Ah damn. Thank you. I remember leaving myself a note to double-check my spelling there. Realized I spelled 'Toni Morrison' wrong and then was like, "Oh, you idiot." Fixed it. Then forgot to double check the other two. Fixed.
I love this sentiment! But I’m not fond of the reality that the new and cleverly named litmags you mention aren’t paying markets. Why can’t we have reader-oriented publications that also pay?
That’s totally fair. It’s tough for magazines to get that kind of funding right away. It’s actually something we have planned for the future when we have more money. To set up grants and help editors with ways to get funding. But in the meantime. One that I mentioned Taco Bell Quarterly pays $100. If you go to our database and set the founding year to minimum 2020, 255 do pay, though certainly not the same levels. Mostly $25-100. Oh, but a really great experiment going on is with Short Story Stack. It’s a Substack magazine where they split the monthly profits with whichever writer was published that month. I think it came out to around $450 last I checked. It’s definitely a valid point I hadn’t thought of but I do think a lot of newer magazines are thinking about it and coming up with innovative new ways to make money. Once we get off the ground we’re hoping to be able to help with distribution in some creative ways. I do think that more people would be interested in reading short stories and poetry if we started turning the industry's time and attention toward finding those readers. But right now, so it is so much more profitable and less risky for industry leaders to target writers. I have a piece about that I recently wrote which should be coming out sometime soon. But I do agree. That should be the goal.
I have read and enjoyed and recently submitted to TBQ. They make me want to start my own literary journal! But I feel like the payment piece is essential. I don’t have an answer. I’m not well versed in crowdfunding or merchandising, but I feel part of respecting the reader is respecting the author and you should do that with $$$
Well said, Benjamin. One caveat. If we accept that writers in the past have had their work rejected on the grounds of race, class, gender etc then the pendulum swing towards a more 'open' publishing world has seen the closing of the doors on anything that didn't happen 5 minutes ago and reads like it was written by someone over 40.
Insightful and bold! It’s nice to see the folks behind these new lit magazines making room for all of us.
Thank you! That’s our goal.
Munro, dear hearts, Munro.
Ah damn. Thank you. I remember leaving myself a note to double-check my spelling there. Realized I spelled 'Toni Morrison' wrong and then was like, "Oh, you idiot." Fixed it. Then forgot to double check the other two. Fixed.
Love you guys.
I love this sentiment! But I’m not fond of the reality that the new and cleverly named litmags you mention aren’t paying markets. Why can’t we have reader-oriented publications that also pay?
That’s totally fair. It’s tough for magazines to get that kind of funding right away. It’s actually something we have planned for the future when we have more money. To set up grants and help editors with ways to get funding. But in the meantime. One that I mentioned Taco Bell Quarterly pays $100. If you go to our database and set the founding year to minimum 2020, 255 do pay, though certainly not the same levels. Mostly $25-100. Oh, but a really great experiment going on is with Short Story Stack. It’s a Substack magazine where they split the monthly profits with whichever writer was published that month. I think it came out to around $450 last I checked. It’s definitely a valid point I hadn’t thought of but I do think a lot of newer magazines are thinking about it and coming up with innovative new ways to make money. Once we get off the ground we’re hoping to be able to help with distribution in some creative ways. I do think that more people would be interested in reading short stories and poetry if we started turning the industry's time and attention toward finding those readers. But right now, so it is so much more profitable and less risky for industry leaders to target writers. I have a piece about that I recently wrote which should be coming out sometime soon. But I do agree. That should be the goal.
I have read and enjoyed and recently submitted to TBQ. They make me want to start my own literary journal! But I feel like the payment piece is essential. I don’t have an answer. I’m not well versed in crowdfunding or merchandising, but I feel part of respecting the reader is respecting the author and you should do that with $$$
Writers gonna write. Editors gonna edit. Publishers gonna publish.
Well said, Benjamin. One caveat. If we accept that writers in the past have had their work rejected on the grounds of race, class, gender etc then the pendulum swing towards a more 'open' publishing world has seen the closing of the doors on anything that didn't happen 5 minutes ago and reads like it was written by someone over 40.