Since when does Hubpages promote writing short stories and poems?

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   suzzycueposted 9 years ago

   Write a Hub that is outside your comfort zone in 2015. (If you normally write informative articles, try a short story or poem. If you're a creative writer, consider a tutorial or explanation Hub.)
   
   This above sentence was copied from the Weekly hub news we received today. I started writing on Hubpages three years ago with short stories and poems and it was shunned here . They wanted informative hubs if you wanted to make money here. What has changed?

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      jansharesposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Hi suzzycue. I just saw that, too, and thought it was interesting. But I interpreted it differently. I actually thought it was good "outside the box" advice to help us stretch our writing skills. I doubt that anything has changed in terms of poems and short stories getting any more recognition or status than usual. I could be wrong.

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         suzzycueposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks @jansshares I Don't know what to think.

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         ArtFagposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         This is the safest interpretation!
         We don't want to turn into Bubblews...

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      Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Who "shunned" your creative work?   It's true HubPages prefers factual writing because that's what pays the rent, but they've never tried to discourage creative writing. 
      
      A few years ago, there was a period when there were a number of high profile, hugely successful "sales Hub" writers on HubPages - and (for reasons I never fully understood), the creative writers decided that meant they weren't welcome, but that was never the case really.   
      
      The hard fact is that creative writing doesn't earn well, but that's not HubPages deciding to pay less for it - your earnings are based on views, and creative writing gets fewer views.

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         Writer Foxposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         I think that very much depends upon who is doing the creative writing and how the Hub is optimized for search engines.  I've had over 200,000 views in the past year on my poetry Hubs.

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            suzzycueposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Wow  @Writer Fox I should have done the same and wrote what I am instead of tring to write to make money. I still don't have those kind of views.

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               Writer Foxposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               Creative writers can make big money and some keep writing because of the money.  For example, in the year 2011 James Patterson made $84 million (down from the 70 million he made the year before), Stephenie Meyer made $21 million from a single 195-page book, Rick Riordan made $21 million, Jeff Kinney made $17 million and Suzanne Collins made $10 million.

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                  snakeslaneposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                  Shhh...

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                     Jean Bakulaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                     I had a fictional series about the topic I wrote about most on my personal blog, and have slowly been moving those pieces to HP. It's taken a few months, but they all are on the first page of Google and have above 85 scores. I guess I'll continue to move them. It's hard to find the right category when I post them, but I say they are fictional in the summary at the top.

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                        suzzycueposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                        Well done Jean Bakula. I am thinking about things now.

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                     NateB11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

                     lol

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                  psycheskinnerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                  And they choose trade publishing as the way to do it.  I, personally, take most of my fiction the same way rather than putting it on hubs.  The payback per hour of labor is what I follow....

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                     suzzycueposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                     What is trade Publishing?

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                  Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                  ...but surely you could point to actors who've made huge fortunes, yet we all know that the average actor is practically broke and spends their life doing odd jobs to make ends meet.
                  
                  Yes, the ones with great talent have the potential to do fabulously well, but that doesn't change the fact that most creative artists don't live off their craft.   As for your poetry Hubs, we all know you are very skilled at SEO whereas the average creative writer has no patience or interest in such things.

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                  suzzycueposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                  Wow writer Fox  now you have my attention and thank you so much for the link:)

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            PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Wow, I really have to learn this SEO stuff. The disadvantage of putting our creative writing here for me is when it's unfeatured for lack of engagement. That's discouraging. I've taken down a few of my short stories and poems for that reason.

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               Writer Foxposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               Here's a good Hub to read about SEO for creative writing:
               http://cardisa.hubpages.com/hub/SEO-Tip … nd-Fiction

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                  PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

                  Thanks Writer Fox. I've read it through one time and have bookmarked it for reading again. Good information, thank for sharing it and thanks to Cardisa for writing it.

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         suzzycueposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         What you are saying really was the case Marisa Wright. So that is why a lot of us stopped creative writing.

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            NateB11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

            I wrote a poem for this account a long time ago and deleted it because it got no traffic. I also had another account where I wrote a lot of poetry and ended up deleting the poems there too. Too bad, I've always loved writing poetry. At any rate, I put most of those poems along with others I've written on a Blogger blog where they will never be seen.
            
            Of course, poetry, even in print, has always been notorious for not being a money-maker.
            
            I don't want to write a poetry hub and pad it with some kind of introduction full of keywords just to get traffic. Kind of defeats the whole purpose of writing poetry.

