Rule Four: Put Story Out On The Market / Happenings In The Outhouse 16-May-2025

At the most basic levels, there are two paths to publication: traditional and self-publishing.

Traditional means to go through an agent or magazine publisher.

Self-publishing means to do it yourself.

For decades, I tried the traditional route by submitting to agents and contests and magazines.  When, I discovered self-publishing in 2011.  I researched the heck out of it until I decided to give it a go in April 2012.

And I have not looked back, except I still submit to contests and magazine publications.

The bottom line on this: get your story out there.  If it gets rejected, don't take it personally.  Put it out there again.  If you have completely exhausted all of the contests and magazines, then try the self-publish route.  But for crying out loud, no one is going to discover it if it's sitting either in a drawer or in a file folder on your hard drive.

Get the story out there.  Now!