Books, books and more books!
I tried out Wattpad. What a fabulous idea! I love that anyone - within the guidelines of the site - can publish their writings here, along with other previously published works. I looked for Pride and Prejudice, and found several versions. Not hard to do, since it's so easily available. But I also found lots of fan fiction, for lack of a better word. There's one titled Poise and Rationality that looks like it could be fun. Writings are published in installments - how we repeat ourselves! Many, many famous novels were published in serial format - Dickens is a classic example. Wattpad lets you sign up for the latest chapters in books you're reading.
I do admit to being a bit skeptical about the quality of the writing. In just a quick look, I saw a fair number of misspellings and other errors. The comments from readers show a lack of a firm grasp of the English language. And as a librarian, it's my experience that much self published material isn't picked up by a publisher because it isn't really good enough for publication! But how do you get better if you don't practice? Wattpad provides a great way to get feedback for beginning writers and may very well serve as a springboard to paid publication for those with the necessary drive and talent.
I can see promoting this to teen (or adult - I just work more with teens) writers as a place to get their work out in the public eye. And I might just start to follow Poise and Rationality...
P.S. I did read the start of Poise and Rationality (that's all there is), and it confirms my opinion of self-published materials. The author needs either to learn how to proof read (although that requires spelling skills she (I think) seems to lack) or get an editor to correct all the spelling errors, grammatical errors and discrepencies in verb tenses. It's not, so far, much different from the original - a bit too literal retelling - but I'll give it a chance. At least for a while - I can only read poor writing for just so long!
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