Not Just Self-Published Anymore

Recognition for our work is one of the most rewarding feelings for a writer. Whether it be someone paying money for our book, leaving a comment on something we published, or asking to put their work in a magazine.  A few months ago, I got a message about putting something I’d written in a non-profit zine.  

I’ve talked about this before in past posts, and I have it listed under my accomplishments.  However, if you happen to be new or simply haven’t read anything about it, I’ll give you a brief recap.  

A few months ago I decided to try my hand at horror.  I wrote what I thought was a crappy short story and posted it on nosleep Reddit.  Within a few days it had over 18k views, which I’d never expected.  A Youtuber reached out to me about wanting to narrate my story on his channel, and a couple editors of a non-profit zine named Ventanas contacted me, as well.    

I wrote a Part 2 and a Part 3 of the story (Part 3 was never posted to Reddit), added a couple bits at the beginning and end, and sent it to the zine.  I won’t lie, it was mildly concerned about the legitness of the whole thing, but I’m happy to announce I have not been scammed and my work has not been stolen for profit.  It has been published on their site and proper credit has been given.

No, this is not a big magazine.  No, I was not paid for my work.  Still, I feel like now I can say I’m not just self-published.  Someone else saw my work, liked it, and decided it was worth putting in something they themselves were working very hard to complete.  

Maybe I’ll try submitting my work to other magazines, maybe I’ll just keep self-publishing, and maybe I’ll make my own magazine.  Who knows?  Life is full of surprises.