Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Non-paying venues

This is topic Non-paying venues in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by Foste (Member # 8892) on :

So I scoured Duotrope today looking for magazine which were suitable for my story once I'd run out of pro-paying magazines.

I noticed most of them pay via PayPal (a few even with contributor copies) and I can't receive money via PayPal (only spend). I've long toyed with the idea of a friend's account acting as a "deposit" but I discarded the idea. Paypal can be whimsy and problematic at times and I don't to cause any inconvenience to anyone.

If I ever immigrate I'll open up a PayPal account and be done with it. But I what I really want to know is, have you ever submitted to non-paying venues?

They seem plentiful and some offer quite fine material (Ironbound springs to mind).

So, any opinions/advice from someone who's longer in the game than I am?

Posted by genevive42 (Member # 8714) on :

Non-paying venues really don't do much to build your resume. Whether it's true or not, they're not see as having very high standards and therefore as not terribly difficult to get into. Consider that if a story were good enough to get into a paying publication, why wouldn't it be there?

So while non-paying pubs can boost your ego, and it is nice to say, 'I got published', I wouldn't spend too much time with them. According to Dave Farland, they might even damage your reputation if you can't get into some of the biggies.