Blogging can make you money and be fun too.
After one year, the Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette is still going strong. Although I don’t blog every day now, the Gazette still gets hits, still sends visitors to my Triond content and it is still fun being the Editor/Publisher of one of the best showcases of flash fiction online.
Image via Wikipedia
There are hundreds of articles about writing on the Gazette; but what I’m proud of are the flash fiction stories. Most of the flash fiction is mine, lots of it hyper-linked back to my Triond content making me money even while I sleep; but what I’m really proud of are the Guest Writers on the Gazette.
So far there are 15 flash fiction stories by 15 Guest Writers. The stories help to give credibility to the Gazette’s claim of being a showcase for the very short story: other people want me to publish their work, too.
Of course, I rejected more stories than I accepted and for the same old reasons: poor grammar, poor spelling, poor formatting, poor punctuation, not following submission guidelines and just bad writing. When a writer self-publishes online the writer can get away with these mistakes. This is why it is a good idea for a self-publishing writer to occasionally submit work to a serious publication as a reality check.
Now that the Gazette has become a marketing tool to help me earn money, I still look forward every morning to checking its stats. And on those days that I do post something, I still get a kick out of being the Editor/Publisher of the Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette.
Girls Gone Wild gets more hits from the Gazette than any of my other Triond content.
September 4th, 2009 at 4:29 am
Wow, that’s interesting, though I have not tried writing flash fiction yet. Will try to check it out though, thanks a lot.
September 4th, 2009 at 4:31 am
Nice artilce, I love flash fiction I’ll try to write it some more.
September 4th, 2009 at 7:13 am
Nice one to share…Great work…
September 4th, 2009 at 8:55 am
Another fine read. I am not too familiar with flash fiction but I have checked out your website and have a link on my blog to it.
September 4th, 2009 at 11:55 am
Good to know that you are hitting the pinnacle of your writing career through your blog too and glad to know that you enjoy it loads. The rewards do seem good though. It’s nice to see that flash fiction is starting to hit popularity heights.
September 4th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
Melody, flash fiction is very popular. Writers and readers like it because it’s good entertainment and editors and publishers like it because it doesn’t take up much space.
September 4th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
Hi, Buma: Good flash fiction is not easy to write. It is still %10 inspiration and %90 perspiration. Doing more than one revision of the first draft is the secret.
September 4th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
cutedrishti8, I guess I’ve made flash fiction my life’s work. Flash fiction got me back into college and got me a degree in writing after I had been out of college for over 25 years.
September 4th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
Hi, Papa: Flash fiction is all over the Internet. It is now being taught at some colleges and universities and there are some online publication that pay for flash fiction.
September 4th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
Atikin, flash fiction is perfect for the computer age when everybody wants everything, more or less, to be concise and to the point-even fiction. Flash fiction rocks.
September 4th, 2009 at 10:54 pm
Having grown up in the era of the lengthy novel, I find flash fiction something of a challenge. Sounds like you are on your way to becoming a working editor. Keep us posted. This was very interesting.
September 5th, 2009 at 9:55 am
Daisy, I became fascinated with flash fiction when after years of getting rejection notices in the mail with my regular length short stories I submitted a very short story electronicly to an online publication and the story was accepted for publication. I was hooked.
September 9th, 2009 at 3:46 am
I looked up flash fiction on Wikipedia and it seems like it would be terribly difficult, having all of the classic story elements with such confined restrictions. Sounds like fun, I’ve gotta give it a try.
September 18th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
So cool. I like the idea of using your blog to feature the writing of guest contributors. I’ll check it out.
September 19th, 2009 at 9:35 am
WriteEditSeek, the guest contributors provide The Gazette with content and lots of hits because when their stories are accepted they want everyone to know about it.
September 19th, 2009 at 9:40 am
ducroisjosef, writing good flash fiction is difficult but it is fun too and if a writer can do it there is a great sense of satisfaction.