Success Story

I Thought Outside the Box – And Got FAR More Publicity! – by J.K.A Short

November 16, 2017

I Thought Outside the Box – And Got FAR More Publicity! – by J.K.A Short
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Many writers long to get published. Making these dreams come to life involves a lot of hard work.  However, I managed to chance on some breaks that took my creative thinking outside the perfect box I’d been living in. In some way or another, these all came down to promoting other writers and artists. I fully believe that being open to and helping others is part of every road to success. As Jesse Jackson once said, “Never look down on anybody unless you are helping them up.”

SFFWorld & Interviewing Authors
I love Sci Fi. The genre can provide a limitless exploration of humanity’s presence and purpose in imagined future destinies. From the minds of George Orwell, Margaret Atwood, and Phillip K. Dick, we have been challenged on the social construct on which our values are based. and explored the control agenda authoritative powers use to suppress freedom. This interest led me to write my own spec-adventure fiction, Wayfarer, which I promoted online with mixed success. That’s when I discovered the wonderful world of promotional forums, like those on SFFWorld, created by Dag Rambraut.

After creating a promotional thread about Wayfarer, I started browsing their content. I saw lots of posts covering films and books but not much in the way of reviews promoting shorter works. This is when I hit upon the idea to pitch Dag Rambraut on reviewing short stories. The first review I wrote was on Jeffrey Thomas’ story, “Motherboard,” which I shared on my website, and on Facebook. Soon, I heard from the author himself, who thanked me, and said he liked the post. This gave me some extra “chutzpah,” and the courage to reach out and pitch him an idea to promote his latest collection of short stories, which ended up culminating in the Jeffery Thomas Interview & Haunted Worlds Feature. This one post increased my site’s visibility, and led people to find other articles I had written.

Promoting Indie Authors on IndieReader
In September, I found a freelance opportunity to join a pool of Book Reviewers for a company in New Jersey. That company turned out to be IndieReader – a promotional, paid review service for new and self-published authors. The premise was straight forward and simple: I downloaded kindle books, read them, and posted honest reviews on the authors’ Goodreads and Amazon pages for a little cash. But, one of the greatest moments was getting to review “Sex, Drugs & Corruption: Welcome to Peru,” by Chad Vegas. Not only was this one of the best self-published books I have ever read but, shortly after posting the reviews, I was contacted by the author, who thanked me for the comments. He then offered to buy and review the spec fiction book I’d written. Indie authors promoting indie authors! The networking/cross sharing experience is one of my favorite to date. It genuinely surprised me how exciting it felt to share another writer’s enthusiasm for his craft.

Living Fearlessly: Taking the Hint From a Site’s Domain Name
Remember what I said about thinking outside the perfect creative box? I did just that when pitching to a Colorado-based website called Living Life Fearless. The freelance ad asked for creative content submissions on music, hit television shows, and other pop culture. I decided to change tactics after pitching the same way for weeks, and tried to create something new that represented both my skills as a writer, as well as my portfolio. This led to me writing my own lyrics to a popular song sung by Janis Joplin – an artist I’ve long admired. But, after completing it, I still felt this didn’t reach the right impact I was searching for. Then, I thought it’d be awesome to send a recorded clip of me singing lyrics as well. I quickly created a Sound Cloud account, used an app to record an mp3 of “Remembering Janis Joplin,” hyperlinked it in the body of the email, and sent it off to the team at LLF. Not only did he like my style, but he went on to say that he believed I could bring ‘a new perspective’ to his site. Since then, I’ve had successfully pitched, published, and have been paid for articles such as my Death Note opinion piece, which you can read about on the Pop Culture: Articles & Features page on my website.

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J.K.A Short, is an Australian writer of English-German background who has a flair for pieces with rich detail, easy-to-read style and a humorous appeal. After graduating with a BA in 2006, where he pursued a love of literature, he went on to complete a Post Graduate Diploma in Teaching in 2010. Since then, J.K.A. Short spent the last five years teaching, three of those internationally in North Africa and in East Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo. He now works part time as a freelancer and his publishing credentials include writing for LINQ Magazine, Cream Magazine, LLF, The Gamer, Tastemaker Collective Media and SFFWorld. You can follow him on his website, jkashort.com, Facebook @jkashort or Twitter @jessekashort

 

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