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| SFReader Forums > SFReader > Ask The Expert > Another thread about magazine pay rates. | Forum Quick Jump
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Nik
Adept
      
Date Joined Feb 2007
Total Posts : 774
| Posted 3/27/2008 1:02 AM (GMT -4) |   | Jordan Lapp said...
Thanks for the comments, Bill. The truth is that if I won the lottery we'd pay 25c/word just for the hell of it.
In that case, I just donated enough for you to buy a 20-word story. My only request is that it be 20 words of fantasy .
If I come up with any ideas on how you can earn enough money to realistically raise rates, I'll let you know. But all in all, I think EDF is doing just fine, and you should know your work is recognized and appreciated.
Nicholas Ian Hawkins
Forthcoming
"Knowledge and Dust," in Magic & Mechanica, from Ricasso Press, Spring 2008
Published
"What Heroes Leave Behind," in Return of the Sword, Flashing Swords Press, March 2008
"The Weald Maiden's Will," in Every Day Fiction, March 5, 2008
"Relativity," in FLASHSHOT, September 28, 2007
Visit my website, Trampler of Beautiful Phrases, at nihawkins.wordpress.com | | Back to Top | | |
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Nik
Adept
Date Joined Feb 2007
Total Posts : 774
| Posted 3/27/2008 1:04 AM (GMT -4) | | Swashbuckler said...
Worrying about how much you get paid for a flash story is like worrying about whether your tennis serve was out by a foot or out by a dozen yards. It doesn't matter.
What matter to me is that when I publish a story at EDF, I hear from readers. Mostly in the comments, sometimes via email, occasionally at my blog. But I know people are reading ... and isn't that the only real reason to write short fiction of any kind?
Well said.
I would only add that I also enjoy reading EDF and interacting with other authors.
Nicholas Ian Hawkins
Forthcoming
"Knowledge and Dust," in Magic & Mechanica, from Ricasso Press, Spring 2008
Published
"What Heroes Leave Behind," in Return of the Sword, Flashing Swords Press, March 2008
"The Weald Maiden's Will," in Every Day Fiction, March 5, 2008
"Relativity," in FLASHSHOT, September 28, 2007
Visit my website, Trampler of Beautiful Phrases, at nihawkins.wordpress.com | | Back to Top | | |
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darkbow
Rabbit lord
Date Joined Oct 2005
Total Posts : 1632
| Posted 3/27/2008 1:09 AM (GMT -4) | | | | |
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Swashbuckler
One-man sword-and-sorcery machine
Date Joined Mar 2006
Total Posts : 1252
| Posted 3/27/2008 1:10 AM (GMT -4) | | | | |
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darkbow
Rabbit lord
Date Joined Oct 2005
Total Posts : 1632
| Posted 3/27/2008 3:12 AM (GMT -4) | | | | |
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tchernabyelo
Acolyte
Date Joined Oct 2006
Total Posts : 431
| Posted 3/27/2008 7:21 AM (GMT -4) | | I didn't realise the issue with email subscribers (of which I am one) compared to RSS feed subscribers.
I'm not really au fait with RSS feeds. I do read a few of them that are pumped to livejournal (which is the hangout for a lot of writing types). Would having an LJ RSS presence help EDF, or am I just being a complete twonk here?
Brian Dolton
Yi Qin stories:
"The Box Of Beautiful Things" - IGMS#3
"The Man Who Was Never Afraid" - Abyss and Apex #20
"At Blue Crane Falls" - Abyss and Apex #25 "Where No Wind Blows" - Staffs & Starships #2
"What The Sea Refuses" - Black Gate (forthcoming)
"What The Heart Bears" - Black Gate (forthcoming)
"Above The Clouds" - Paper Blossoms, Sharpened Steel (forthcoming)
Other Land Of Wind And Ghosts stories:
"The Dragon Path" - Fictitious Force (forthcoming)
"Three Out Of Four" - Sorcerous Signals Feb-Apr 08
Stories in other settings:
"The Unicorn Hunter" - OG's Speculative Fiction #8
"Call Centre" - Necrotic Tissue #1
"When Winter Came" - ASIM #32
"Cold Fire" - Flashing Swords #9
"St. Saviour And The Devil's Dandy" - Flashing Swords (forthcoming) | | Back to Top | | |
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RHFay
Sage
Date Joined Nov 2007
Total Posts : 1702
| Posted 3/29/2008 12:26 AM (GMT -4) | | |
<<scratchin' my head again>>
If a payment of one dollar is what the editor and contributor are both comfortable with, what's it matter?
