Nonpaying Literary Journals

Hope Clark in her Editor's Thoughts for the FFW newsletter April 4, lams into nonpaying literary journals.  It's a good piece, and reading it I found myself nodding. Only on second thought, I didn't totally agree. As a writer and editor who has written for and worked for both paying and nonpaying markets, I have a foot in both camps here.

As a writer, next to getting published, I like getting paid. It does annoy me that in the years since I started submitting seriously, writing for free has become the rule rather than the exception. However, as an editor I've worked for three online journals in the past 10 years. One paid $25 when online publications were rare, let alone paying ones. That zine went in and out of publication and through various incarnations for years, the last in the form of a winter issue that has been sitting on the site since January 2009. The other publication paid a whopping $40 and published four issues before the editor disappeared with nary a word. Sandwiched between those two was The Rose & Thorn (currently Rose & Thorn Journal) that doesn't pay and has been publishing four issues a year of ever increasing quality consistently since 1997. So, of those three, where would you rather have your work showcased?

I would also take issue with Hope's assumption that "editors, proofreaders, and administrative staff get
paid." While some of the better journals do employ a skeleton crew, just about every journal has some, and often all, unpaid staff doing much of the work. I am not familiar with all the journals Hope mentions as paying markets. I do know Glimmer Train was one of the first to support itself with submission fees. It calls them contest fees, but they are always running some kind of contest, and it becomes clear pretty early on that a new writer's best (though still long shot) bet for getting in is one of their New Writer's competitions. Narrative was covered extensively in a couple older posts.

At the beginning of this post I said I liked getting paid almost as much as getting published. That's a significant point. As a writer and editor I don't see anything wrong with nonpaying journals, so long as they are the ones open to new writers, which isn't always the case, and there I would strongly agree with Hope. I also feel nonpaying markets are fine if they serve as a stepping stone to better, paying publications––kind of like starting out in the mailroom of a major company and working your way up to vice-president. However, just as an employee of a company isn't likely, these days, to leave the mailroom without a Master's degree from a prestigious university, so a writer isn't likely to move up to the top journals without the same.

That is where I see the real problem. Nonpaying journals are fine as long as they represent the bottom of a tiered system in which writers can advance based purely on the quality of their work. Unfortunately, with that system having been knocked on its head by journals playing it "safe" in accepting only the highest credentials, many excellent writers don't even expect to get paid anymore. Those low expectations lead to more nonpaying markets, and the spiral continues downward.

I'm sure there is a solution out there somewhere, but it isn't writers submitting only to paying markets, because they end up hurting no one but themselves.

Congrats to Kimberly and My Own Thoughts on Contests

First I want to congratulate one of my favorite bloggers, Kimberly Davis. Her poem "Alchemy" won Mid-America Review's James Wright Poetry Award. In her announcement Kimberly, as always, has some useful insights into writing contests.

Opinions regarding contests vary widely among writers. Some feel they are a waste of money since most require a submission fee and the odds of winning are long. Others are downright skeptical assuming that: new writers need not apply; an MFA is required; or winners are usually "in bed" with the judges. This skepticism was fanned a few years back when some dirty linen did fall out of the closet. In one or two cases it appeared judges had awarded former students, and in more than one case the judge determined there were no winners and contest sponsors refused demands for refunds of submission fees.

These situations were truly not the rule. If there were more than three or four that made the writer magazines, I'm not aware of them. However, as often happens, the hue and cry had the further beneficial effect of making contest sponsors even more vigilant for any appearance of favoritism.

Consequently, I would join Kim in encouraging writers to enter competitions, and I would add one additional reason to what she covers in her post. I find that writing for contests can be a great incentive to produce. While I've never come closer  than a finalist––a distinction shared by the top 50 entries––some of my best work has been written with the intention of submitting to a specific contest.

I say intention, because I don't always submit the final product. Sometimes I miss the deadline while trying to get it into polished form, sometimes the final version doesn't appear as good a match as I first envisioned it, or I may decide I don't want to tie up a story with potential in a contest that doesn't accept simultaneous submissions. Whether I submit or not, I usually end up with something to show for my efforts.

As far as when and where to submit, contests can become an expensive habit. I encourage writers to set a budget and choose wisely. Keep in mind that choosing wisely doesn't mean the lowest submission fee or the one where winning is most likely. If the award carries little prestige, no amount of money will be worth it. But whether you submit and win, submit and don't win, or don't end up submitting at all, searching out and writing for competitions can be a useful expenditure of a writer's time.

10 Greatest Writers Who Became Famous After Death

This very interesting post was brought to my attention by the blogger. I really enjoyed it, though I'm not sure what conclusion to draw. Perhaps we should all gather at some retreat, write our very best work, then mix up a large pitcher of Kool-Aid?

