Seeking Writers to contribute their writing pieces to my site :)

Merry Christmas everyone

My name is Kim and I'm an aspiring Writer (like most of us here) and am looking for Writers to contribute an unpublished piece of their work to my site. I've already had one of my friends submit a piece of their work already per the links below:

http://maoriwriter.com/writer.html

http://maoriwriter.com/ally-and-sofia---ninya.html

where I will post your piece to my site and as a pdf too (so it can be read in the mobile version of the site better).

I'm happy even to submit one chapter of a novel you may be working on which could help gain peoples interest (people who would read it) or even a poem or some sort or a short story even. If you want to show off a beautifully written piece you've written for someone as a Christmas gift or whatever, my space is available for that too. And I have no intentions of ajny money from this, I'm just willing to share my space with your story.

Let me know by emailing me at [email protected].

Thank you and have an amazing Christmas

K.M Harris.
www.maoriwriter.com

Osulagh said:

So you want people to give you work to publish on your site, and also allow people to download these pieces, for free?

By the way, this is publishing, takes your first publishing rights away (makes it hard to republish these pieces), and is sketchy to all hell and back. I see no reason why people should give you work to publish on your site.

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Kia Ora Osulagh

Thank you for your comment And fair enough, what you say is fair enough.

I'm not out to make any money from anyone on this and I definitely don't want to take away 'publishing' rights from another Writer. I invested a lot into the space I've got and I'm merely willing to share it with other Writers for no other reason than to just say 'hey, if you want to share one of your pieces? Then I've got somewhere for that one piece to be showcased.' Some Writers (if not most) started out with next to nothing and if I had an opportunity like this to put one of my pieces out because I don't have a publisher or even a proper website to put my pieces up on, then I'd probably consider taking the offer. I wouldn't give a piece that would be the ONE that would make me money, I'd just give something to put myself and my work out there because the space was available.

If you or any other Writer doesn't want to, then sweet as All good with me. What you'll probably find is the video's on my youtube site I've shown regarding real-life stories I've written about, are on homeless people or people that are willing to tell me their story who know I'm not making any money from their story anyway. I merely ask them if they want to share it, refer them to my website and all my social media links so they know I'm 'legit' and then they come back to me. There is a process, I won't mention it here but my point is, I'm not out to make money off people. I work hard like other writers trying to write stories as well as put myself out there as a Writer too. I'm learning about this whole process just as much as any other un-mentored Writer who is just giving this a go

Thanks so much again for your comment. Through your reply, I have learned something valuable and new.

Merry Christmas where ever you are

Kim
www.maoriwriter.com

Ambrosia said:

Merry Christmas, Kim.

I'm with Osulagh. I fail to see the benefit in giving away my first publishing rights to put something up on your site. Why would anyone do that? What are you hoping to accomplish?

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Merry Christmas Ambrosia and thank you for your comment

I have replied to Osulagh above so hopefully that answers part of the questions you've asked in your comment.
What am I hoping to accomplish? I take it you mean regarding me publishing whatever pieces Writers are willing to let me publish on my site? I hope to accomplish more practice and experience out of the whole process of publishing it for starters. I was given one lesson from my site designer on how to upload work to my site, not to mention, how to manage it too with no proper experience in IT whatsoever other than OJT through admin/logistics positions I've held (pay-the-bills jobs) Through it, I hope to use it as a way to 'meet' other writers and get myself out there amongst the writing community kinda thing. And I hope to be able to feature work form other Writers different to my own where the 'reader' has a variety of stories to choose from in terms of stories published on my site. I go out of my way to present them the best way I can (even going as far as making a pdf version of it so it's seen on the mobile version of my site) so a lot of work is involved and I do it because I actually love the creation process of putting someones story out there.

I hope that answered things for you and thank you once again for your comment.

Regards,

Kim

Good morning both Osulagh and Undercover

Thank you both for your comments I'd actually like to leave this thread up because the feedback provided is very valuable And with you saying asking Writers that I know…..yep, fair enough Hey, at least I gave it a go just putting it out there to people I don't know. I hope whoever reads this thread, knows that I've seen the comments that have been posted on this thread and I can now avoid things LIKE legal action etc so if I haven't had an actual conversation with you in this forum before (or if I dont know you), please don't respond with any pieces of your work but please do make a response even if it's something along the lines of you disagreeing with the above.

Great feedback Thanks heaps And good luck to you both with your writing ventures

Kim

aperson said:

My first thought was agreeing with the other replies. My second thought was maybe you were trying to be nice.

My third thought:
You have a new website. You've had one lesson on how to upload files and you can produce a PDF file.

