A REFLECTION ON NONPAYING SUBMISSIONS

A hazard of submitting stories to paying magazines--especially longer stories, which tend to be a more competitive category--is that the ratio of rejections is typically greater. This can be discouraging.

On the flipside, having one's material routinely accepted by non-paying magazines risks eroding confidence from another direction.

If my work is published in an anthology, and I want a copy of that anthology as a "trophy" for my shelf, non-paying works quickly become negative income--tantamount to vanity press. 

The haiku/senyru I submitted to "Haiku after Dark", last month, did not pay anything. They cost me almost nothing to create--the mediocre work of an hour, inspired by the hope that I could lift my sagging ego with some easy acceptances.  Three of five were accepted, which is decent. 

But once they were published, I saw that a paperback copy of the anthology is priced at roughly $25, which killed any potential joy of owning a "trophy" copy.

Let me state that the overall quality of the anthology is pretty good, in my opinion. While proofreading my own prior to publication, I had occasion to browse other contributions, and discovered several that I admired. By contrast, my own contributions are okay, but not stand outs. 

Had my haiku been of higher quality, a "trophy" copy of the book would mean more and thus be more tempting to me. 

The image above represents almost 300 of my published works, representing a spectrum of quality. All earned the approval of at least one editor--a modest if not low bar for the non-paying anthologies. Some of my best stuff earned royalties or a fee. Among the latter, however, fewer than a dozen paid well enough to offset the cost of a printed copy of the book. So the image depicts mainly vain expense, not earnings.

FYI: "Hungry Thing" is the highest earner pictured. Evan after we donated all profits for the first three months to charity, Norbert Somosi and I split more than $200 each over the next five years (thanks mainly to purchases from friends).

Not pictured are a $100 honorable mention prize from Winning Writers for my humorous poem, "Where Pixies Relax"; and  $40 from "On the Premises" for my winning limerick, "Huffed the Wolf". 

$50 fee for my story, "Genuine Troll Leather Luggage" in "Dragon Bone Soup". 

$30 for my story, "Meadowsweet and the Eldritch Codex", in "Emerald".

The top royalty earner amongst anthologies shown is "Deep Space," which at $30+ more than compensated for the price of purchasing and shipping the "trophy."

Black Hare Press has been one of the most consistently considerate of its authors, frequently paying small fees for works here and there. $4 here, $10 there. About 2/3rds of the books displayed are BHP.

Very few others earned back their purchase and shipping costs. Grumpy Old Gods Vol. 1 and 2 combined earned about $20. 

Organic Ink earned less than $1 (to be fair, royalties were split between many authors).

Most other publishers never offered.

HAIKU AFTER DARK

HAIKU AFTER DARK – An International Halloween Haiku Anthology, a special international collection published by Fresh Words: An International Literary Magazine.

Included are three of my haikus.
Autumn's chilly winds
Hatless but red-skulled
Skeletons march past

E-EDITION

Read the anthology online:
https://sites.google.com/view/freshwordsmagazine/special-anthologies

PAPERBACK EDITION

Order your copy here:
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ENJOY 15% OFF THE PAPERBACK!

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Eschew Bad News. Refuse the Blues.

Selected friends and family have read advanced drafts of my poem, "Think of Pink," but no one has yet read the latest, probably final revision. I improved it last night, mostly by excising some of the repetitive lines, but also by relocating two poems from the top of the poem to the bottom. It flows much better, now.

"Think of pink. Think of pink!"

I submitted an earlier, but decent draft of "Think of Pink" to "Lighten Up Online," the same quarterly e-magazine of light verse that published "Where Angels Dance," but editor Jerome Betts gently rejected it as "not quite in LUPO's territory." 

Too bad. Even though LUPO is a non-paying market, and I may not be able to hope for better when it comes to light verse. At least there, I my work is in good company. (There's a lot of good poetry on the site. I recommend giving it a look.)

On that note, The Winning Writers' Wergle-Flomp Humor Poetry Contest publishes quality stuff and potentially pays, but is (therefore) even less likely to accept my work. 

Despite earning an Honorable Mention in that contest in 2019 (for "Where Pixies Relax") I have had no luck since. More discouraging, I've read some incredibly well-written poetry among the winners, but too few I found humorous. To sum up: 1). What I consider funny doesn't seem to amuse the Wergle-Flomp judges; 2) What the judges choose to win--while reliably high art--is less reliably funny. Ergo, I don't feel particularly hopeful about the prospects of succeeding in that market.

Speaking of major rewrites, I'll confess I've often contemplated replacing some mediocre lines in "Where Pixies Relax" (specifically, the verse about backpacks). 

