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.