You're Not Invisible

One of the biggest problems I've run across as a writer is that sometimes you just feel invisible. You run, you scream, you fight, and you try endlessly to be heard but on a good, rare day the best you can do is convince someone to (grudgingly) read one of your short pieces.

I know what that's like. I've been there, and it can be incredibly frustrating. So frustrating, in fact, that somedays you just feel like throwing all your writing in the trash and never picking up a pen again.

Don't do it. You have the power to be a writer and to be heard right there inside of you, and I'm willing to help. Why? Because I believe that small and independent presses are the only good presses. The giant multinational media outlets are broken and corpulent. You don't want to be a part of something so disgusting and backward. Self-publish instead, blog, be your own boss, freelance, do whatever it takes to build your own foundation as a writer independent from corporate publishing. How do you start? Get a webpage. A free blog is a great start. Now, look for places to get samples of your work paired with a link to your webpage so people are inclined to check you out. I've built two sites with this in mind: WEIRDYEAR daily flash fiction and Yesteryear Fiction so submit well and submit often, but not just to these sites. Get out there and hit as many different ones as you can. For every story you get published online with your link attached to it, that's another link you can spread around which leads to your page. Put these links out there too. Search engines and link sites are your friends. Don't be afraid to email anybody. Run with your work like it was someone else's and you were getting paid $20 for every email you sent. Nobody is going to run as hard with your work as you are, so run as hard as you can with it.

And most importantly, don't give up. You are the future.