Dear Literary Journals: You Can't Have it Both Ways

The writers today that are sticking to some of the tradition of the publishing industry by submitting poetry, short stories, and essays to literary journals know that the landscape is changing. Some literary journals have moved to an online-only format; some newer ones never had a print edition to begin with. More journals are moving from only accepting regional authors to accepting writers from around the world. But there's one shift that really getting on my nerves -- reading fees.

Don't get me wrong. I can sympathize with any publication that's barely hanging on financially to keep publishing the work that talented writers send in, but the fact that I spent hours yesterday looking for new places to submit and could find only a few without a submission fee is ridiculous. It's not the reading/submission fee that I oppose--what is making me want to pull my hair out in frustration is that almost all of these "please pay $2-$5 to submit your work" publications also do not pay writers they publish. Let me say it again: THEY DO NOT PAY WRITERS. You as the writer get to pay for the privilege to grace their publication. And I'm not the only one that sees this as a problem, as you can see (article is from 2015, but the problem is only getting worse).

The big, fat secret that's staring writers in the face on this topic? A writer could publish anything they want on their own platform (social media, blog, website) and with a good marketing strategy could get just as many views--without having to pay anyone a dime if they don't want to. Yes, you don't get to say "this was previously published in" but unless your audience is a bunch of fellow writers, is your audience really going to be that impressed that some other publication wanted it first?

All of the major names in the literary world still let you send in work for free, with the exception being contest entries, but those are often fair because of the chance at a large amount of prize money. Keeping these submissions free is a good thing, but writers know that the well-established publications want to see that you've made it into the smaller publications first. I know they'll say it doesn't matter if you've been published before, but no one really knows what's going on in the minds of any particular editor. I would say that it does matter to some of them.

Here's the thing, literary journals: I would gladly fork over $2 for you to read it if there was a chance at being paid for all my hard work. I'm not talking earth-shattering prizes, but $50 seems reasonable for publication. You give the sob story that you're barely holding on, and the only money you make is from these submission fees. So what counterargument are writers supposed to give? Well, here's our own sob story--no one values the written word as much as other professions, so we are constantly being told our work is not worth the money we ask for it. So, dear reading fee journals, it comes down to this: the prestige you try to portray is not worth the money you are asking for it. Go find some other poor sap to pay you for their next rejection letter.