This Just In: Kids in UK Should Walk to School While Reading

At least since I was a kid, the media has loved sensational stories about how kids are headed down the road to ruin. In my day we watched too much TV, listened to Satanic music like the Rolling Stones, and used drugs. All of which many of us did––and that's not even counting the sexual revolution––and still ended up living typical suburban lives with the house, the car, and the 2.5 kids, just like our parents. If I recall, all that TV presaged the end of reading, too.

So here's another sensational article,  this time from the UK. Fewer than half of children read for leisure or walk to school.  Is this a perfect set-up for the Onion or what? I can see it now.

Statistics show 75% of kids who read while walking to school are injured by walking into poles, while another 10% are hit by cars.


How about we give the poor kids a break already.

$3.99 For One Short Story On the Kindle?

Here's an interesting post from the VQR Blog. Seems The Atlantic has entered into an agreement with Amazon to sell individual shorts for the Kindle at $3.99 apiece. I can't imagine paying $3.99 to read one lousy short story or even a good one. Of course the writer gets a "four figure" return. That's a lot too. Is that really necessary?

Why do I see failure in their future?

Watershed by L.Lee Lowe

Check out Watershed  a new short story posted by my blogger friend L.Lee Lowe author of the two serialized YA online novels Corvus and Mortal Ghost.

Author Mills

I found an interesting post on Writer Beware Blogs! about author mills, publishers whose business model is "selling as many books as possible from a limited number of authors" like PublishAmerica for example.


The bloggers are asking anyone who has had experience with this type of publishing––good or bad to contact them.

Online Publishing at the Crossroads

My friend John Gorman author of Shades of Luz very kindly returned the favor and invited me to guest on his blog Paper Cut. The article deals with how the original literary zines will fare now that so many top-tier print journals have gone online. I warn you, it's a little long, but all those pioneering zines are near and dear to my heart.

Man Booker Prize: A Breath of Fresh Air?

The short list for this year's Man Booker Prize has been released. Only two former winners were included. Of the nine other former winners who submitted works, one source noted they ranged "from the good to the merely average, with one downright stinker."

I'm noticing a trend here in the US as well, perhaps fueled by the popularity of new online innovations, away from publishing the so-so work of the "anointed" few (at least in shorter works. Writers of book length works, no matter how disappointing, still seem to get the royal treatment with the national book tours). Even The New Yorker has been publishing some short fiction that is downright fun to read.

Anyone want to comment as to whether this trend has spilled over into Best American? Dare I admit, as a writer/editor, that it's been a couple of years since I purchased the anthology. Lord knows I spend enough on my writing already, and I was beginning to feel a little "fleeced" by this "must-read" collection where I'd find one or two stories, at best, to be memorable along with many I'd already read and forgotten in other publications. I'm wondering, though, since NYer stories always made up such a large portion of their contents, if Best might also be reflecting this trend?

Students Pick Their Own Reading

I really like the idea of students having a say in what they read. This follows well on my earlier post Kids & Reading. I see two major problems with required reading at the middle and high school level. One is that while some kids may find a few gems they enjoy, nothing is as much fun when someone forces you to do it. Second, the reading lists are always chosen by the prior generation. Back in the 60s, our reading through senior year of high school went from Chaucer through Hemingway and Faulkner. By definition a "classic" has to be "judged over time," but other things come into the mix as well. The Lord of the Rings caught on with the counter-culture back then, but even though first published in the 30s, it was not yet seen as "serious" enough for required reading. I'm guessing these days it comes highly recommended, and I'm also guessing most kids now prefer the movie. The next generation of teachers and administrators will likely insist at least some of the Harry Potter series (click that link at your own risk) make the list of required reading.

I do think a mix of assignments works better, but not when it functions in the old style of one reading list fits all. I know this is hard to do in larger classrooms, but kids who choose certain contemporary novels can be steered in the direction of classics of a similar theme or genre. A recommendation for the kids reading chick lit might be some Jane Austen. If they like vampires and horror, they could also read Dracula and Frankenstein. Teachers should encourage students to appreciate that shorter isn't always better, and that some works can have meaning beyond the basic story, but students should also be allowed to prefer the new over the old.

This could go a long way, not just toward getting kids more interested in reading, but ending the notion that academia has a "lock" on what's of value or that students must be forced to "appreciate" certain works and authors. Or worse, those disastrous attempts by teachers to reach out to students by choosing what they think kids would identify with. In my first year of high school I'm pretty sure that was the reasoning behind assigning John Gunther's Death Be Not Proud that served only to ruin our summer vacations and cause us to freak out every time we had a headache or kink in our necks.

