The Journal: On Getting Paid in Copies

In today’s Journal

* Quotes of the Day
* Yesterday
* On Getting Paid in Copies
* Speaking of writing
* The Numbers

Quotes of the Day

“People on the outside think there’s something magical about writing, that you go up in the attic at midnight and cast the bones and come down in the morning with a story, but it isn’t like that. You sit in back of the typewriter and you work, and that’s all there is to it.” Harlan Ellison

“I get so angry about [people expecting writers to work for nothing] because you’re undercut by all the amateurs.” Harlan Ellison

Yesterday I passed a pleasurable day reading back through some of the short stories I’ve written but haven’t published. Of course, I also spent part of the day poking around on the Internet looking for markets that are less known than the big names but still pay professional rates (6¢ per word or higher), which was a horrible experience because it was so bo-ho-ho-ho-horing. I’m just not a business guy.

Anyway, eventually I gave up on that silliness, found appropriate markets for four of them and sent them off.

In the death throes of my search I almost bought the 2020 Novel & Short Story Writers Market (around $20 if you go through Amazon). I didn’t because my astute wife remembered I’d bought the 2019 edition.

So I asked her to comb through the short story markets and line out any entries in which the ‘zine paid less than pro rates, then provide me with a clean list. Which she readily agreed to do, bless her little business heart.

To put all of this in perspective, other than the couple of stories I recently sent to DWS for possible inclusion in the Cave Creek anthologies, the last time I submitted a short story to a magazine or anthology it went by US mail. There was no email yet or online submission forms. There were no personal computers. (grin) I was still in the Marine Corps. It was probably the early to mid-1980s.

On Getting Paid in Copies

By the way, when you submit your stories to magazine markets, submit first to those who pay pro rates. Then either publish yourself or work your way down the scale.

And whatever you do, don’t submit EVER to those markets who “pay in copies.” Seriously. And don’t fall for the old bat guano about “building your name” or “gaining experience” or “adding to your credits.”

If you want to build your name or your portfolio of writing credits, you have to licence your work to magazines that have an actual readership outside of the publisher’s family and friends. And when you give your work away, the only experience you gain is in letting cheap, unprofessional publishers take advantage of you.

Think about it: Magazines who pay you in copies are paying you by showing you copies of your own story. That’s like taking a photo of your toilet or your pipes or whatever the plumber fixed and mailing or emailing him that instead of a check.

Like any other craftspeople or artists, writers deserve to be paid. If you’re a writer, that includes you.

Speaking of writing, the bug really started tugging at me around noon yesterday, but it was too late in the day to start something new, so I didn’t. I took the rest of yesterday to do nothing, and today I’ll start writing fiction again.

Talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

See “Harlan Ellison — Pay the Writer” (short video) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj5IV23g-fE.

See “Tightening Your Focus” at https://mystorydoctor.com/tightening-your-focus/.

See “Offer Ends at 11:50 p.m. Tonight” at https://infostack.io/stack/wc2/.

The Numbers

The Journal…………………………………… 600 words

Writing of The Journey Home: Part 9 (novel)

Day 1…… XXXX words. Total words to date…… XXXXX

Total fiction words for March……… 36988
Total fiction words for the year………… 235996
Total nonfiction words for March… 12920
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 58950
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 294946

Calendar Year 2021 Novels to Date…………………… 5
Calendar Year 2021 Novellas to Date……………… X
Calendar Year 2021 Short Stories to Date… 3
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 59
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 217
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31

Disclaimer: In this blog, I provide advice on writing fiction. I advocate a technique called Writing Into the Dark. To be crystal clear, WITD is not “the only way” to write, nor will I ever say it is. However, as I am the only writer who advocates it both regularly and publicly, I will continue to do so, among myriad other topics.