Wednesday, January 3, 2018

Paying to Play

Image from Jody A. Virgan, from twitter

I hate reading fees, and refuse to submit to any journals that require you to pay for them to consider your work.  John Burroughs pointed out this article from The Millions to me, where Rachel Mennies explains some of the reasons that this is not a good thing.




image courtesy pexels

I refuse to submit to markets or contests which require a reading fee as a matter of principle, since I believe it is damaging to the field, squeezing the people who can't afford to pay out of their entry into the field.  
However, these days in the literary field, so many 'zines do it that it is getting to be unexceptional.  I sympathize with them; they are running on shoestring budgets and unpaid labor already, I can see how a small reading fee can be so very tempting.

1 comment:

DyanaAset said...

I absolutely agree. We need to make getting published more equitable, not less, and paying to play just assures one that only the rich (and white) are in the game. That's just wrong. Good work, Geoff.

Cited...

The poet doesn't invent. He listens. ~Jean Cocteau