Ask Sally #7 - Getting Paid for your writing

I've only just begun writing, but have written a short story I'm really pleased with. Someone on a writers' site said I should submit it to an ezine, and gave me the link. But it looks to me as though the ezine doesn't pay. And I wasn't too impressed with the other stories there. As a beginner, is it too much to expect t get paid for my work, or should I just try to build up a CV anyway even if the hits are non-paying? Also, how do I know which are the good ezines to send work to? It's all so confusing!

Yes, it is, so hopefully I can make it a bit less confusing. There are a couple of issues here. One is whether writers should expect pay for their work. The other is choosing a market that you feel comfortable being associated with. I'll deal with being paid for your work first.

Whether or not you choose to give work away for free really is up to you. I did it in the early days, to build up the 'hits' and whilst I was still learning the craft (not that I've stopped learning). Whether those hits were worth getting is another matter, and I tend not to include them on my list of publications nowadays. However, there is one school of thought that believes writers who give away their work for free are making it harder for others to get paid. After all, why should publications pay for any work if they can get it for free from new writers hungry to get noticed?

It also depends on what's meant by pay. Copies of the publication can be considered payment, and I will submit to magazines that only offer a copy of the print publication in lieu of money payment. What I seldom accept is what a lot of places - especially non-paying ezines - call kudos, as the kudos is very often only in the head of the editor who set up the ezine.

I can't tell you not to give away work for free, because I've done it, but I can tell you that nearly two years ago I decided I was no longer going to give away work for 'free'. I had a very lean year that year, spending £90 on the various tools of my trade (paper, ink, postage) and earning only £10 in cash, though I did get a free copy of the book from Accent Press when I submitted work to their Sexy Shorts For the Beach anthology and a couple of competition placings which look good on the resume but not much in the way of money. This year I relaxed my self-imposed rule slightly so that I will submit work to either paying publications (cash/copies etc) or publications that have a print issue. I'm not remotely interested in allowing my work to appear on free ezines (though as with La Fenetre, I'm happy for it to appear when there is a corresponding print issue). Perversely I've earned more this year than in any year since I started writing. I can't put down a deposit on my Gothic mansion, but it has fed my amazon habit and paid for my week away in the Peak District. This is my personal choice, but it's one I made after years of giving away my work willy nilly because I was so desperate to be noticed as a writer.

It's entirely up to you whether you give work away for free, but it doesn't hurt to value yourself as a writer. However, I know how soul destroying it can be to get loads of rejections so instead you aim for the 'easy' hit. I'd suggest that if you can't get paid for your work, then aim at something that's going to look good on the resume. Local or national newspapers who may accept articles or stories (among my first hits were stories I'd entered to Toowrite which were published in The Lincolnshire Echo), charity anthologies - make sure they're legitimate charities - and publications that at least give you contributor copies. Only work for that abstract element kudos if you're sure there's real kudos to be had. Which leads to the question of quality.

And I wasn't too impressed with the other stories there.

In that instance, then you certainly shouldn't let them have your work. Regardless of whether an ezine or magazine is paying or not, if you have misgivings about the quality of the work already featured there, then don't let your work anywhere near it. When I first started out, I was conned by a vanity publisher (I'll be discussing vanity press in another Ask Sally issue) into letting them have one of my poems for their anthology. I paid £9.99 for an anthology packed with poems. My poem was about the death of my mother, and whilst it may not have been technically perfect it was a painful poem to write. On the page before my poem was one about someone's obsession with picking their nose (ugh) and on another page nearby was a poem about some knights watching maidens bathing, the pay off line of which was 'Let's all go down there and rape the blooming lot'. I was mortified! I never mention that publication in my list of hits, because I'm embarrassed to be associated with it.

As I stated earlier, a lot of ezines will claim that they offer kudos. Well, take a good look at what's on their pages before deciding whether there is kudos to be had. You're not going to like everything you read, so allow for one or two stories not being to your taste (unless the subject matter is particularly distasteful) but if you hate everything you read on the ezine, why on earth do you want your work to appear on it?

You might also bear in mind that once a story appears on an ezine, it's classed as published, so your chances of using it in a competition or with a paying magazine is slim, unless you rewrite it and change the title. Do you want to waste a potentially paying story on an ezine about which you have misgivings? This also goes for print publications. Check out those you're interested in. How long have they been around? What's their ratio of acceptances/rejections? What is the quality of the work within? What are the production values or editorial input? If any publication keeps all the writer's spelling mistakes or makes no attempt to format work properly, then it's probably run by a couple of mates who were in the pub one night and thought they might quite like to run a magazine/ezine. It's best if the editor has more than a nodding acquaintance with the publishing world, and also more than a nodding acquaintance with the current publishing world. Beware the editor living off 'kudos' gained ten or more years ago.

How do I know which are the good ezines to send work
to?

As I've stated in previous Ask Sallys, duotrope has a good database of many magazines and ezines. They also keep a list of rejection/acceptance ratios. If an ezine is accepting everything that's sent to it, then maybe it's not that discerning. Alternatively, if it's turning down 99% of work, then maybe it's a bit too esoteric. To begin with it might be better to aim at those which are in the middle ground. Read the ezines. Find out if you are happy for your work to appear among that already featured.

You could also talk to other writers on forums. Which ezines do they respect? Which are considered rubbish? Be careful about this one as some writers will champion everything that's ever accepted their work and lambast everything that's ever turned them down.

So in conclusion, I'm not saying you should absolutely never give anything away for free, but you need to weigh up the consequences of doing this. Does the 'hit' look good on the resume? Does it advance you as a writer? Are you embarrassed by the association? These are questions only you can answer.

More Links

Ezine Markets

Duotrope

A-Z Flash fiction

Should Writers Work For Free?