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            Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            I'm not quite sure what you mean Suzycue.  Are you saying it really was the case that creative writers weren't welcome?   Personally, I think they FELT they weren't welcome for no good reason, and read all kinds of imagined slights into factual statements about what made the most money.
            
            I repeat, how much money a poem or short story makes on HubPages has nothing to do with how HUBPAGES treats creative writing, and everything to do with how GOOGLE  treats creative writing.

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               suzzycueposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               We were not encouraged to write poems and fiction like the hub news letter said this thursday. That is the point of this thread. Why now? We can write them only to delete them because of no traffic. Why bother?

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      Christy Kirwanposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Good question, suzzycue. As a few other Hubbers have mentioned here, unfortunately, creative writing doesn't usually earn much online. However, it's important to us that HubPages remains a great place for creative writers to share their work with the community and get feedback and advice from fellow writers. And as Writer Fox mentioned, a few are lucky (and skilled) enough to do quite well with search engines.
      
      And, personally, I think it's important for writers (even exceptional ones) to constantly try new things. It keeps the work fresh and the ideas flowing.

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         suzzycueposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         I agree that it is always a great idea to learn new things.

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         PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

         How about a contest or Hub Pages challenge for a short story or poetry? That gets the ideas flowing, too.

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            Writer Foxposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            There was a big one three years ago:
            http://hubpages.com/static/hubpatron_of_the_arts.php
            
            At the same time, HP used to do a podcast with people reading their short stories.

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      Susan Trumpposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I don't know what has changed but I am wondering where you get the newsletter.  I've not receive it.

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         suzzycueposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         They email it to you every thursday with your stats on the top of it

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   snakeslaneposted 9 years ago

   I have always felt welcome here, but I am familiar with the dilemma creative writers face using HubPages venue. Meanwhile diversity is good.

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      suzzycueposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you @snakeslane and all you hubbers for your input. I was just thinking I did the wrong thing pullin off all my poems and short stories.  Maybe my work, at that, is not as great as other hubbers here.  It never went anywhere. It did not make sence to me that Hubpages is now interested in us writing poetry and short stories at all.

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   makingamarkposted 9 years ago

   Maybe time to reflect on the purpose of putting your creative writing online?
   
   If you're wanting to put creative writing on HubPages for the buzz of seeing it online in public then HubPages seems like a good place to put it if you want to invite and get some feedback.  Or maybe find a critique partner to work with?
   
   However, for those wanting to make serious money from their creative writing via print publications you will need, in due course, a good agent who will do the pitch to the major publishing companies for you.  That's because the major publishing companies rely on the agents to weed out the 'time wasters' for them.
   
   You might want to read up about what the serious agents think about creative writing online
   
   In the meantime, if you want to get your creative writing in front of an agent why not do something about it? e.g. submit a query letter. This is a site which a best selling author friend of mine recommends to her fans re. the reality of what's involved  http://www.agentquery.com/writer_sa.aspx It's a long read....
   
   There are also a number of short Hubs on HubPages about how to write a query letter.

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   Courtney Dundonposted 9 years ago

   well that's good for them but I'm not in it for money its just for fun. you know?

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      psycheskinnerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      But aren't most writers seeking an audience, hopefully a large one?  If the goal is just the joy of putting down the words then a featured hub, unfeatured hub, or scrap of paper under the bed is all the same.

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         Solarasposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         LOL

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         suzzycueposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         All writers want recognition but a few pennies along the way adds a different level of appreciation.

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      Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      If you're just in it for fun, then there are many pure writing sites where you can publish your story and get feedback/support from other writers.  No payment, but no fear of unFeaturing etc. either.

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         snakeslaneposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Hi Marisa, I get very good feedback and support from other writers right here at HubPages. I love the venue. It works for me.

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            Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            I know, but in the longer run (unless you are good at SEO) your fiction/poetry will probably be unFeatured and that isn't the case on other sites, and that's an issue for some people.

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   gajanan89posted 9 years ago

   Hey I have written one artical but not getting thst where should it categorised,
   Please suggest ,
   
   http://gajanan89.hubpages.com/hub/human-society

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   snakeslaneposted 9 years ago

   Yes, true. You are right about the need to understand SEO basics, but what better place to learn than right here on HubPages forums, and elsewhere on the site. The resources available here are awesome. (Thanks to people like yourself and others who are willing to share information).

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