The one I entered so far is legit. I'm sure of it. It's a short story competition. My goal is to win and publish. Obviously, I must believe in myself enough to enter, but I'm realistic. This industry is tough. I'm hoping to enter some more. Do any of you have recommendations for some good short story comps? Preferably ones that are open now? I can't say this is for fun. I'm just really trying to publish short fiction and haven't really tried entering contests. I'm giving it a try.
Most of the ones that charge fees are sketchy. Some listing sites won't put them up unless the payout is at least 10-1. The Writers of the Future is probably the most lucrative contest, with not only mainstream publication but a prize that runs $2200 or $2300 bucks. They do not charge a fee. Zoetrope charges a $20 fee, but their prize is $1750, and they're well established so I think you could make an argument for that. A contest that charges a fee and is just going to publish your work without paying for it is a non-starter. If they're paying a nominal fee they're still probably more interested in making money for the contest organizers than anything else. If they're a questionable contest to being with, having your name associated with them in the form of a "winner" probably isn't so great.
So, just for clarity - these places that publish the work of the winner - do they give the winner an actual publishing contract? Like, they pay the winner what they would normally pay someone who submits to them?
Some contests don't pay the winner at all. They just publish you. It's "exposure," which is rubbish 99.9% of the time. It's the same with token markets. If you're putting stuff out there and getting either no payment, or some tiny token payment for a short story, you're probably being taken advantage of if the publisher is making any revenue. The standards of those publications are low, so the "exposure" isn't even worth anything. If you're approaching an editor later you're probably better off not even mentioning it. I talked to an editor of one of the bigger SF publishers a few years ago, and he said that listing those kinds of publications in a query letter (e.g. non-paying contests or publications; token publications) only tell him that the writer doesn't even value his own work. So the next question is why should the editor value it. If you're giving away your work, or near to it, something is wrong. Exceptions would include charitable events, like writing a free story for an anthology that goes to benefit children with cancer or something.
Contest winners get paid more than they would if they just sold the story to the same publication. I'm not really worried about scams. I think I know the difference between a legit contest and one that is questionable. But it seems like several that I would be interested in are closed right now. Maybe it's just the time of year.
I know nothing about these contests you speak of that charge but don't pay the winner(s). I think this is more an issue of common sense more than writing. However, you have to be careful lumping together all publications that don't pay or pay very little in general (not talking about contests). Mid-American Review doesn't pay it's writers, but I would love to get a story in there. Hayden's Ferry Review and Green Mountain Review are another two great markets that don't pay their writers. There are quite a few literary publications through MFA programs that don't pay but put out great work by some of today's hottest writers. It's not always about money. That being said, I am pretty sure if these places do or have competitions, there would be a cash prize with them. I do agree that publications other editors have never heard of aren't going to do much for you. But if you can get into Mid-American Review, you are not going to be paid, and it's still going to be a big deal. Again, that has nothing to do with contests. I think it's just important in general to research and know the industry.
Yes, I'm familiar with these markets. They're well-established and respected. I should clarify that I'm thinking along the lines of commercial fiction, not literary fiction (I guess arguing the distinctions would be a whole separate thread). In the world of literary fiction, there are certainly markets with prestige/cachet that are valuable to appear in.
It may not always be about money, but a publication not willing to pay me for my hard work isn't one that I can respect. If even up-and-coming ezines can scrape together a $15 or 2c per word pittance for their contributors, a journal that's been around since the 70s or 80s has no excuse. It's insulting and demeaning, frankly.
I agree for sites publishing what is basically commercial fiction. I would avoid even a publication that wants to pay you $15, unless it is for a very short piece. If you're getting that for a 3000 word story, for example, that's what, half a cent a word? A pittance. You're better off working on your craft until you can sell to better paying markets, and probably not having your name out there on stories you couldn't sell for more. But I agree with @deadrats that literary fiction is a different animal.
This is really no different than a local bar that asks musicians to play for 'exposure' (and we won't even go into the fact that they also tell the band to bring a minimum number of 'guests' to buy drinks and food which means, effectively, that they provide their own exposure). Nor is it different from all the unpaid internships available these days. And as an actor, I worked for 'exposure' for years. I did a national commercial for less than quarter scale because it would be 'good exposure.' I even won an award for best actor in a film festival, but that's all the 'exposure' and remuneration I got for that role (and 'remuneration' in this case was a pat on the back from the director). Expecting people who are trying to break into making a living while working for free is just wrong, although that seems to be the way everything is going these days. And as more and more industries take this approach, it'll get harder and harder for someone without family money to get a paying career off the ground. It's just another way to take manufacturing 'off shore.'
I agree that it can be a problem, for sure. But I don't think asking a band to play for free at the local pub is the same as asking a band to play for free at a huge festival with international press coverage, etc. There are obviously a lot of opportunities between the two extremes, there, and I think it can make sense for people to realistically balance the cost or loss to them against the exposure the can realistically expect to gain.
