Which sites or mags pay well in your experience?

I need to get paid for writing because if I don’t then I won’t be able to write any more.

At the moment, about 50% of the work I have published is unpaid. I see this as a temporary state of affairs. I have only been writing for a few years, and I see these non-paying publications as stepping stones: a way to get my work out there, hone my craft, and build a name for myself.

I greatly respect many magazines that cannot pay writers, and I will continue to read those magazines; but I do not expect to submit to them forever. I expect that at some point I will earn a living wage from writing. I need to, because if I don’t, I won’t be able to write any more.

Perhaps there is an element of class bias. I don’t know how other writers can afford to pay their rent and find time to write. I’m 26 and live in a small flat with no dependents and no debt, so it’s pretty easy for me to live on a shoestring budget. But I know it can’t last. I want to have children, I want to live in a house. These things cost money, and so I need to make money writing. If I can’t, I won’t be able to afford to do it any more. For me, it’s that simple.

They can do readings, sure, but no one is going to pay for that. Personally, I can’t stand to hear someone read their fiction for more than 10 minutes at a sitting, no matter how good it is.

Fiction can be performed, but then it is a play, not fiction.

The author has but one recourse, and that is publication.

Personally, I think the future of publishing is in self-publishing. Surely, I jest! But I think that’s the way it will go, thanks to the evolving technology. Musicians will self publish their music and authors will self publish their stories, readers will be able to follow their favorite authors without the filter of a publisher or journal. The only reason people aren’t already doing it is because there’s still too much stigma attached to it, and there’s still too many people hoping to score a big advance from a traditional publisher. But I do believe those prejudices will disappear over time. Then, one day, there will be a writer with a self-published book that will take off. It will sell a hundred thousand copies, some reviewer in the New York Times will get a wild hair and actually review it, thus lending it legitimacy, and then bang, the whole publishing world will implode as writers abandon it and strike out on their own.

And monkeys might fly out my butt.

Hedge fund traders do pretty much diddly as a value to the world-at-large, they don’t even necessarily think up crafty stories. In this case the guy is going through some sort of existential funk crisis as to WTF to do with his life.

Thus you helped me along to consider that time is money mostly when we are short of either – to me that was a new thought. Thank you.

So this all kind of gets me to wonder how does money matter to readers? In that I get the impression from what you write that money acts as a sign of validation. It is like a Walter Benjamesque label on the wall next to the painting that says, “This is a good painting. Be happy.”

Until yesterday I had no clue re: Nanoism. I went and looked and I thought it was pretty cool. I know a bunch of non-writer readers that I could see my turning on to the writing you (as editor, aggregator, kind person) have selected to present there. One would say, “They may be interested.” Satisfaction of curiosity (Barnum was good at this — I suggest everyone run forthwith to the Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, CT and see the Fiji Mermaid) is the fulfillment of a need.

My focus on money vs. giving things away is in respect that I find that if I give freely of my lawn mowing services (trust me, don’t call me) that the tendency of my neighbors is that I must not be very good at it and need more practice hacking up their grass, but if I charge them money for it — and obviously show up with pro-level equipment they feel a little bit more satisfied and if I figure out how to charge them a whole shitload of money and make them think they got a personal bargain because I love love love them then they feel good and I can pay the bills and even afford to buy a round of hoppy beer.

I tell you I pay for twitter-sized fiction, and a lot of writers probably aren’t interested—in the money or the form. Yet a lot of regular twitter users find it fascinating. Obviously that’s a rather specific example, but I do think it generalizes overall.

Time may be money when we lack either. I like that statement. Unfortunately for nearly everyone on the planet, most of us don’t have as much of either as we’d like.

I’m really glad you posed the questions you did, because I found it very helpful to write about some of this stuff—to try to articulate some of it. I think I’ll try putting together a more coherent post on Wordsworth and Heidegger over the next few days.

You know you’re an English major when you’re excited about writing something about Wordsworth and Heidegger.

Wordsworth is on my mind tonight because I just saw SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS. Which is an incredible film that I feel compelled to post something about…

Cheers,
Adam

I’m sure I’ve said it elsewhere in here, but this has been a great thread. Thanks to everyone who’s contributed to it!

I don’t see myself as a member of any genre community, so I’ve never really worried too much about it (I’m not in any hurry to make “pro” status at any writer’s organization), but I write in all different kinds. I’ve sold stories to Postscripts, Chizine, and Space and Time, and I’ve had stories accepted by elimae, Wigleaf, and Hobart (notice the “accepted,” not “sold”). If I write a genre story, I find that yes, I try selling it to a paying market; if I write a literary story, I find I’m not too stressed in selling it to a paying market.

Why?

Who knows. But even though I’m not a fan of writer’s organizations (I’ve heard all the ins and outs of the HWA from previous members that I find at least that particular one a joke), maybe things would change if there was some kind of writer’s organization for literary writers that then stressed paying markets the same way places like the SFWA and HWA do. Because it seems that when someone wants to start a genre magazine and wants to be taken seriously, they know they need to pay writers from the start. In the literary world, someone just starts a blogspot journal with no pay and still people submit.