I think I may have mentioned this on Twitter awhile back, but I came across this again and wanted to post it here. Basically, a recent trend in small press anthologies have this kind of payment:
Editor’s Favorites
Authors of the editor’s top 3 favorite stories will receive the following payment:
1st Place – $50.00 + 1 contributor’s copy of the book
2nd Place – $25.00 + 1 contributor’s copy of the book
3rd Place – $10.00 + 1 contributor’s copy of the bookAll other authors will receive EXPOSURE ONLY (no payment, no contributor’s copy)
Anyone see anything wrong with that? I understand how hard it is for publishers, how there’s very little money to fund a project, and if there is very little money to fund a project, maybe some of these publishers should be think twice before announcing such a project.
It’s always nice to get paid for my writing, but sometimes I’m happy with taking just a contributor’s copy if one is available. But why would I submit to an anthology that only pays three of its contributors with money and a copy of the book and doesn’t give any of the other contributors anything? (Keep in mind that this is an anthology that will probably be read by hardly anyone else besides the contributors.) It’s like the writers submitting are participating in a lottery, though not a fair lottery. Because it wouldn’t surprise me if the top three stories happened to be awarded to somewhat more established writers (thought I can’t imagine many somewhat more established writers would submit to these types of projects in the first place).
Basically, the horror/sf community frowns upon markets that don’t pay. So some of these publishers have found a loophole. They will only pay three of the contributors, so they can still be considered a “paying market.” And yet … and yet … writers will still submit to them.
But as they say, such is life.
Yeah, that sucks. I understand if a pub can’t give away any contrib copies, but gives away a free PDF to all contribs–a la Toronto Quarterly. It seems like it should be all or nothing, though.
This could easily become an example of how the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
The big killer, as far as contributor copies goes, is postage–it’s risen consistently over the past 3-4 years. And international postage is outrageous. To some parts of the world, it costs 2-3 times as much to ship a book as print it. That being said, I say pay something. If it’s cash, the contributors can decide what to do with it. Just my opinion.
As far as the rich getting richer? I doubt any publisher of these scamthologies is making any money.
I hear you on the postage angle, Aaron. One giveaway I did recently I sent overseas and the postage alone was almost as much as the journal I was sending over there!