I no longer use the word submit in my cover letter, I use the word offer.This is not a matter of dominance and submission. I am offering a lit mag the opportunity to publish my work.
I hate it when magazines ask to have pages numbered and /or your name and address on the first page. I have had over 50 stories published but don't have time to add these particulars to please editors. bah humbug!
At After Dinner Publication, we struggled with ways to make money while keeping our submissions free. Our solution was to take a page from Disney and we created a FAST PASS submission. If you submit via our normal method, it's free, and we tend to run about 6-8 weeks to respond. If you pay $4 for a FAST PASS submission you are the next thing we read, typically within 24hrs. Your odds of getting accepted aren't any better, but you'll hear back right away.
Bravo, Mike. You nail so many of my chief annoyances with publishers, including:
1. Definition of published. Many sites will not allow submissions that have been previously published, including on the author’s personal blog. Commercially published elsewhere is a no-brainer. Self-published, anthologised etc I get to some extent. However, a personal blog with a readership of two-fifths of five-eighths of diddly squat? All writers are looking for a broader readership and this provision seems petty and antithetical to the spirit of writing, including the inclusion of new voices.
2. Geographical exclusions. I recently received an online newsletter listing dozens of opportunities that did not require a submission fee (more on this later). Of those, some 80% excluded anyone outside a particular country, state, or geographical area, and many had an extra layer of requirements e.g. entrants to be left-handed Catholics living within 5 miles of the CBD of Kookamunga.
3. Blatant disregard for the site’s/competition’s own rules. I recently received notification that I had been unsuccessful in a submission (par for the course) and providing links to the stories of successful short-listed entrants. Three of the top four winners were in blatant breach of the competition guidelines and half of the submissions were barely literate. (I doubt that the authors could have provided any form of coherent explanation of what their piece was about.)
4. Submission fees. Clearly many sites are run by people who rely on this drip-feed to supplement whatever other forms of income they may have. I get that. However, how does the average writing punter know who the operators are or whether they have any idea about what they are doing and how these funds are distributed and/or accounted for, and whether the prize recipients are in fact real people? Where's the TripAdvisor for publisher experiences?
More power to your pen and your submission guidelines, Mike.
I no longer use the word submit in my cover letter, I use the word offer.This is not a matter of dominance and submission. I am offering a lit mag the opportunity to publish my work.
Oh you made me laugh and feel so much better about my irritations around submissions. Thank you! This is a tough business!
Love the revised submission guidelines. Petition to have them accepted as standard!!
I hate it when magazines ask to have pages numbered and /or your name and address on the first page. I have had over 50 stories published but don't have time to add these particulars to please editors. bah humbug!
I could not possibly love this more. My cup runs over with love for it. See it spilling all over the floor? That's my love.
Perfect really ! I’ve always wondered if all these pay a fee ones are truly legit anyway .
This is great! Love it!
At After Dinner Publication, we struggled with ways to make money while keeping our submissions free. Our solution was to take a page from Disney and we created a FAST PASS submission. If you submit via our normal method, it's free, and we tend to run about 6-8 weeks to respond. If you pay $4 for a FAST PASS submission you are the next thing we read, typically within 24hrs. Your odds of getting accepted aren't any better, but you'll hear back right away.
https://www.afterdinnerconversation.com/submission-fast-pass
Refreshingly funny!
Excellent suggestions for what currently appears to be a time wasting sucker’s game called “submission...”
Bravo, Mike. You nail so many of my chief annoyances with publishers, including:
1. Definition of published. Many sites will not allow submissions that have been previously published, including on the author’s personal blog. Commercially published elsewhere is a no-brainer. Self-published, anthologised etc I get to some extent. However, a personal blog with a readership of two-fifths of five-eighths of diddly squat? All writers are looking for a broader readership and this provision seems petty and antithetical to the spirit of writing, including the inclusion of new voices.
2. Geographical exclusions. I recently received an online newsletter listing dozens of opportunities that did not require a submission fee (more on this later). Of those, some 80% excluded anyone outside a particular country, state, or geographical area, and many had an extra layer of requirements e.g. entrants to be left-handed Catholics living within 5 miles of the CBD of Kookamunga.
3. Blatant disregard for the site’s/competition’s own rules. I recently received notification that I had been unsuccessful in a submission (par for the course) and providing links to the stories of successful short-listed entrants. Three of the top four winners were in blatant breach of the competition guidelines and half of the submissions were barely literate. (I doubt that the authors could have provided any form of coherent explanation of what their piece was about.)
4. Submission fees. Clearly many sites are run by people who rely on this drip-feed to supplement whatever other forms of income they may have. I get that. However, how does the average writing punter know who the operators are or whether they have any idea about what they are doing and how these funds are distributed and/or accounted for, and whether the prize recipients are in fact real people? Where's the TripAdvisor for publisher experiences?
More power to your pen and your submission guidelines, Mike.
PS - For my thoughts on the related topic of the writing course racket, see https://sixcrookedhighwaysblog.wordpress.com/2022/06/12/the-writing-course-racket/
Great article. Loved your feelings on the fees. I agreed with all of it.
https://www.cincinnatireview.com/editors-dispatches/the-writer-as-editor-how-editing-and-technology-shapes-the-submission-process/
Yes! HUMOR to the Rescue. . .thanks, Mike!
Beautifully done. Fantastic points.