I came across a great article today.  At first I assumed it was going to be an article against authors who self publish by calling them lazy and unwilling to take rejection, but it surprised me by being one of the best articles I have read.  It talked about how traditional writers from traditional publishers have seemed to really be against indie authors who self publish and how just because some authors self publish, that doesn't mean that their work is bad.  Some indie authors, in fact, have better novels and writing out their than a few published writers whom I have read.

I read one book recently, which I will not mention in order to not offend the author or their followers, but it was published by Random House and had a huge following and even an upcoming movie, but it was one of the worst books I have ever read.  The plot had been done countless times before and the writing was amateur.  I couldn't finish the book and I was livid that a traditional publisher would have allowed this author to be published and create such a huge following for it, when the book clearly promoted relationship violence.  

I have come to find that more unknown books have had the best writing that I have ever read, or heard.  A writer I just met self publishes his own audio books, and listening to those books astounded me.  He used flawless detail and painted a picture for the reader of which I had never experienced before.  I thought, if lesser known writers can come up with great pieces of work like this, than why aren't they getting published?

When I told him he should try to get published he said that he didn't want to, because he has heard from a number of writers that publishing can crush your soul.

In this I agree.  People can tear you apart, including a lot of other authors, and you lose sight of the passion that you had to begin with sometimes.  

But the purpose of me saying all of this is that I want to encourage writers to go the self publishing route.  As a whole you will earn more money and you won't have to deal with publishers wanting to change your work entirely.  You will have to work harder, marketing wise, and you may have to spend your own money to get an editor or other forms of help, but you will be able to sell your own work without changing it.  

Criticism for writers can be quite daunting.  And yes, some criticism you should listen to if it is constructive and meant to help you better your writing.  But if people are saying negative things about your story without any constructive criticism, I would tell you to not listen to what they say.  Some writers take what other people say to heart and end up not continuing their writing because they feel that it isn't good enough or it isn't worthy continuing.  One of my favorite quotes is as follows:

One thing that I can tell you is that in this day and age publishers really look at how your writing does online before they even try and publish you. The publishing business IS a business and though most of us wish it wasn't that way, we have to be realistic.  Publishers won't publish you if they think your book won't sell.  Therefore, I would suggest that you not only put your writing on a writing site but also work feverishly by commenting on other people's stories and in the forums constantly to gain awareness for yourself. 

I used to just post stories on writing sties without really reaching out and I hardly generated any readers.  However, after I started commenting on other stories and posting in forums and in the online clubs, readers started coming my way faster than ever before.  Marketing is a major tool, even if you are just posting online, because it will help you be a bigger asset to publishers in the future.

But even though all of this is very important I can't stress this enough: DON'T EVER LET THE PROCESS OF TRYING TO GET NOTICED AS A WRITER TAKE AWAY YOUR PASSION.  I have seen this happen to many writers just on writing sites and it is soul crushing.  You become so obsessed with trying to get readers and get noticed that you forget why you liked to write in the first place.

PLEASE, PLEASE, never lose that passion and try to keep it strong as you climb up in the writing world.  Make sure to write every day, even if it is just a little one shot to keep your imagination flourishing.  This is my most important tip of all.