There are work for hire situations within fiction publishing like the Star Trek series that is/was published by Pocket and other similar projects.

What I liked about the comment thread was that it laid out different avenues for publishing and the justifications that each person had for the direction that they went. Every person will have a different idea of what is the best path for them. I don’t see anything wrong with that. I certainly don’t agree with everything that was written but I didn’t see it as a thread full of bad advice, just differing points of view on different modes of publishing.

And yes, the second person is clearly publishing in a whole different arena. And then giving advice to fiction writers that is wholly inapplicable. I’d say that’s misleading at best.

While it’s true of some (and probably a majority of) fanfic writers that they’re only interested in positive feedback, I have to point out as a former fic writer myself that some of us do look for actual critical analysis from our peers. I didn’t often show my unfinished work to others, but I spent a lot of time critiquing for writers who were most definitely not just looking for pats on the back.

That said, I agree that most of the advice given there wasn’t very useful. The interested parties would have done better to seek out some industry blogs to see what agents and editors are saying.

Will publishers not touch you if you’ve put your work online first?

I’ve heard that they won’t touch you if you don’t have an agent. Many claim to not pay attention to online work; thus, you might not be penalized for this. Maybe you should published in a lock-community to be safe.

Perhaps you could consider self-publishing. If you do well, a big house will most likely seek you out.

Or this person, who clearly fails to understand how copyright works in the world of fiction:

Hmm…I advocate for self-publishing as well. As a person who writes for a living (I am a reporter) and have had several psychology articles published in various trade journals, etc. I can strongly say that I think self-publication is the best.

Because unfortunately, I no longer own any of my work- although it has my name on it. It is now property of someone else. I can make no money from it, the only thing I have to call my own is a tag. And if someone needs it…they pay my company and not me.

I don’t see anyone in that thread giving useful, knowledgeable advice to a wannabe author, I’m afraid.

*sits on hands to avoid commenting*

The other thing I found strange were people who said they couldn't do a large project without their readers. I always thought that any project (even fanfiction), large or small, should be either going, thought out, or finished before you let other people truly critique it,

No, no… mostly what the chapter-a-day fanfic writers want is positive feedback, not story ideas or actual critique. They need a reason- such as 50 comments saying “Gr8! Write more!” – to sit down and type out the next 1500 words. I suppose that is the divide between the amateur and the pro. A pro just writes.

The other thing I found strange were people who said they couldn’t do a large project without their readers. I always thought that any project (even fanfiction), large or small, should be either going, thought out, or finished before you let other people truly critique it, or how else are they going to understand why you made a certain decision in your writing, or how X fits into the scope of the novel, or that this isn’t a slow chapter, it contains a Chekhov’s Gun Warehouse? Only you know how the story will end, midway.

Multi-functional devices that have dedicated e-reader software with some sort of e-ink are what will eventually turn the tide toward e-books for more than the Romance community (although there, as well, I believe).

And while some might point to the iUnicorn or something else along the lines of a tablet laptop, I think with the advent of the netbook, we consumers have a real chance to get something that’s both small enough to tote in your bag or briefcase (or cargo pants pocket) and large enough that you aren’t squinting at a screen the size of a business card.

As much success as Kindle has had (and I believe that it has had some measurable impact), I don’t think it will be devices that grow the market as much as it is consumer behavior changing. The more that consumers get on demand entertainment, the more that they will want it and books will need to be in that “on demand” space just to compete. I guess I would argue that Napster started the movement of consumer behavior away from the physical for entertainment toward the digital.

I totally agree with RStewie that another major factor in romance’s favor is its voracious readers, an appetite “e” can definitely better serve than print, and has been for years. As such, do you think new eReaders are going to make a big impact in romance? Incremental growth, maybe, but it seems like that audience is already well served by existing options.

I don’t know of a single reader of Romance that isn’t constantly buying or renting books to read. This is purely anecdotal evidence, of course, but from what I can see online, it proves true for a wider range of Romance readers than just my friends.

That means that the ability of the ebook to “hide” a clinch cover is vastly outweighed by the functionality of a portable device that stores multiple books, which, for all the readers I know, is the main (and usually only) reason they would invest in one.