I am one of the 'old people' coming to age on the internet through BB's and with a Commodore 64. Later I worked tech support for ISP's where there was only dial-up. I designed web sites and place them in ranking on the internet. Granted, this was easier to achieve 'back in the day'.

I am not an expert by any means, but your homepage took 4 minutes to load on ASDL. The text on your 'about' page is off the screen but I can scroll you photo up and down. The photos are nice but people with a slow connection will leave the page in frustration. There are still people on dial-up. We've only had ASDL here for a year.

The PDF's do not load very fast. Maybe your content could be on site with a PDF link should one want to download it.

As a writer one would think you would want your content there. To gain ranking and popularity one does need content, but seeking others work is not the way to go about such a project. Your own writing is what will help your website grow.

I didn't write this to be snarky. It upset me that you would seek others works. I have read nearly every post on AW going back 3 years. I read a lot of blogs on writing and along with other interests.

In all that reading people were invited from the owners site/blog to submit if they wished to do so. I have never experienced a site owner going to another site/blog and ask those members to contribute to someones personal site. Asking for content on your site is one thing, but seeking submissions from other sites seems somewhat rude.

Just my thoughts ~karen

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Hi Karen

Thanks so much for your comment Regarding the layout problems of my site etc, I had another Writer from this forum PM message me and say the same thing. I asked her if her Browser is Internet Explorer which I've been told, is old, similar to the 'dial up' vs broadband speed of internet (best example I can use right now lol). She said her browser is Internet Explorer. We use Internet Explorer at work so my website looks like crap on my work computer, the drop down on my logo doesn't even work in fact. I spoke to my website designer about it until I realised that in Safari (for Mac) or in Chrome, it looks like what it's supposed to look like.

As I've mentioned in earlier replies, I appreciate the feedback I'm getting here regarding what I've asked. In a PM reply I sent to another writer today, I told her I got a growling on my first day being here because of what I asked. I told her after reading peoples responses, it seemed like I walked into someone elses house with my shoes on!! (which most people in my culture usually won't do, that's an example of 'rude' to us). I didn't continue on trying to justify myself to her, I basically said at least I learned

Thanks heaps for your response Karen

zanzjan said:

As a technical note, any written work posted publicly on the web is considered "published", and thus no longer able to be later sold to any market except those that take reprints. So, by soliciting work for your site, you are effectively taking first publication rights to that work.



This is a nice idea, but how much traffic does your site get? Using the word "showcased" implies a lot of eyeballs. If you're going to try to use visibility as the sole compensation you're offering writers for their work, you should provide stats on exactly how visible their work will be. We're not trying to knock down your idea of providing a platform to writers, but we see a LOT of people come by wanting people to give up their work for free to their sites for the same promise of visibility, and the vast majority of those sites have very little to no traffic, and little to no credibility in the reader community.



One of the many nice things about AW is that the community here provides a lot of mentoring, both formally and informally, and peer support. As a writer, you know how much work goes into producing a good story; we try to encourage our members to value their effort and work, and seek venues for publishing their work that provide reasonable compensation, be it in the form of payment or verifiable visibility on a well-regarded, professional-appearance site or market. Altruism and best intentions aside, you don't appear to be offering beginning writers anything, while taking a fair bit. If you can make the case that I'm wrong here, please do! In the meantime, take any skepticism as part of a learning process many new writers/new markets go through. No one is questioning your positive intent, only the negative side-effects on potential submitters that you have perhaps not fully realized as a beginning writer yourself. Stick around; this is a good place, and there's a lot to learn and a lot each and every person can contribute.

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I ABSOLUTELY agree with you This IS a good place especially to learn and I can definitely say I've learned lots in the few days I've been a part of this forum.

I'm not out to make a case of whoever is right or wrong, I've actually turned this small experience into a LEARNING curve for me so I prefer to take whatever feedback is being provided, as lessons for me to do BETTER with my writing

The site traffic - my site in this version, is only about 2 weeks old? Or there about. It's updated from how I had it last year, it was under construction for about 3 or so months this year because I researched different layouts I wanted for my site. Last years layout was similar to a blog, my site designer at the time used half of a WordPress design coupled with his where as this one, is made from scratch using Adobe Muse, a program that doesn't require 'coding'. Anybody can do a website using Adobe Muse. Gaining the developed appreciation I have for websiting made me deliberately keep the layout of my site simple. My designer last year and this year asked if I wanted to add a payment section to my site and I said 'no, I don't want to sell anything through my site'. I have my reasons for not doing that but that is explained in one of my pieces on my website. Like a lot of Writers, I've done a lot of things for free. I actually have a full time job that has nothing to do with writing lol, but then again - who doesn't? That's what pays what writing doesn't. In time, yeah, I hope like every other Writer hopes, that our pieces will pay out but realistically, I know right now, mine won't. And I've had 2 Writers let me publish their work on my site, one has already been done and I'm still working on the other guys piece atm.
Regarding how much traffic I get? Not a lot I'd say. Take a look at my FB Writers page for instance, I've stayed on 300 or so likes this whole year. But that's ok I know it'll take time.

