how do i get paid for writing stories?

Question

ok....so i have realised that i can write imaginative narratrive stories VERY WELL....in fact i have done some favors for sum friends and their grades for the 'stuff' have turned out to be excellent!!! so if anyone can suggest where i can submit such stories and get paid...... ill be very grateful!!

Answer 1

Actually there are four ways. One is to sell them to magazines, one is to sell them to anthologies, one is e stories and one is contests. The magazine route isn't what it used to be. There aren't nearly as many magazines publishing fiction as there used to be. However, the anthology market is growing. The e story market is doing ok too. Contests are iffy.

But there are two very important things you need to know.

1) It takes a LOT of research and time to find sources and send them out. You can use Writers Market. They do list magazines - to an extent. You can also go to the library and use Literary Marketplace which you will find in the reference section. It costs 300 dollars, so use theirs and don't buy it unless you have extra money laying around. It is a reference book so you cannot check it out. Bring a notebook and take lots of notes.

You will also find publishers in there who are doing e stories.

As for anthologies - you will have to let your fingers do a lot of walking on the internet. Surf keywords like anthologies accepting submissions. An anthology is generally a collection of stories by several authors in one genre -- Permuted Press publishes a famous one with zombie stories. You kind of have to search them out. You can also join Absolute Write Water Cooler and other forums which list some and communicate with other authors who may know of some. There is no miracle place where they just smack you in the face. Would be nice if there was, but there isn't. Everyone scrambles to find sources. The ones who put in the most time at it are the lucky ones.

The same goes for contests. You kind of have to shop around for them. The general rule for contests is do not pay any entry fees, but there are exceptions to that rule. Some legit contests charge. If you have to pay, make sure the prize money is at least 6 times the entry fee or more. And I would advise you not to enter any contest where the only prize is publication and copies of your work. I know of someone who won a novel contest, got his novel published after almost 4 years of hassling with the publisher, and ended up selling THREE books. Hardly worth it. Contests tend to have a poor reputation. Check them out carefully. There are articles at Preditors and Editors and Absolute Write about entering contests. Read them carefully.

Just remember that before you send anything to anyone, you MUST do your homework and check the publisher or contest out. Start with Absolute Write's Bewares and Background Checks, then Preditors and Editors, Writers Wall, Writers Wall and any other writers sites you can find. If there have been complaints from other writers, you will find them. We are writers, when someone rips us off, we write about it.

OK - now you have a pretty good idea where to send your work. Here is the bad news. You won't make much money on it. The average pay for a short story in a magazine or anthology is something like 5 - 25 dollars or a penny to a nickel a word plus a couple free copies of the book or magazine. Not very much. There are a few contests that pay first prize of over a thousand dollars, but they are very hard to win. They get thousands of very high quality entries. For e stories you make a royalty. If the story costs $1.99 to read, you might make 50 cents every time someone pays to read it. But kids will copy it and share it anyway and you probably won't get many paid hits. You will not earn a living this way. That is for certain.

What this does do is give you a start. Self publishing a novel will not give you the title "published author" in the industry, but a short story in an anthology will. It is a gateway. There are people who do it because they enjoy it. They end up with a nice little shelf of books and magazines with their stories in them, but not much money.

If you consider the time it takes to write a story, and you sell it for 25 dollars, you would make more money per hour working in Mc Donald's. However, if you are doing it for love and pleasure, go for it.

I have one last thing to say to you. Present yourself properly. Even though this is just a post in a forum, if you claim to be a very good writer, show it. What I see is someone who writes quite poorly. Posting a question here is like posting a query to a publisher or agent. If it is poorly written, that is as far as you will go.

And the part about helping your friends cheat, you should be ashamed of yourself. A genuine writer considers their ideas to be their intellectual property and they would NEVER EVER give them away. Not only is it cheating, it is totally unprofessional for someone who wants to write for a living.

Pax - C

Answer 2

Check out a book called "Writer's Market." There's a new edition every year. It will tell you absolutely everything you need to know about writing, publication, payments, agents, etc. It's the most valuable writer's tool you'll ever find.

Answer 3

I'd like to know how your work can be "excellent" when your spelling and grammar is severely lacking.

And truthfully, when it comes to writing, if you're only doing it for the money, your heart really isn't in it. Writing requires more than talent, it requires passion.

Answer 4

Quite an amusing, albeit soul destroying way to earn money writing stories is for Mills & Boon, I'd imagine.

I'm not sure what they pay their authors, but I've heard they do, and you can always choose to give them a fake name, if the shame is to great (I think it would be).

x

ps -
I do agree with the comment above that writing requires passion (not the sordid type that accompanies Mills & Boon books, but a passion for writing) and that it's not about money.

But it could be an amusing recreation to write for Mills & Boon methinks. "tongue in cheek, like".