You can't expect every market to pay pro-rates, and I think it's reasonable to assume that different markets have different pay rates.
"I'm going to do what the warriors of old did. I'm going to recite poetry!"
Richard H. Fay - Azure Lion Productions
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nathan
Sage
Date Joined Mar 2006
Total Posts : 2111
| Posted 3/29/2008 6:33 PM (GMT -4) | | It depends on your business model I would assume. If readers are getting your (any) product in a passive manner--i.e. it's coming without cose right into their email box and it'd be more work to unhook the service than just to not read it anymore--then no. (I'm not suggesting this of EDF except as it fits into the most broad of examples).
If you're putting out a product that people are paying for, that they must extend some effort to acquire it--drive to a store, start *and* maintain a subcription, etc, etc then probablly the old model is going hold a little more true.
Having a Stephen King short story is going to move a lot of copies for you as an indie horror mag. You aren't getting a SK story for free or for a buck and it would be chutzpah to suggest so.
That's one example but really in the older model it comes down to basic capatilism--in the abscene of government subsidies. You have readers. Readers have to actively get your product. To get and keep them you have to give them quality. If you have no competior you can pay a buck and if the writer wants the exposure he'll submit. Now you get 1-infinite number of competiors doing the same thing you are (in old school model) and they pay more. The writers capable of producing repeat readers follow the money, the fans follow the writers---and you know how it works.
This applies if you need to keep in the black. If you don't need to worry then pay rates are secondary.
EDF isn't using the same business model as RoF (nor do I think it wants to it) so it doesn't exist in the same paradigm.
Which isn't bad IMO.
VIEW IMAGE
"Writing the wet dreams of teenage boys" - Lindsey Llyod, Tangent Reviews
Tarantino himself has been forward and unapologetic about his influences. In a 1994 interview with Empire magazine, he said, "I steal from every single movie ever made. If people don't like that, then tough tills, don't go and see it, all right? I steal from everything. Great artists steal, they don't do homages." | | Back to Top | | |
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nathan
Sage
Date Joined Mar 2006
Total Posts : 2111
| Posted 3/29/2008 8:55 PM (GMT -4) | |
darkbow said...
I do believe a lot of professional writers, even those well known, write shorts today for two reasons: 1.) they enjoy it, 2.) marketing. Anything else is asking too much; there's simply not a market for many publications to pay big, big money, let alone pro rates. If you eliminate the obvious Playboys and New Yorkers (and even then if you're big) or the examples of SK selling a short story 1-buck at a time on his website and making 180-thousand dollars, you are really right. Short stories are becoming a place for writing enthusiasits rather than a place to practice a craft as a means of income.
This might change if the genre mags change their content to match the best seller lists but I don't know if I believe that will help.
I mean I don't know if pro-rates of 5-cents a word is big, big money though. Most writers by numerical count, making money for their stories are getting paid the same amount writers were during the depression.
If you believe your effort is worth compensation then seen from that view then maybe the argument is that writers are wrong for wanting fair pay but rather that so many publications should stop trying to operate under unrealistic business models.
That is, I think you are correct, but I'm not sure it's *only* just a matter of writers being unrealistic for wanting their fiction to keep up with inflation...from the 1930's.
VIEW IMAGE"Writing the wet dreams of teenage boys" - Lindsey Llyod, Tangent Reviews
Tarantino himself has been forward and unapologetic about his influences. In a 1994 interview with Empire magazine, he said, "I steal from every single movie ever made. If people don't like that, then tough tills, don't go and see it, all right? I steal from everything. Great artists steal, they don't do homages." | | Back to Top | | |
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darkbow
Rabbit lord
Date Joined Oct 2005
Total Posts : 1632
| Posted 3/29/2008 9:16 PM (GMT -4) | | I think it's realistic in that there's no market. If, by some miracle, there should suddenly be a huge upsurgence in the need for short fiction, then the market will naturally reflect that. I don't consider writing short fiction as something that needs to keep up with inflation simply because ... well, drat it, I'll repeat ... there's no market for it. Writers, serious writers, in the current market need to realize that if they wish to make a living off their writing then they are going to have to turn to novels (which I think nathan has done). But who knows? The market may change. Or perhaps in 10 years we'll all be writing scripts for video games.
But, as a fun little exercise, let me figure out here how much I'd have to get paid, by word, to make a living as a short story writer:
Let's say my annual salary needs to be $40,000. That might seem high to some folks, but it's not outlandish by any means.
For me, ju | |
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