Thanks again for your comment and response For me, this is a great learning curve

Unimportant said:

Magazines and other publishing venues tend to have an editorial acquisitions process: they know what fits their market, and they have a system to go through submissions and accept/reject each piece as appropriate. The authors who submit are aware of this, and so aren't offended or surprised if they receive a rejection.

So one thing you might need to work out, if you haven't already, is how you will deal with people who say "Yes, please put my story on your website!" and then they send you something that is appallingly bad, or utterly unreadable, or frankly offensive, or culturally insensitive, or dull as ditchwater.

Especially if those authors turn out to be your friends. Or family. Or colleagues. Or your boss. Or someone you need a favour from....

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Hello again!!! Glad to see you've seen the other thread I've put out

I suppose to answer your comment, as mentioned in earlier replies, I've asked people NOT to now contribute their piece, now that I've learned what I have as a result of putting this 'out there' so how will I deal with that? I guess I won't have to now lol.

I actually have 2 writers who have let me publish their pieces on my site from a Writers Group I joined here in Sydney. He was from the UK and she is local. I've also been in close liaison with a Writer in the States, a Native American who asked me in May this year, if I wanted to contribute a short story to a book he's putting out next year (Off the Path Vol. 2). He said he found me by Googling female Writer Maori because he wants to put out a book of short stories written by as many female indigenous writers as he can get and asked if I could be his Maori Writer. I did a bit of homework on him and he even sent me the Kindle version of Off the Path Vol 1 (for free so I could read it) so after all of that, I said yeah! Sure! I haven't even asked him about money regarding the book my story will be featured in because for me, it's about supporting the cause really. Being part of a project other indigenous Writers are involved in is an honour for me. Using writing as another way to connect my people to his people and any other people and cultures too, is the payment in my eyes, well in this case anyway. And for what it's worth, I told him in an email just today about everything I've learned here regarding me putting this out etc.

I guess if I didn't put my website out last year, I wouldn't have rec'd the random email I did from Adrian (Native American Writer). He knows this because I told him eventually, but I deleted his email thinking it was Spam, thinking 'nah, that can't be real'….until I saw that he messaged me on FB on my Writers page. It was only then that I actually went out and did some research on him, it was through talking to him that he sent me the OTP Vol. 1 which I have not given to anyone else because it is a book he is selling, so I didn't want to undercut him and disrespect him by doing that even though theres some wicked stories in there. Where am I going with this? Well, if I didn't put myself out when I did, that opportunity may not have come. Had I not put this post out either, I would not have learned what I have now learned and it's something I will talk about with other writers in the future. I am grateful for this experience, my writing has done SO much for me

Ngaa mihi,

Naa, Kim

Maryn said:

A small aside, but you need to revise your website so it looks good on every browser, including the most widely used one, which remains Internet Explorer. (I don't have it installed, so I can't see your site with it.) Whether we approve of IE or don't, millions use it, so you'd be foolish to allow your site to display poorly through it.

Maryn, who doesn't have a website

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Thanks so much Maryn That's generous of you to say on behalf of the ones who have IE considering you don't have it yourself

And hey, not everyone has a website like not everyone has a car! (Like me ) But just because I don't have a car (in Sydney especially) doesn't mean I can't get around so if you don't have a website, doesn't mean you're not heard We have our reasons for why we have what we have and why we don't

Appreciate your comment once again

veinglory said:

There are tools online that will show you what a website looks like in every type of browser. I think your own traffic data night show you that a pretty big segment of your visitors are on IE.

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Awesome advice and thank you so much!!! I'll follow that up

Ambrosia said:

Is this a book that you are writing or an article or?

Is the introduction for the book, article, etc. you are writing? Or for your website or facebook page or ___?

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At this stage, it's for a book but it has been pitched to feature as a series/column for a magazine in Australia I'm waiting to hear back from. I don't want to say too much more about that if that thanks

Unimportant said:

Then I'd strongly suggest you delete it from your post, and not put any further sections up here. As soon as you post it here, it's 'published' and many magazines and other markets will not consider work that has already been published.

Also, this subforum isn't the place to post your own work.

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Deleted as recommended thank you kindly for the advice