I always thought the situation was "get in contact with agents; if you're any good, you'll land an agent." That doesn't seem to work for me. It doesn't seem to wok for a lot of people, given the number of listings on Amazon Kindle that are self-published, the huge number of volumes on WattPad, the burgeoning indie press movement, a few of which seem little different than the vanity press ...
A friend suggested I try WattPad. I'm building two works through installments, the suggested WattPad way. One of them is a set of short stories about my alternative world where demi-humans with great power live among humans; the other is a romance centering on good Santas, bad Santas, and the secret Santas out there.
As far as I know, I'm the only one who has looked at them, and I've looked at them a number of times because I love to see my words in print. Given the lack of *ahem* acclaim, I decided to look at the advice they give their users:
1. "Find famous people who look like your characters and post their pictures here." It might just be me, but I wouldn't post someone's picture for potentially thousands to see (there are books on WattPad with thousands of hits) without their permission, no matter how famous they were. (David Chiang, if you are reading this, one of my characters looks like you and I have not posted your picture on WattPad.)
2. "Invite friends." How many times can you invite friends before they get horribly upset at you? I post on Facebook, and people are free to read or not read -- usually, not read, I guess.
3. An entire section on "How To Get Reads, Votes, and Comments - A Guide." I can't wrap my mind around this -- this would take up enough time that I would never get to write again.
I grew up in a meritocracy: if you were good, you would get noticed. And, frankly, I was good -- I was the first National Merit Scholarship winner from my high school. Things have changed, and for the first time in my life, I'm having trouble embracing change.
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