Next I'd love to see kids perusing the Internet for favorite zines and stories and poems to share with classmates. Why not bring it all into the 21st century?

Corvus by L. Lee Lowe

Chapter 1 of l. lee lowe's most recent serialized online Fantasy/Sci Fi novel is now live. Click on the title of this post or on the image in the sidebar to go directly to the site where you can begin reading the novel or listen to it as a podcast. Feedbooks are also available for iPhones and ereaders.

Corvus by L. Lee Lowe

My blogger friend, Lee Lowe just announced she will begin the serialization of her new YA novel, Corvus on August 14. Don't forget to stop by and check it out.

Twitterature?

OMG, according to this article in P&W, Penguin is going to release a volume "that pares classic books down to a series of tweet-sized chunks." I'd love to know what readers think about this.

For more on my thoughts you can read my earlier post.

Everybody's Doin' It: The MFA Rag

Interesting blog post by David Lynn editor of The Kenyon Review. He references an article in the New Yorker re: MFA aka Creative Writing programs that, in turn, is a review of a book on the subject by Mark McGurl. Full disclosure, if you've read my blog at all you know I spent a week at the Kenyon Writer's Workshop a year ago. I loved my week there and learned a lot from Chris Tilghman's input, but then again, I had a lot to learn, which brings me to some of the differences I have with David Lynn's remarks. So, for this post, allow me if I may, to play devil's advocate, addressing Lynn's points one-by-one though not necessarily in the order in which they were presented.

The noble cause
Lynn makes it clear that an MFA, at least today with 822 programs available, no longer guarantees publishing success and/or a prestigious teaching job. However, his contention is that a creative writing program, unlike a job-focused program, can be an end in itself.

To an extent I agree with Lynn. Outside of a handful of fields––engineering and software development come to mind–-few four-year grads walk into a job these days. The world does need engineers and software developers and doctors and lawyers, but I also believe a grounding in the Liberal Arts is a necessity for living and learning well. However, when we're talking about the additional expense of time and money on a graduate program, most applicants require more than enrichment when they get out. It's sad to think that these programs will be limited to the wealthy or those few underprivileged talented enough for scholarships to the best programs, not too far from home, that will guarantee income on graduation.

Rise in Excellence
Lynn bases this point on a quote from McGurl,

"...far from homogenizing literature or turning it into an academic exercise, creative-writing programs have been a success on purely literary grounds. “There has been a system-wide rise in the excellence of American literature in the postwar period..."

Unfortunately, just saying it doesn't make it so. On what does McGurl base that conclusion? What objective criteria does he use? Certainly there are many readers outside of academia (and many within as well) who disagree. Check out this thread on P&W's Speakeasy Forum regarding BASS anthologies. Many believe that over the past few decades literary writing became far too focused on style and far too little focused on interesting themes or plots. This seems to be changing, but I'd suggest it is more to do with the growing popularity of online publications over the past few years than the over-proliferation of writing programs since the War.

Community and shared purpose
According to Lynn, while writing programs cannot provide a guaranteed job, what they do provide is "a sense of community and shared focus." Of all the justifications in Lynn's post, this is one I find most troubling. Writers do benefit from a sense of community, but a two-year program requires a lot of time and expense for something writers once shared with each other for free. Unfortunately, most literary writers today depend on teaching to pay the bills. Not that I blame them, when there is so little money to be made from their craft. However, many would argue it is the needs of the instructors rather than the needs of the students that mothered so many creative writing programs.


Which leads me to my main issue with all degree programs in creative writing. That is, by their very existence they have turned writing into just another career for which an advanced and very specialized degree is required, and only a degree from the best programs guarantees success. No, you will not find a magazine that requires an MFA for submission, but you will also not find a top-tier, and now many mid-tier journals, where the majority of contributors (often all) are not MFA grads or candidates. Editors will deny it up and down, but this can't be a coincidence as the slush pile has to be filled with non-degreed submitters.

Certainly one could argue that programs screen for the best applicants, so naturally the best writers will come from writing programs. However, one can't help but wonder if these applicants weren't writing publishable work before receiving their MFA ticket into the big leagues or whether there aren't equally good writers out there who simply can't afford a program.

The following quote in The New Yorker from the prestigious Iowa Workshop's website seems to bear this out:

"The fact that the Workshop can claim as alumni nationally and internationally prominent poets, novelists, and short story writers is, we believe, more the result of what they brought here than of what they gained from us...Iowa merely admits people who are really good at writing; it puts them up for two years; and then, like the Wizard of Oz, it gives them a diploma."

