Today, aspiring creative writers have more opportunities than ever for writing to different genres, and many young people are pursuing second careers as writers. There are many avenues for publishing new material for creative and young writers. In particular, ebooks now represent a massive industry (to the point that this site recently published some tips for producers!).
Publishing electronically is still a lot of work, however, and it is an exceedingly competitive environment. For this reason, a lot of modern writers seek out creative means to get their work published and start careers as writers. The following tips are not foolproof nor are they guarantees, but they represent a few unorthodox avenues you may look into if you fancy yourself as a writer.
1. Internet Patrons
If you are a creative worker and haven’t heard of Patreon yet, it’s something you probably need to look into. There are pros and cons for writers, but the basic idea is that it is a platform that turns your creative work into subscription content.
Building on the age-old idea of “patrons” who are funding artists, it allows you to present your work in a very appealing way and ultimately build up lists of digital patrons, and relationships with them. You supply the content, and they pay to keep it coming. It’s not quite as easy as that to develop significant income from it, but it is certainly an avenue worth exploring.
2. Internet Games
Internet gaming can seem like something of a lost form of entertainment now that we focus so much on consoles, PC downloads, and mobile. But there are still millions of gamers who primarily use their browsers, particularly in the casino space. In this space, people tend to look for the best free spin options or promotional bonuses to attract them to games. But these days, there’s also a growing focus on narrative and graphical content. It might be difficult to establish a relationship with a developer, but always keep in mind that games need to be written by someone, and they have massive audiences.
3. Mobile Games
Everything just said about internet games more or less applies to mobile games too. Once revolving around simple and familiar styles, mobile games now have to do more to stand out. This has led many of them, particularly the indies, to embrace better graphics, better audio, and more engaging stories. Perhaps even more than online games and the increasingly diverse range of casino arcades, mobile games have to be written as if they were short stories that can branch out in different directions. Signing on to write for a game developer can be a fascinating route to take.
4. Your Own Periodical
Some people who aren’t involved in writing or literary communities may not realize it, but literary magazines are still popular, and there are a lot of them with fairly large readerships. This implies that there is a market for short stories and periodical fiction, which also goes somewhat hand-in-hand with the idea of Patreon.
With this in mind, why not try to create your own periodical? This was the way many stories (later published as books) were published in the past, and there seems to be a fresh space for it on the internet. You’ll have to do some marketing to gain any sort of readership, but it’s definitely an interesting option.