Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Question About Payment

This is topic Question About Payment in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by Meredith (Member # 8368) on :

This is not something I actually have to worry about, yet. But I have a couple of questions.

"Mage Storm" has racked up five rejections in the pro markets (not a huge number, I know). I was about to drop it down a notch and try Abyss and Apex while their May reading period is still open, until I looked at their submission guidelines. So, here are my questions:

The first thing that bothered me was that they pay 60 days after publication. That just seemed odd to me. Is that common?

The second was that they pay by PayPal. I don't do PayPal anymore after a dispute I had with them a couple of years ago. How common is this?

Now, back to Duotrope to look for another market.

Posted by Owasm (Member # 8501) on :

My two sales (to very minor markets) were paid via PayPal. I'd say based on my experience and yours that it is not a unique practice.

Posted by rich (Member # 8140) on :

Yeah, PayPal is generally what the smaller markets use to pay writers. You can ask for a check, or find someone you trust and use their PayPal account.

As far as payment 60 days after publication, that's your call. I'm a cheap bastard so I wouldn't necessarily send to markets that work that way, but Abyss and Apex seem to be reputable so I wouldn't let the 60 days thing get in the way, either.

Posted by Meredith (Member # 8368) on :

Well, I technically still have an inactive PayPal account, although it's not currently linked to anything. But I had a very bad experience with them and would rather not go back. I don't trust PayPal at all. JMO.

Posted by tchernabyelo (Member # 2651) on :

I am sure that Abyss and Apex would come to alternative arrangements if they wanted to buy your story. And I've always found them a pleasure to work with (I've sold two stories there).

Posted by Merlion-Emrys (Member # 7912) on :

Yeah A&A seems a very respectable outfit. I find quite a few publishers have the 30 or 60 days after publication clause. I wouldnt worry too much. Paypal probably is the most common payment avenue but most...not all but most...state in their guidlines that they will make other arrangements.

Posted by Pyre Dynasty (Member # 1947) on :

Yep A&A will work with you on the hating Paypal thing, it says so in their guidelines. It would probably be a good idea to tell them upfront though.

quote:
We prefer to make author payments via PayPal. If this is unacceptable please let us know and we will make other arrangements.

As for the sixty day thing, it wouldn't bother me, but I can understand how it might bother someone else.

Posted by micmcd (Member # 7977) on :

I had an incident with paypal as well, completely off topic but... boy was it interesting.

I used to pay my roommate my share of our rent via paypal. Because they always required a subject line to say what your payment was for, I had the brilliant idea of putting in some ridiculous/horribly sophomoric/off color item that I was paying him for (not generally kosher for this board, but in general I was sending him an e-payment for $500 worth of various sex toys, prostitution, etc). I did this for several months, and he generally found it humorous, so at some point it became a challenge to find something even more gross and/or funny than I paid him for the previous month.

After about a year of this, I was away for the summer (but still paying for our rent) and I got a phone call -- "Something funny happened..."

As it turns out, someone at Paypal actually does occasionally read those subject lines. It also turns out that you aren't allowed to sell porn, sexual services, or sexually themed items using Paypal. And they had now focused on my roommate for being eastern Pennsylvania's king of assorted horribly themed online items, as I had paid him at this point something on the order of $8000 worth of things I probably shouldn't post here (but you can find if you search google images with the family filter off).

He eventually got his account activated (they had put a hold on my last payment to him), but we both vowed never to use Paypal again, as we don't really see how it's any of their business what I want to spend my money on, provided it's within the bounds of the law for him to sell - and everything I supposedly paid for was legal, albeit extraordinarily weird.

Although this spurred our ideological boycott, we are still sort of proud of getting temporarily banned from paypal for gross indecency.

Posted by guess (Member # 9085) on :

they probably don't have any money. They also don't anticipate many sales so they can't pay in advance. you really don't want to rely on writing for an income until you get an income and should have regular employment before that happens.

I would think that it is more important to make some sales, try to get a fan base, and then take your sales numbers and fan base to a larger publisher or an agent.

btw, it is pretty standard for small companies to use paypal. It is cheaper and easier. They don't make alot of money to do other types of payment. Yeah, even George RR Martin had his account frozen and they would not tell him why. It was on his blog in the last year or 2.

Posted by tchernabyelo (Member # 2651) on :

Um, guess, byss and Apex is a free online magazine so there's no "sales" to anticipate. They are, however, well established, reliable, and have published some very very good fiction indeed. Exactly why they pay after publictoin I don't know, but if it happens to fit their business model than I have no problem with it (I've certainly come across other markets that pay on or after publicatoin and have no issues witht hat. They have cashflow to consider; as a writer, I don't, because I'm not realistically reliant on the money from sales to buy the raw materials of my product).

The idea that making some sales will get you a "fan base" is nice in theory but I see it happening to VERY few people in practice. In general your "fan base" comes more through social networking efforts than simply through getting your fiction out there. I've sold 30-odd stories and I am pretty confident I have no fan base whatsoever.