I can understand why you'd think that, but back in the 70s and 80s, I made a living as a musician in Nova Scotia and Alberta. And I was never in what you might call a 'hot' band. We only ever played clubs, bars and lounges with the occasional wedding or party on the side. We made good money, too, enough so that none of us had 'day jobs' and some guys I knew even tackled mortgages with their band income (most of us were considered too much of a risk by the banks, but I blame Joe Walsh and Keith Moon for that ). It wasn't until well into the 1980s that I was no longer able to support myself playing music and it's just gotten worse since then. I know one band (Hell Bros) who just toured Europe and are now back at their day jobs because it just doesn't pay.
I'm not sure I see the connection between that experience and the idea that it's sometimes a good idea to do something for free in order to get publicity... I guess you're arguing that it's bad for the world that our economies have evolved in this direction, and I can certainly agree with that. But, given that this is the way our economies have evolved, does it make sense to stick our heads in the sand and refuse to play the game? Early in my writing career I submitted a short story to an anthology for a payment of, I think, $35. Definitely under $50. I usually try to base my writing time on the idea of earning $50/hr. That short story took me way longer than an hour to write, so selling it for $35 wasn't a good deal, for me. I just checked, and a short story that I wrote at about the same time and took about the same effort but was published independently has earned me $566 and is still selling. So $566 minus $35 means I lost about $531 on the deal (assuming equivalent sales, etc - rough numbers, here). But... the anthology was put out by an up-and-coming publisher, there were genre-prominent authors in the anthology, and it got promoted pretty hard. I had several readers actually contact me to say that they started reading my other books (the ones where I get royalties for each sale) based on reading that short story... and if several people went to the trouble of contacting me, I assume there were quite a few others who felt the same way. Many of those readers have gone on to buy lots of subsequent books from me, too. It's very hard to find advertising or promotion that works in a niche market flooded with new authors. If someone offered me an almost-guaranteed promotional tool that would reach thousands of readers who already like my sub-genre, and gave me reason to believe these readers would spend fifteen to twenty minutes evaluating my work and deciding if they want more of it? I think $531 might not be an unreasonable price.
If I thought that, I wouldn't still be writing or acting or playing music. My point was that it hasn't always been this way which is upsetting. What's more upsetting is that so many these days think it's okay for the economy to work this way because they've never seen anything else.
@BayView getting into an anthology with prominent writers from one's genre is worth taking a risk on the financial hit, in my view. But most of the non-paying or token markets aren't like that. They're filled with amateurs getting a few bucks a story, if anything. There's no real benefit to being in them, apart from vanity. If you were writing horror and there were an anthology featuring Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, Clive Barker, etc.,. and someone asked if, as a new author, you would put a story in it for free, I'd say "You bet." I should note again that I'm talking about people who are serious about writing as a potential profession, or at least a source of income, and not hobbyists (in the latter case, this stuff doesn't make much difference). If you have a story that you can only place in a non-paying or token market, it's because that story isn't good enough to hit the semi-pro or pro markets. That means you should be working on that story to make it better, or working on a better story. Some people I've talked to even look askance at semi-pro markets, though I think that's a reasonable place to submit (though I'd start with the pro markets). The first story I sold was to a semi-pro market (at a cent and a half per word, years back), the last one was to a market that pays pro rates. Most of us here could write stories left and right for non-paying or token markets, but the truth is those stories probably wouldn't be that great, which is why they'd land in those markets. There are enough people that will try to get something out of you for nothing or next to nothing. No reason at all to devalues one's own work.
Yes. It's generally a bad idea. That said, if you were a brand new musician who no one had ever heard of, and someone said "Hey, can you open for Paul Simon on his new tour?" Or the Stones, or U2, or (insert big name act here), and then said we can't really pay you much, you might very well decide it's well worth the financial hit. But in most cases it is not well worth it.
I entered my first writing contest last month, the entry fee was $20. I figured since I spend at least that on tickets for a lottery I have far less chance of winning, this wasn't such a bad proposition. First place gets a $500 cash prize and a bunch of free books. 5 runners up get a $50 prize, and everyone gets a pity posting on a partner's web page. How much is too much to spend on entering contests seems a bit relative to me, how often do you win?
That's not the level I'm talking about. Not that long ago, you could make a living as a musician, all while not be a recording artist and not opening for big names. There were piano bars, lounges, taverns and clubs that all hired cover artists (read: played other people's music) and paid them union scale... which is enough to live on. That's what I'm talking about. This was where most musicians paid their dues and honed their craft. The ambitious ones could, from there, try for the brass ring. But if you weren't ambitious, you could just stay as a cover artist and keep on making a living. And the managers of those venues trusted the agents to send them decent talent. The agents were the ones who vetted the bands and made sure they weren't just a bunch of guys with high hopes who didn't know how to tune their guitars.
