Hatrack River Writers Workshop: No-pay and Token-pay?

This is topic No-pay and Token-pay? in forum Hatrack Writers - Publications & Reviews at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
http://www.hatrack.com/ubb/writers/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=12;t=000382

Posted by Brad R Torgersen (Member # 8211) on :

This is very possibly a sensitive subject, but...

For those of you doing a lot of work in the no-pay and token-pay scene, may I ask, what is the reward?

Posted by Kitti (Member # 7277) on :

I don't do this for my fiction, but for photography I (and other members of my family) do a lot of no-pay and token-pay (usually in copies) as well as pro-pay.

For me, the reward is seeing a hobby (i.e. I never intend to make a living at this, it is just something I love to do in my spare time) bear fruit. I get a thrill out of seeing my pictures in a magazine that is worth far more than what I could sell them for. Emotional reward rather than financial.

It's an extension, I think, of my volunteering habits. I volunteer all over the place. Sure, I could probably get paid to do the same or similar work, but then I'd miss out on a lot of opportunities and experiences that I couldn't have gotten paid for (often simply out of lack of funds to pay me). I don't really have spare money to donate to causes or organizations I believe in, but I've got a bit of time and talent that I can give instead.

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

I tell myself the pleasure is in the doing. I would have liked to have gotten paid, but I must take my rewards where I can get them.

Posted by Bent Tree (Member # 7777) on :

I do not submit to no-pay markets, but my early stories I would submit to token markets. I have about eight token publications. My mentality was that having several stories published in a paying market might have a benefit when I was ready to move up a tier. I cannot say with certainty, but I think that by having: "My fiction has appeared in...." helped me get through the slush on at least two occassions. I have a pro+royaltie publication upcomming in an anthology as well as another story thqat is undergoing further consideration at a pro-rate mag.

Currently I no longer submit to token markets until I have exhausted all the pro-rate markets. My fiction has improved and I hold it in higher regard. I know it certainly hasn't hurt me any and has helped my esteem by getting published, especially at 365 Tomorrows where I recieved alot of positive feedback and even som fan fic attempts in the forum. I am not sure that the reward exceeds any of that, but as I said it hasn't hurt.

Posted by honu (Member # 8277) on :

In answering that question, Brad, I find myself asking, "What is the reward for getting accepted in the pro markets?"

1) Money for one. Much better than none at all, and heaps better than token and semi-pro.

2) Recognition. By almost every measure of "success" in the sci-fi and fantasy community of writers, pro-venue acceptances tell everyone "You made the grade!"

Yet, this is what it comes down to for me on a personal level.

Is that what I want and what I am driven to achieve? Is this the way I wish to measure my own personal level of "success"?

Does "success" even fit the model for my writing?

In my case, no. Different drummers abound in the writers world also.

[This message has been edited by honu (edited February 15, 2010).]