I have no problem with writing programs per se for those who want and can afford them. But whenever success in a field comes to hang on the letters after one's name, whether it be MFA or MBA, the oxygen can get sucked out. Those schooled within the box naturally favor others schooled within that box and pretty soon thinking outside the box becomes ever more rare–-and at worst is suppressed.

This lack of innovation and initiative brought the US auto industry to its knees and is limiting our options for healthcare reform, just to name two. If we aren't careful it can sap the creativity from creative writing.

Fiction Chapbooks

Here's a great idea on Kim's Craft Blog––chapbooks aren't just for poetry anymore. Let me know what you think of the idea.

Help with Characters from Philadelphia Stories Weblog

***After a long hiatus, Wacko Wednesdays are back! Each Wednesday, I’ll outline a human quirk or phenomenon in the study of Personality Psychology. I’ll provide information, links, and my own experiences to help you along in your goals of writing memorable characters.***

Some great information to help make your characters real.

Check out this and earlier Wacko Wednesday Posts on the Philadelphia Stories Weblog.

Kids & Reading: Is the Prognosis All That Bad?

In the most recent newsletter from Writing-World.com editor Moira Allen reminds us of something we often forget in all the hand-wringing regarding kids and reading.

"News flash: Most kids don't read!" 

(This newsletter isn't up on the website yet, so I can't link to it, but will when it's available.)

She goes on to jog our memories about how readers "were a rare breed" in our school days. Most kids preferred doing something else even in the days before computers and iPods and texting and all the other stuff that came after that major Boomer distraction, TV. Yet among the people I know, at least the women, most of them are now readers. They may not all be what you would call avid readers, and their tastes may reside at the opposite end of the spectrum from mine, but most take along a book to read while waiting in the doctor's office or while having their roots touched up. Most read at the beach or while their kids splash in the pool, and many need to read a few pages to relax at bedtime. 

Now for my confession, I was one of those kids who didn't read. Worse, I was one of those kids who fudged her book reports from the flyleaf, and I'd always pick the thickest, toughest book, like I thought I could fool someone.

I suspect that a love of reading, like cleaning up after ourselves and getting our work done on time, is something many of us acquire in adulthood, and then convince ourselves we did straight out of the womb. When we see our kids act irresponsibly, we swear up and down that when we were kids we saved our money, had our homework assignments done two days in advance, and never lost a textbook under the bed. And we all spent our summers reading Jane Eyre and Moby Dick, not because we had to, mind you, but because we wanted to. 

In the words of Stanley Kowalski, "Ha! Ha-ha."

I can tell you exactly when I began to take joy in reading. It was the summer following my freshman year of college, when I suddenly had the luxury to read whatever I wanted. Up until then, reading meant what everyone else told me I "had" to read.

Before I reached the age for summer reading lists, the women around me––my mother, a couple of aunts, and an older sister––were constantly forcing books down my throat. These were the books I absolutely had to read, because, of course, they loved them and therefore so should I. I remember a particularly excruciating summer when they forced me to slog through the "Little Maid" books. This was a series similar to today's American Girl Series, in which the "Little Maid" always played an important role in some event in American History, like waking Paul Revere from a drunken stupor before his ride. Okay, I don't think it was exactly that way––that I would have actually enjoyed––but the Little Maid figured somewhere in there with Paul. (Even as  kid I was a stickler for realism.)

This idea of being forced to read certain books, I suspect, has a lot more to do with why most kids don't read than all the distractions we like to blame. Frank Wilson, former Books Editor at the Inquirer, had some interesting thoughts in an interview I did last year for Roses & Thorns.

They assign books that are widely regarded as “great,” “classics,” “masterpieces.” And the books in question usually are all of those things. That doesn’t mean they’re easy to read, though, and if they’re hard to read, they are not only not going get people hooked on reading, they are going to turn people off on reading. 

I suspect one reason Catcher in the Rye makes so many lists of great books is that it is the first––and for many possibly the only––assigned reading they can actually identify with.

To this day, I hate reading books because I have to. I always think twice before taking on a book for review. I never read a bestseller while it remains on the list. I'll never take part in "One City One Book," and nothing will drive me from a book faster than having Oprah recommend it.

So maybe it's time to lighten up on this whole kids and reading thing. If they are like me, and my daughter after me, once the pressure is off they will "luv 2 read A3" (If you're too "bookish" to know the jargon, Look it up.)

