Where to publish stories online for free

Where to publish stories online for free


Today's post is in reply to a question about where to publish stories online that was posted to the Writers and Authors Facebook page.


When it comes to publishing your stories online you have a few options:
  1. Find someone else to publish it for you e.g. an ezine editor. There are huge amounts of ezines and website that publish short stories and many pay professional rates too. A simple search on google will give you a selection of places that are open to submissions.
  2. Self publish. You publish your work and make it available online.
Let's take a closer look at the second option.

In this case, the answer that automatically comes to mind is to create a blog. You keep all the rights to all work published on your site and get to present it just the way you want to. You can personalise the look of your site so it's the perfect match for your stories or design it so it expresses your personality.

If you want to create a professional showcase for your writing you might want to consider getting a domain name and setting up a website with professional hosting.

Following on from this, if you're interested in publishing your stories with the goal of gaining feedback from readers etc... then you might want to check out these sites:

  • Booksie.com This site offers the chance to post your stories online for free. You retain the full rights to your work and can get feedback from readers. You can find out more about how it works here.
  • StoryWrite.com  Again, completely free to use. You maintain ownership and copyright to your poetry, stories, or other original works of art you upload to their sites, including the right to publish it elsewhere. They also have contests and writing groups on site.
  • StoryStar.com A family friendly site where you can post your stories to be read and rated. Each month they select a story from each category to give extra recognition to and the stories with the most votes/readers also get highlighted. As with the others this site is completely free to use.
If you want to make some money from your stories consider publishing them as ebooks. Again you have various options. A popular way to go about it is by using a site like lulu.com or Amazon's kindle program to self publish your work and make it available to the public for purchase.

Have you published you stories online for free? Which route did you take and why?


39 Comments

  1. Hello,

    You can publish your writings by using the web application Bookonlive. http://www.bookonlive.com

    More than simple narrations, you can choose to publish living texts.
    As each new chapter is published, your subscribers receive a notification by e-mail.

    In that way, they can follow the development of your narrations as they evolve and through the forum of your livebook, share your impressions with your readers.

    Earn money by selling access to your texts, choose the price and the currency, get the payment of your committees on your Paypal account.

    Increase the impact of your writings by customizing the appearance of your livebook and by styling the characters.

    With Bookonlive the authors are the exclusive owners of any text published. http://www.bookonlive.com

    Have a nice day.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Try www.typeitout.com
    They share the advertisement revenue based on pay per view. They accept stories too.

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  3. potatopublishers.wordpress.com, publishing short stories and poems from new up and coming authors who need a place for their work to be appreciated.
    Unfortunately there is no payment to the authors as it is running on a free hosting site, but it is a place where people's work can be appreciated.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I find www.qfeast.com simply gorgeous for story writing. It's much easier easier, free and you can write your owned stories, create scored quizzes and personality quizzes, polls, questions, groups.

    ReplyDelete
  5. hi.. good idea for beginners.if you want and getting nerves.you could start with free blog sites like www.agryd.com and share your post with your friends to review it. this process will help to build confidence level and avoid silly mistakes . also get and apply professional tips for better performance.

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  6. I am currently writing in Booksie.com. its free and really there is appreciation for work.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Does the site require anything? Can your work be stolen? Cause I don't want my ideas being stolen...

      Delete
  7. For autobiographies, you might try irecordmystory.com. It costs $5 for your own site with your own subdomain name.

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  8. If you have a speculative short story/novel, Nuff Said Publishing is a recently launched press accepting submissions.

    http://nuffsaidpublishing.blogspot.com/

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  9. I prefer to self-publish my E-books I recently use Draft2Digital.
    If you don't know what kind of a self-publishing site is. I'll explain to you:
    It's a simple risk-free E-book publishing platform where you can easily publish books to desired vendors. Such as; Kobo, Scribd, Page Foundry, and Barnes & Noble Nook.
    Their site can walk you through publishing your content. And they also had a distribution with Create Space,--where you can publish your book in paperback format, that way, if some people don't have an E-reading device; they can read a print copy.
    You can take a look of their site at www.draft2digital.com

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  10. I've done some publishing on Issuu but I don't really recommend that site. It's hard to get readers for your stories and the published stories aren't SEO-friendly.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. then which site do recommend to publish to sell my story?

      Delete
  11. You will find this site amazing to share your stories and received by huge audience.

    Short Stories- Life is a story

    ReplyDelete
  12. thank you for your post! I’ve read on this subject a lot, and I’ve kind of gave me a different prospective. I personally take ideas and resources on Keep going, I am sure many people will find it helpful.
    Have a great day!

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  13. Hi! I wish you to know that I am one of those people who enjoy writing stories for fun, so I think it will be great to share my creations with the other people. Why not. I am not afraid of criticism! Thanks to you, I would like to choose Booksie.com site for a start! It is great that I can retain my full rights to my works! Hope I enjoy using this site!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Thanks Jo Linsdell for your post. if you want and You can publish your ideas /writings online then visit https://www.helpmebuild.com/stories/

    ReplyDelete
  15. https://www.helpmebuild.com/stories/

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  16. Storify lets you write engaging stories that can go viral with live audiences. Now livefire is enabled
    storify

    ReplyDelete
  17. Share your own story on storify and engage live audiences

    ReplyDelete
  18. I must say it is a superb post.

