Fame, Money, and the Broken Publishing System
A moral dilemma for people who are in debt…. For the record, I just owe a ton in college loans, I’m not an irresponsible spender or in real dire straits. (And this is after most of it’s been paid off. Sometimes I really regret going to private university, especially the one I went to.)
Anyway, recently I had to decide between being published without getting paid (the original plan was for payment, but the publishing company made some changes) and trying to resubmit until I found someone who’d give me money for what I have to say is a pretty fun story, if you’re into gruesome metaphors.
I think the main reason I went with the former option is because this system sucks. Most decent anthologies are not going to take simultaneously submitted pieces, and at the same time refuse to reply in accordance with any decent human schedule (seriously, three months is a little–no, way–too long, considering we no longer need the Pony Express to get our mail). So what you end up with is months and months of stagnating, and by the end the original love for the story is gone, to the point where the worth of going through this hellish pain of searching, searching, and agonizingly putting queries/cover letters/biographies together just isn’t worth the time, especially since one could be writing instead.
And at the same time, writers aren’t able to hold publishers to a more appropriate deadline. Those of you who do this professionally need the revenue and usually can’t risk self-publishing. Granted, I’m on the amateur level, but it wouldn’t do me any good to get a reputation of rejecting great offers–provided I get any in the first place…. You have to make a name.
There really needs to be some kind of check on publishers. Even having to cater to their audience with regular updates isn’t that much of an issue, considering the slow timeframe and the fact that writing is a one-of-a-kind thing. The usual supply and demand curves don’t apply.
(NB: I’m sorry I don’t actually post on any kind of schedule anymore. When I started this blog, I didn’t have a job or much of a plan. Now, I have both–and the plan’s actually going somewhere.)
