Hi folks,

Based on the popularity of my article yesterday for SFWA.org entitled Message to New Writers: It’s Okay to Focus on Your Craft, I would like to follow up in July with a new article that highlights how published authors got their start.

If you are a published author who has gotten paid for your fiction, please consider telling us about the first story you ever published and where it was featured.

You may contact me directly or provide a quote in the comments below along with your website.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: no two paths within this industry are alike. You and I may have opinions about the approach an author has, but at the end of the day those thoughts mean diddly. What matters, is focusing on your own work. What you are comfortable doing. What you are happy with.

I hope by exploring other people’s stories, in addition to my own, that we’ll not only shed some insight on these diverse paths, but we’ll also provide new authors with some much-needed encouragement.