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How do you promote a story that's not for profit?

I'm starting to think I've been making things unnecessarily complicated for myself by trying to sell my stories for profit. I never expected much money from them, and I get that from my real job anyways--I just thought selling my stories would make them look more professional and make folks more likely to read them. But what if I don't bother?

Where would you host a story if you're not charging anything to read it? How would you promote it? What methods would you use to convince people that it's more worthy of reading than other free stories on the Internet?
 

Addison

Auror
I think the local library would be the best place. Make promotional fliers, little bookmarks promoting the story and leave them at the library. Maybe even the grade school, junior high or high school, whichever place has your target audience.
 

Devor

Fiery Keeper of the Hat
Moderator
Find someone to distribute your content for you.

I mean, just here at Mythic Scribes, there's dozens of people working on blogs. But there's plenty of sites on the internet that would love to have good content they can post. Find one that's right for you and ask if they'd be willing to host your story once a month or whenever.

In general, control what's important for your success, outsource what isn't. If promoting your story isn't all that important, then give it to someone else.
 

TWErvin2

Auror
There are always markets that do not pay, and only ask for nonexclusive rights to post the story. That leaves the story in question open to other venues, from personal blogs to free on Amazon or Smashwords, for example, but it being published elsewhere on a free ezine or similar venue might bring it to the attention of readers who would've otherwise never stumbled across it. Of course, not all ezines or anthologies are created equal, and some have a very small following/readership.
 
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