The Paper Chase

This is funny. I found both of these links with Stumble Upon in this order.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/s/#2kUHHB/siobhancurious.wordpress.com/2009/05/22/10-things-that-make-grading-your-assignment-harder-than-it-should-be//

http://www.stumbleupon.com/s/#29eZhQ/nerdparadise.com/litcomp/20pageresearchpaper//

Last minute papers requiring citations are a lot easier with the Internet. I actually had to spend several hours a week in the dark recesses of the Library of Congress for my senior thesis in 1974, but some things never change. While I'd like to say I was more enthusiastic and took my research more seriously than this fellow, it was all just work to be completed for a grade. Youth and education are wasted on the young. What I would give today for a chance to live in DC and do nothing but research in the library and National Archives all day.

Imposing Order on Chaos

Wow, for the first time in a month I have no unopened e-mails in my inbox and I deleted enough that everything fits in the little window without scrolling down. I hate having a lot of stuff sitting in my inbox, which got me thinking about a post I read on Write to Done asking writers for their three best writing tips. Since before I got to it, the comments were pretty full, I thought I'd post my tips here on my blog.

Only, my writing tips aren't specifically about the act of writing. They have more to do with finding your own system for imposing order on the chaos that allows you time to write and just as important, to submit, preferably successfully.

The common wisdom is that creative minds tend to be chaotic. In my early years, I was the poster child for that theory receiving regular "N"s for "Needs Improvement" on report cards that factored that into our grade. We were required to keep a loose-leaf notebook with dividers for each subject which teachers took a perverse delight in turning upside down and shaking, bringing attention to my wayward habits of not punching holes correctly or placing reinforcements over them once I had.

To this day I can't punch uniform holes in papers, even with a three-hole punch, let alone the single-hole jobs we carried in our schoolbags. Only now it doesn't matter, because I choose to keep my important papers in folders and file boxes as opposed to binders that take up too much room anyway.

Which, finally, brings me to my point. Even writers need some kind of system. Sitting in a cube at O So Boring, Inc. you may have dreamed of a life where all you did was write all day. When that day comes, you soon realize that there's more to it than that. No one comes to weed through your Word files and take out what they want to publish. You need to submit, and submitting requires a system––top-tier down or bottom-tier up––along with recordkeeping. so you don't submit the same story twice to the same market or submit again too soon or simultaneously submit when it's not allowed (okay, we all cheat on that last one). You need to keep receipts for office supplies and contest fees so if/when you do win $,1000 or get that big advance on your book contract, you don't, unfairly, pay taxes on the full amount. If you freelance, you need to track deadlines, invoices, and payments. In short, you need to "get organized"––two words that not only strike fear in the hearts of creative people, but appear anathema to the process.

This is only because the self-proclaimed "orderly" people insist––like my teachers with their binders––on one method of organization. For years I struggled with the supposition that "order" required a clear desk, that stacks of papers on the desk and floor equaled chaos. Papers placed in hanging folders in file cabinets equaled order. Only, for me, out of sight was out of mind, and I'd forget to do things that weren't right in front of me.

In reality, this is one time where the end really does justify the means. I do keep a spreadsheet for my submissions, but if that reminds you too much of your old office job, there's nothing chaotic about keeping a list in any old wordprocessing document. The point is just to have the information somewhere that you can easily check it. My expense tracking for tax purposes amounts to throwing all my receipts in the same drawer all year long and then weeding through them when it's time to file my return. Deadline reminders can be notes on a desktop calendar, a calendar system on your laptop, or stickies on your wall, and don't underestimate the use of storage bins for everything from manuscripts to journals you've been published in.

So, my tip to writers is, don't underestimate the need to get organized. It's as important in writing as it is in any business or even everyday life. However, recognize that the goal is to impose order on the chaos, not to necessarily do it the way your fifth grade teacher said it should be done. You'd be surprised how easy it is when you do it your own way.

Tender Graces: It's Out

Hey zine writer followers, my friend Kat Magendie's first novel Tender Graces is out. You can click on it in my sidebar to order. I promise a full-blown review. Unfortunately life has a way of exploding and my father went into the hospital and now rehab just when my copy arrived in the mail. It's so annoying, because it is really the kind of book you hate to put down only I have to in order to meet my many obligations and in the evening I often just fall asleep as soon as I hit the bed, which is where I do most of my reading.

If this weren't a writing blog, I'd post on the horrors of our healthcare system, which I knew only too well already, but of which the fates still feel the need to remind me every couple of years  in the form of an elderly relative or two or three being hospitalized. Mr. Obama please help.

Anyway, instead of a post of my whining go read Kat's post about the joys of finally having a real live book she can hold in her hands.

Love and many sales, Kat. You deserve it.

Oh, and I hope you were all good little boys and girls and watched We Shall Remain last night on PBS as I assigned you to do. Next week is Tecumseh. I already saw that one and it's great.