I recently received an email from a fan at another site asking why I didn't publish my work in a manner where I could be paid for my talent. He told me what a wonderful writer I am (which he had several times before) how with just a little bit of effort and perhaps a good editor my stories would be commercially viable.
I don't believe that statement looking at votes here I certainly don't think he knows what he is talking about. I do score much higher at the other sites and I'm not sure why.
Well doesn't that just sound fantastic? My con sensor went off right away and I told him politely "I'm not interested in that." I have seen them the self-publish book sites for on-demand sales on all the favorite books stores and online sites. You only pay them XXXX.XX amount of bucks and they do all this wonderful crap for you. I explained to him I didn't have the funds for such an endeavor.
He replied that it wouldn't cost me anything to publish online at a site called Smashwords and gave me the link. Against my better judgment, I checked out the site and realized this was where my author friend published his digital version of stories. I read their rules and quickly realized that no my stories weren't acceptable for the site. Then I thought I could write stories that are acceptable though and publish there. Surely I can tone down sex and violence or at least put a lot of other story in between the sex and violence.
Then I thought about it and decided I didn't desire to do that either. First, I know that I'm not that good a writer. Second, I am perfectly content to write and publish at the three sites I use and not receive money for the work. I'm not writing to make money. I have a life and I have a past life and don't want either picked over by adoring fans or malicious individuals with some vindictive agenda. I don't wish to be a famous anyone I enjoy revealing what I do here or to individuals in just what amount I chose. I certainly wouldn't fancy being an in print author having to hawk my books on talk shows and risk the ridicule of my past being paraded before me on one of them.
I have friends now that know nothing of my past and even being on this site or the other two, runs the risk they might find out. I'm just not that brave.