    You might want to meet the classic author duo L. Hart and Olivia Rupprecht who have already created a classic novel before: "THERE WILL BE KILLING".

    They are back with a bang with another novel which introduces the twist of murder and money in the most thrilling way that one could image.

    The new novel I am talking about is titled: "Making a Killing"

    In case you want to know a short description of the story, here lies the summary:
    The CIA’s most valuable assassin, Agent J.D. Mikel, wasn’t supposed to fall in love with anyone – especially not Kate Morningside, a woman coveted by another powerful world player. When Kate is kidnapped, J.D. is pulled into a dangerous game of cat and mouse, and one false move could cost him everything. Indeed, there are players – and then there are the masters who make the rules only to break them.
    It’s not an even match for those joining an epic search for Kate on a twisted dark hunt down the Mekong River in the midst of a bitterly disputed war: Izzy, a brilliant young psychiatrist assigned to the Army’s 8th Field Hospital and counting the days until he can return home; and his best friend Gregg, a gifted psychologist who served his time only to be driven back to Vietnam by his own inner demons and a rivalry with Mikel that burns as intensely as napalm.

    There are other wars within wars in turbulent 1970. From the CIA to the American mafia to an International cartel helmed by a master of the sadistic, all eyes are on Southeast Asia’s Golden Triangle. And when it comes to a certain cash crop flourishing under the dominion of the mysterious Poppy King, everyone wants a piece of the action. Money talks. The currency? Heroin. It’s a spinning maze of intrigue, politics, and mind games; a hotbed where sex, drugs, and Janis Joplin aren't always a beautiful thing. But even when no one turns out to be quite who or what they seem, one rule remains fast across the Devil’s chessboard: Winners live. Losers die.

    The sequel to the national bestseller THERE WILL BE KILLING, MAKING A KILLING artfully weaves a spellbinding tapestry of dark history, psychology, and seduction – the best and worst of our humanity . . . and the hunger of our hearts.

    In case you are being a bit too curious to know about the novel, take yourself through to the following page:
    http://thestoryplant.com/our-authors/ohn-l-hart-ph-d-and-olivia-rupprecht/our-authorsohn-l-hart-ph-d-and-olivia-rupprechtthere-will-be-killing/

    Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Some other sites include fictionpress.com and ratemywords.com . The second one is not very popular, but there is a 5-star rating system and a way to read, write, and receive feedback on short stories, songs, poems, etc. FictionPress is for basically anything you want to write as long as it is within the guidelines.
    You can also try Wattpad.com, which has become rather popular in recent years. You can write anything there, from novels to fanfiction. Archiveofourown.org is also like this...

    ReplyDelete
  20. i would also recommend getinkspired.com you can write and publish stories there (short, serial or even comics). Its free and its possible to rise some founds by creating crowdfunding campaign

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  21. I recommend Short Stories 101. Great website for anyone to submit their story and receive readers' feedback.

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  22. Post Your Story online
    http://www.yoursearch.in/stories

    ReplyDelete
  23. This is useful for young and aspiring writers and bloggers. If you have already learned to appreciate the time, then I advise you to do more useful things for you http://www.proficientwriters.com/online-jobs. My first experience in writing professional articles I got here, and very happy about it.

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  24. wow thank you for this I am in the process of righting a story this helps thank you it is my first one

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  25. Wattpad is an incredible place where you can publish your stories for people to read. It's very easy to use, and it's got a fantastic community. I would recommend wattpad.com to anyone in a heartbeat.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Thank you for the helpful article !!

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  27. I appreciate it!. I really like it when people get together and share ideas. Great website, continue the good work!. Either way, great web and I look forward to seeing it grow over time. Thank you so much.

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  28. How strange, I never knew about these story telling platforms. It's so good to have everyone under one roof, someone is sharing their health stories, some inspirational and some beauty stories, so good. Thanks for this.

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  29. I really liked using Wattpad.com it is a reliable app where you can publish your books and millions of people can read it, and vote on it. All for FREE!

    ReplyDelete
  30. I read your post its great thanks. Waiting for more new update.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Post your story on https://www.ebonystory.com
    Thousands of readers awaits you

    ReplyDelete
  32. i been trying to publish my short novel for years didn't know were to go or wat to do its just sittin t here collectin dust and it cost so much to publish it ufff ..

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  33. You can try to publish your story at https://readitt.com/

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  34. I wanted to publish my book, but I had not enough money to invest in publishing my book. Then I found Grace Point Publishing. They helped me to publish my book easily.

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  35. I really liked this site!! Thank you for the tips

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  36. i want to be able to write a story and publish it on a platform but i dont know how to do that i think im a very good writer through my eyes ive written stories before but i want others to read my work and be able to comment on it and find stuff i could change??

    ReplyDelete

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