Judy's Blog Monday, August 27 1:00 am

Sometimes I wonder at the results I get from my writing.

I wonder if people are actually reading my articles. Yes, here on Writernia they have a functioning page view counter (other writing websites can't seem to get it together). I can tell how many page views I am getting, but does that mean that I only attracted the interest of people, or if they really read the article.

I wonder if people pick apart the mistakes I make. I wonder if people like my style of writing.

It's a strange thing to say, but I know I have a few fans. People that I know actually like what I write.. and these are NOT people I know in the real world. The people I know in the real world barely ever read anything I write.

Writers seek publishers; this is a constant activity that many times has no results. It is true that some markets are in easy reach of most writers, especially in USA. In Europe things are slightly different; not all publishers possess an English language site and writers encounter problems in examining it and contacting the publisher.

In Greece, for example, most publishers’ sites are in Greek, and only the big publishers have built a multilingual site. In this case, writers can not research the market properly, let alone contact a publisher in Greece. Greece is a new exciting marketplace that all writers should be able to explore and, why not, find a suitable publisher for their work.

There are Greek publishers that seek foreign writers in order to get their work translated into Greek and then promote it in the Greek book market.

But how can writers find these publishers?

I have been looking around for sites on which I can generate some extra cash for writing, with varying degrees of success.

Here's my question: What do you folks think of sites that require exclusive content from their contributors?

In some cases, I'm OK with it. McSweeney's, for example, is a site that I plan to submit to eventually, and I don't mind that they require content exclusivity. They have the reputation to back it up, and although they don't offer compensation, the exposure would be great. That and the fact that Dave Eggers is behind McSweeney's, and he is on my top five living writers list.

In other cases, I'm not so sure. Triond, for example, rejected a piece that I wrote because it appeared on my blog (I didn't read the rules very closely, apparently). With so many fly-by-night companies, and companies that really don't have the pull to be able to get anything back to the writer for their effort, I am pretty skeptical.