No Fee, No Pay! Hmmm!

 H U H?

I was skimming through a lengthy list of journals whose closing dates were looming. Many were published at universities, some were in print, others online. As I scanned the list, something jumped out. So many said No Fee and No Pay. Others charged a fee to submit but also said No Pay. Very few in this long list offered payment, but a fair number charged a fee to submit. Most of those were also No Pay. 

As writers, we do want to pay to have our work published. Isn't it supposed to work the other way around? We write, we submit, they pay us. Not so much in the literary journal world today. 

I am fully aware that many publications charge a fee to help offset the expense of publishing, and many are fairly nominal. $3, $5, some even less. So, that shouldn't be a problem for writers wanting to submit, should it? Maybe it can be if they submit frequently. Those $3 and $5 fees begin to add up to a fair amount, especially when the writer receives No Pay and also stands a good chance of being rejected. On to another submission and another fee. 

There are two schools of thought when it comes to writing for No Pay. One group of writers swears they would never, ever write for No Pay. The other group is willing to write for No Pay to beef up their resume, to become a name that readers recognize, to be able to let other publishers know they have been published numerous times. It's a personal choice.

Paying an entry fee for writing contests is a completely different situation. The fees collected are often used for the prize money. That is a bit more acceptable, although there is a wide variation in the amount of the entry fee for contests. If you pay $25 to enter, and your chances of winning are pretty small, should you take the chance on spending that money? Is it like standing on a bridge and flipping one dollar bill after another into the swirling waters below? Some contests charge more minimal fees like $3, but if you enter six categories in one of those, you're spending $18. Again, there are two groups of people here. Those who want to take a chance, and the ones that are reluctant to spend money unless it is a sure thing. Nothing in the writing world is a sure thing, so those people are probably never going to win a contest since they refuse to enter.  

Starting with January 2024, keep a list of the fees you have paid for both submissions and contests. Below that, make another list of the money you have earned through those submissions and contests. How do they compare? Hopefully, money earned will be the greater amount. If it isn't, you may need to do a bit of soul searching. 

Paying a fee to submit when there is the promise of payment is one choice. Paying a fee to submit with No Pay is another. We each have to give thought to which direction we'll take.