You Can Get Paid More On Steemit For Your Short Stories Than Getting Professionally Published... Literally. (Ha puns are awesome :p) Your Odds Are Better Too.
If you want to make money as a writer, short stories is not the way to go. I spent years doing it and although I have improved immensely as a writer, and it is a great feeling to get something published, it has not done much for my bank account. It is a very competitive business and the pay is very little. Yes there are writers who are well off, but that usually comes from novels or a series and again, it is a very competitive field.
To have a story be considered professionally published (at least by the science fiction writers associate) is to be paid, at least, 6 cents a word. For the sake of argument let's say a zine, magazine or a collection of shorts in a book will pay you 10 cents. And that is rare. That means if you are lucky enough to get something accepted for publication, at 1,000 words, it will pay you $100. That is it. At the 6 cents price you are only getting paid $60. Now look at the trending page. There are multiple posts over that amount or close to it and they are there everyday. And that is at the price of steem as it is. Let's say the price goes up to a dollar or two, the money you can make for your posts will be pretty high.
But those are the trending pages you're thinking. Those are people with high SP who have a following and it will be hard to challenge them. Sure, it may take work and maybe some luck to get your work on the trending page but it can be done. Or at least on the hot page which still pays. And as you post, even if you only get a few upvotes, you are still getting paid something for your work and are building a rep on this site. Which is much better than getting just a rejection email :p. In comparison, think of the odds of getting published by a magazine that only takes so many stories a month. The trending page has multiple posts a day while a magazine only takes so many stories.
There is also one more thing to consider. When you submit a story it can take weeks, sometimes, months before you get a response (which can still be a no). And a lot of magazines do not like simultaneous submissions, which means when you send it to one of them, you have to wait for a response before you can send it someone else. Then, if it is a yes, there might be edits and paperwork before you get paid.
Published work is going nowhere, it will always have a special place for writers and getting a writer credit is amazing. I am not writing this to say anything bad about it. But in terms of making writing a job, at least a part-time job, especially if you are a creative writer, steemit might be a good option for you to improve, build something that is yours and make some money.
*my upvotes/rep disclaimer: https://steemit.com/steemit/@whatageek/my-steemit-account-where-i-stand-on-bots-self-votes-and-multiple-account
Great points. I went through a similar thought process about starting a new website for modern gaming coverage and simply decided to focus that effort here on Steemit instead. Cheaper (no additional overhead) and payouts are more regular (7 days later versus AdSense which is $100 minimum then paid the month after reaching that).
Yeah that is a huge advantage, free account and posts that get indexed in Google. And you can always do both :)
I may end up doing both, eventually. Right now I just don't have time to run a site alone and keep it interesting and up to date for regular readers and do my PR work. Someday though. For now it is Steemit and PR.
Well then we and steemit scores.
How about a full length book? Do you think that Steemit or trying to selfpublish through another online service is better in that situation?
Hard to say. Self-publishing is very, very, very competitive. Think of the number of books that get uploaded on Amazon a day. Unless you have a way to promote you might not see a dime. And I mean serious promoting. Why not post a chapter or two on here and see how it goes. You can also use this site to post selections as a way of advertising your book.
I think it might be an interesting experiment to do a chapter a week / a chapter a day / chapter a month to see how you could engage an audience.
This would also help in the longer term, as not only Steemit appreciates, it will also create a passive sense of income by people looking at someone's back catalogue of posts instead of just the newest stuff.
A straight to Steemit publication, if you will.
I've only very recently decided to become a regular 'member' of Steemit, but there's certainly so much potential here!
Both are not exclusive.
Post here, see reactions, make an edit run, make another edit, then load it up on Amazon and point everyone to it.
90000% better then to just upload it.
These are excellent and encouraging observations. Thank you, @whatageek!
As someone who has had articles "professionally published" in the past, I can assure your readers that what you say is absolutely true. Steemit is a real goldmine for writers.
Now, my friend, please tell me how I can get more people to actually read and thus benefit from my writing? :D
Great post!
😄😇😄
Awesome, you know the fun of the market too :p.
As far as getting more views that is a whole different animal. Unfortunately good does not always equal popular.
Consider doing a #steemgig or maybe #steemgigs. It will help! With time we will gradually link "steemians in need to steemians indeed".
Interesting.
:)
I've always been a fan of taking things into your own hands instead of depending on others. So having your own blog or website with your own audience is the harder but more rewarding route to follow. Now steemit offers another option to do so that can be very nice and rewarding and I'm sure there are people even if they are few and far between that make enough here so that steem makes a difference for their monthly income.
Yeah I am getting close to this being a real full-time job.
That's awesome and inspiring! :) I really hope that it becomes your full-time job as soon as possible!