do not trust them.

Thank Wilmot,

For some reason the contact address was not there but now is.

Silky

I have now stopped using Short Story Book Club as I was inundated with spam. Someone even managed to get my email address and I have now changed my address due to getting about 1,000 spam emails a day.

Silky

Hi John,

Sorry to hear about your email deluge, I know it can be very very annoying.

It may not be that site's fault really, they may have been hacked by an awful spammer
and may hopefully fix that.
(Of course the site may be on cheap hosting that has little security, I do not know)

I like the other post you made today John.

Thanks Clare,

Silky

Hi John,

If you or anybody has any good information for a writer to get published,
then do post it here !

Hi Colin, do you want this info for yourself or for the general public?

Silky

Hi John,

Well I have done a little writing but have not yet looked into publishing options.
And I know this site attracts others in the same position as well.

Of course some are more into short story writing and others into poetry writing or song writing or play writing.

Hi Colin

PUBLISHING

When we say publishing what do we mean? Are you thinking of your book being published by one of the big publishing houses, or are you willing to self publish.

The hard facts are, that trying to get your book published by a publishing house is blocked by lots of different things. Following are just a few.
1. Most publishers will ask you to go through an agent.
2. Finding an agent is also very hard. Most agents only have about 30 clients on their books; therefore your story has to be very good. (You can find a list of Agents and Publishers in the ‘Writers' & Artists' Year Book’)
3. Your Manuscript (MS) has to be laid out in the correct order and the publishers guidelines tells you what they want. Don’t obey their rules and your MS is not read.
4. Your title must be inspiring and should a publisher want to change it, then let them do so.

SELF PUBLISHING

There are loads of self publishing publishers out there, so chose wisely. Most will advice you that they can get your book onto the shelves of bookshops like Smith’s, this is true, but what they don’t tell you is that it is only in one shop and it’s only three books. For this they will charge you from £750 - £1,500 to publish 100 books. Don’t forget they are publishers they will not sell the book for you, that is your job.

Before sending off your MS get it checked for mistakes. It’s so easy for you to miss things. You tend to read what you wanted to put on the page and not what is actually written on the page. It is so easy to miss out a full stop or the closing of speech marks. Proof reading can also be costly ranging from £200 to £500 depending on the number of words or pages.

LOCAL WRITING GROUPS

Your local library will know about local writing groups. There is one that meets in the Grimsby Library, I gave it a visit about two years ago and was made most welcome. You can get loads of help from the members on what to do, so join them and learn.

The following site will give you a list of agents and publisher that will take you money and do nothing for it. http://www.sfwa.org/beware/

This is only a small amount of information but there should be lot’s of books in your local library to help you.

Silky

Hi Silky,

That is really useful info for anybody thinking of getting published for the first time - and also for those who have tried it once poorly and want to give it a second better shot ?!

And if you would like to read online some good examples of short stories of different genres then a good place is http://www.eastoftheweb.com