A broader problem I have are humorous poems that rely on cultural references, since those quickly lose their meaning. "Santa Claus is Coming and He's Pissed" (an old favorite, never published) contrasts Charles Bronson's menace (see "Dirty Dozen" and "Death Wish") with Tinkerbell's harmlessness. "A Spaceman," (published in Clarendon House Publishing's, Poetica 3: Inner Circle Writer's Group Poetry Anthology 2021" likens a starry sky to "Liberace's sequined robe."

[Before I leave the topic of perishable references, I'm currently rewriting a short story that, in earlier drafts, mined humor out of "Rambo" and famous extraterrestrials: "E.T., Kal-el, Chewbacca, Spock and Doctor Who." None of those references will survive another draft.]

Back to poetry for a final subject. After Dad passed away, I inherited a stack of my own creative writing that he had saved for me. Among the stacked papers was a long-lost love poem I wrote for Sara while we were still newlyweds, living in Oakland, California: "The Light of My Life."

It's very nice, but not precious. So, I'll probably submit it soon to a vanity venue such as "Clarendon House Publishing's Poetics anthology series, or perhaps, "Spillwords.com". Once it's published, I'll likely come back and share it here, too. It begins:

The Light of My Life

Some days, I commute before sunrise,

On a train that dives under The Bay,

To a job in a windowless office,

Where I work without daylight all day...

Hungry Thing 2nd Edition Now Available (in Four Formats!)

When Hungry Thing was first self-published in December of 2019, I listed the publisher as my own,"Jot in the Dark Publishing." I even registered the business name in my street address at the time, which is still printed inside old or unsold copies of the book.

It was news to me that once I let Lulu.com provide a free ISBN, they became the actual publisher, no matter what I had printed inside the books opening pages, aka "front matter". This was disappointing news, but for the best, since I am a military dependent in the habit of being relocated every three years, which means that address was promptly obsolete. (A stranger lives there, now.) 

Moreover, Norbert and I decided together on two versions of the book: hardcover and paperback, in only one size: 6x9. (He formatted the covers, back and front, and I formatted everything else.) 

Norbert shared with me that when he first held his own copy of the book in his hands, though he was proud of it, he was also crestfallen by how small it is. The largest illustrations fill most of a single, 6x9 page, framed with plenty of white margin. By comparison, his painstakingly detailed original artworks are each triple that size up close. A 6x9 book is not the ideal presentation.

Ever since, Norbert and I have dreamed of updating the book, including a larger edition (8.5x11 or "US Letter Size) but I kept putting it off. 

Also, I wanted to own the ISBN next time, so that I would be free to change publishers without losing all the 5-star book reviews, etc. ISBNs are expensive, and I would need a different ISBN for each format of the book.  For U.S. based publishers, a company named Bowker sells a block of 10 ISBNs, which is a good deal if you plan to publish more than one book. So, kept putting it off until I was almost ready to publish another title--probably my planned, debut short story collection.

Meanwhile, my writing output had slowed, and most of my recent finished work kept getting rejected. The dilemma of whether to keep refining rejected works or focus on completing unfinished stories or even writing new ones was nearly paralyzing. Watching deadlines pass by, while losing momentum is very dispiriting. Yet somehow, this year I have reached a stage of having half a dozen unpublished stories collected, all of which are theoretically publishable, if I only keep submitting them (or improving them). Therefore, my next priority became overcoming my procrastination.

As we approach its six-year publishing anniversary, republishing Hungry Thing finally struck me as most urgent on the list of long-neglected imperatives. 

So, after some struggle, I have finally finished a 2nd Edition. Hungry Thing is now available in new formats as well as old. For the first time, it is available as an EPUB  (digital book) readable via Kindle, Apple, Google Play, or Kobo. It available again as a 6x9 paperback, but via Kindle instead of Lulu. Because Kindle will not publish a hardcover book having fewer than 75 pages (HT has roughly 40), I have kept Lulu as the publisher for the 6x9 glossy hardcover you may remember, PLUS a new, US Letter Sized matte-finish hardover on premium, 80lb paper stock.

"Ship of the Dead" published in The World of Myth Magazine

As of July 15th, 2026, the fourth and final installment of my serialized horror story, "Ship of the Dead" became available in issue #151 of "The World of Myth Magazine." 

Also in this issue, a drabble: "Prayers of Dread: Matthew 5 Heresy," and my humorous science fiction poem, "Jenny's Junkyard Rocket."

Serialized chapters began appearing in April, starting with

"A Fateful Meeting" in issue #148;

"A Perilous Invitation" in issue #149

"Night of Catastrophe" in issue #150

And concluding with, "Nightmare Seance," in issue #151