1 Reply by Walyullah

(4 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Hi Randall,

I would be thrilled to receive your help. You've done exactly what I'm trying to do! I'll connect with you and will check in and update you on my progress in the next 2-3 months. The move sounds super stressful but also exiting. Hope you enjoy the transition.

And Dirk, thanks again for the major help. I don't really have any social media following for my poetry. None to be honest, as far as the platforms that matter go, like Instagram. Again, I'm realizing my project might be shifting into something I hadn't anticipated, but it seems like a fun journey. And I have friends to go through it with!

Regarding social media though, wouldn't I need to only post stuff that won't be in my book? You were saying presses don't publish content that's already freely available.

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2 Reply by Walyullah

(5 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

I just wanna say Dirk, I truly appreciate the effort you put into helping new members like me and Eric. You go the extra twenty miles and even give step by step instructions to fix problems.

I like both ideas. I'm currently trying to figure out how to group my poems into sensible chapters. Once I do that, I'll post them as chapters so there's a greater reward for reviews. Maybe I'll make two "Books," one that has each numbered poem as a chapter and another with them all grouped into a few chapters.

I did not even know what workshops were before joining this website. There's a big wide world out there of things you just don't know. My poems are on free to access platforms and I never had an intention to make a book and publish. I guess I can just go delete them all or my accounts and that should get rid of the poems. But I'll leave that for later.

Truth be told, I don't think I even realized what self-publishing truly entailed. My only real goal was to give a few copies as gifts to people who've been encouraging me. I have a feeling this project is evolving as I go and learn, which is how most projects probably work.

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3 Reply by Walyullah

(5 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Dirk B. wrote:

Clear as mud?
Hope that helps.

It was worse than mud when I read it yesterday. Today it made perfect sense. Thanks for the idea, but I have a problem. I posted a poem as a chapter in my "book," but it pays 0.03 for a regular review and an extra 0.02 cuz I'm new. Such a small reward won't likely be much incentive for anyone to really read and share feedback. I'll go along with this set-up for now. Though I am still only on my 7-day trial, and I have to see if I can figure out a way to use TNBW in a way that actually helps me in my goal. I'm seeing that a lot of people have seen my forum post but nobody other than you have replied. So I'm not sure how easy it will be to make friends and "network" here. Still, I appreciate your help, truly.

A second problem is that I've posted every poem in my manuscript onto wither Poetizer or Writco. Does that mean I will have to remove all of them from my respective accounts in order to submit them to a press?

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4 Reply by Walyullah

(4 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Dirk B. wrote:

Hi there. Welcome. This is more of a writing-focused website, so it's fairly quiet forum-wise, although there are a few of us in other forums here who have brainstorming threads going, where there is ongoing discussion about whatever work the author requests help with. I have two actively going in the Fantasy/Magic & Sci-fi group.

I suggest joining the Writing Tips & Site Help group. It's kind of quiet there too, but people do respond to questions there for anyone who doesn't want to broadcast their questions to the whole site via Premium. Someday soon, I hope to post an article there on how to maximize the number of reviews you receive here, which primarily comes down to reviewing other works, establishing a network of other writers on this site (connections) with whom you'd like to trade ongoing reviews, and becoming familiar with the site and using its features to your maximum benefit. There's more to it, but those are the biggest.

For anything urgent or needing/wanting a maximum number of eyeballs, don't hesitate to post it to Premium, and someone is bound to respond fairly quickly. That's what it's here for.

There are a number of published authors on this site, who I'm sure will be happy to answer publishing-related questions for you. The rest of us weigh in as if we knew what we were talking about. smile

Hi Dirk, thanks for the pointers. I posted a poem on Premium and got two reviews promptly, so that's great. It might be quiet, but people are active. If you could share any thoughts on my new topic, that would be great. Also, is there a way to tag people in forums or no?

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5 Topic by Walyullah

(5 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Hi y'all.

So, I wrote out a whole thing and I got logged out and it didn't post and I'm too tired to try and rewrite all that.

Re-cap.

I'm finishing my 4th year undergrad, have lots of time this summer, have a rough full length poetry manuscript, about 100 poems, and have two plans.

One, I want the lowest hanging fruit. To print two dozen copies and gift them to family and friends.

Two, to submit my manuscript to presses and just go through the process and see if any of them even get back to me. I want to become a published poet someday. I don't know if my work is good enough yet, but I'll get there. I started writing in 2019, so I'm still a baby.

I don't know anything about self publishing or traditional publishing. I need help, and lots of it.
I wanna at least achieve objective one (self publish) in the next 2-3 months. Is that a reasonable time line?

Current manuscript word count is ~10k. What's the best way to get help in Premium? I don't even know how many points I would need to post the whole manuscript, even if I do it in chapters.

Any and all guidance is much appreciated.

Most importantly, how can I find a mentor?

Thank you:) and sorry for the typos, I'm typing on my phone.

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6 Topic by Walyullah

(4 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Hello!

I'm new here. Found this website in my long list of google searches for "getting published"-related questions. This looks like a promising platform. I'm more used to apps like Poetizer and Writco, where I have posted my writings. So it's gonna take me a bit to get used to this older-style lookin website. If anyone can aswer this, how active are people here? And is there any "general" chat where people just talk every day? Or is this a more serious website in that the main interactions are content-related?

Hope to make some new friends and find a mentor, or a few.

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