Is it worth accepting these contract terms..?

cairnchime · May 25, 2012

OK, so I'm cheekily posting this before I bother with an intro thread, but the contract I'm talking about is actually in the post so I'm kind of pressured for time.

I've had a short story accepted for an athology, but I'm not sure I like the rights laid out in the contract and I'd like to get a professional opinion on whether it's a worthwhile compromise at this stage in my career.

Background about me: I write in the more literary end of sci-fi and fantasy. I've placed in short story contests and been published in a university-wide anthology (top-flight university). No professional publication credits as yet, largely because I've been waiting to get my s**t together enough that I become a really good writer. At 34 that finally seems to be happening. I'm ambitious and believe that I've got the talent and drive to have a solid writing career, so I'm keen not to make decisions that could come back to bite me in ten years.

The anthology is a startup small press in the US, and it's a niche subject area to do with LGBT themes. I care very personally about the subject matter and about getting characters from this background into fiction, but the rights encoded in the contract on offer are a Creative Commons license. Like all creative commons licenses it's perpetual, which is bad enough, but crucially, it doesn't restrict commercial re-use of the work. The editors tell me that they're aware they don't have the financial clout to defend copyright on behalf of their authors, which is a reasonable enough position, and that given that problem they chose this license to maximise possible exposure for the authors.

Given my general ambitiousness, I'm torn as to whether it's actually worth giving up all control of a piece of writing purely for the sake of exposure (with a side order of warm fuzzy feelings that I'm helping Diversity and Social Progress). I could likely achieve similar exposure by submitting to more contests and working on getting into a well-respected genre magazine - which I don't think would be impossible for me to achieve - and it occurs to me to wonder whether a press so small it can't defend its authors' copyright is a good thing in any case. It just feels like a very big deal to walk away from a paying publication (my first, in fact) for the sake of unhatched future chickens.

I don't have an agent, although someone from a very respectable agency did offer me representation many years ago when I got published in the university anthology, and was very positive about coming back to her even if it wasn't for some time. It seems arrogant to bother someone that high-powered with a piffling little short story and a newbie question like this, but I'm lost for an answer and pushed for time, so if anyone here has any advice I'd be very grateful.

Drachen Jager · May 25, 2012

IMO, it's one story. How many more do you have in you? If it were a novel I'd feel differently, but one short is not likely to bother you that much down the road.

There is at least one author who gave everything he wrote away for the first few years until he had a big following and then he started to ask for money. He's quite successful.

I know it's your baby, but really, how much did you expect to make on future sales after it's been published once anyhow? If you're that good, surely there will be others as good or better.

Old Hack · May 25, 2012

cairnchime said:
OK, so I'm cheekily posting this before I bother with an intro thread, but the contract I'm talking about is actually in the post so I'm kind of pressured for time.

This is a community: it helps if people who come here understand that, which is why we ask for a post in the introductions room. If all you're interested in is getting help with this one problem, though, I can see why you might skip this step.

I've had a short story accepted for an athology, but I'm not sure I like the rights laid out in the contract and I'd like to get a professional opinion on whether it's a worthwhile compromise at this stage in my career.

If you want a professional opinion then I suggest you consult with a publishing professional. It might well cost you money to do so. Us? We're just a bunch of anonymous people you came across online. Until you know us, you have to take everything we say with a pinch of salt.

The anthology is a startup small press in the US, and it's a niche subject area to do with LGBT themes. I care very personally about the subject matter and about getting characters from this background into fiction, but the rights encoded in the contract on offer are a Creative Commons license.

The standard advice is to not submit to startups. Give them a couple of years to prove themselves. In my view, that they're a startup AND have this odd contract raises all sorts of red flags. I wouldn't work with them.

Given my general ambitiousness, I'm torn as to whether it's actually worth giving up all control of a piece of writing purely for the sake of exposure (with a side order of warm fuzzy feelings that I'm helping Diversity and Social Progress).

What exposure is it going to give you, exactly? How many copies do its anthologies routinely sell? Bearing in mind how focussed you are on your career, how do you think publication in this anthology is going to help you? Is it recognised and admired by agents and editors? Do they read it? Does anyone read it? If not, how can it help your career?

I could likely achieve similar exposure by submitting to more contests and working on getting into a well-respected genre magazine - which I don't think would be impossible for me to achieve - and it occurs to me to wonder whether a press so small it can't defend its authors' copyright is a good thing in any case. It just feels like a very big deal to walk away from a paying publication (my first, in fact) for the sake of unhatched future chickens.

You really should have worked all this out before you started submitting. In future when you submit your work, start at the top and work down.

I don't have an agent, although someone from a very respectable agency did offer me representation many years ago when I got published in the university anthology, and was very positive about coming back to her even if it wasn't for some time. It seems arrogant to bother someone that high-powered with a piffling little short story and a newbie question like this, but I'm lost for an answer and pushed for time, so if anyone here has any advice I'd be very grateful.

Don't contact that agent. She almost certainly meant that she'd be willing to take a look at your work if you ever write something longer. Agents don't work with single short stories written by unknowns.

Theo81 · May 26, 2012

The venerable Uncle Jim has a saying: What's Publishable by One is Publishable by Many.

Or, in other words - don't feel you have to settle for a contract you are not happy with. Good work can always find another home.

Not all publishing credits are equal. A credit from a place an agent has never heard of is as useful as no credit at all.

If you are done with this story, then agree. You're getting more out of this deal than having the story sit on your hard drive.

If you think you can do better (more money, more exposure, a credit you can actually USE - this one doesn't sound like you could, not just because the editors sound like fools: we can't stop burglaries so we'll make them legal so it's not longer a problem?), then don't.

FWIW, there is no way in hell anybody but me is going to release my work under a CC licence. There are also many different CC licenses - why are they releasing it under one which allows commercial re-use? Not all of them do.

Katrina S. Forest · May 26, 2012

I have one short story I have given away a considerable amount of rights to. It was the first one I sold. I made this decision for two reasons:

1. The character's situation was not terribly unique. I could recreate it in another time and/or another place with different characters very easily.

2. This was for a moderately well-known publication, and I was paid a semi-pro rate for it, about 3 cents a word. My parents were able to go to a store and buy copies off the shelf. I'd never have done that for a start-up, especially one that didn't even pay me.

Would I do it again? I don't know. It was a lousy contract, I admit that, but it in long term, seeing my work in print and getting a check for it that early in my career really helped me get through all those query rejections that came soon afterwards.

If you're going to just give your stuff away, you might as well do it on your own on your own terms and keep your rights. It doesn't sound like this start-up has the distribution you want. (Edit: I just realized you didn't mention if this anthology is paying you or not. So, if it is, adjust my comments accordingly.)

cairnchime · May 26, 2012

Katrina S. Forest said:
Would I do it again? I don't know. It was a lousy contract, I admit that, but it in long term, seeing my work in print and getting a check for it that early in my career really helped me get through all those query rejections that came soon afterwards.

If you're going to just give your stuff away, you might as well do it on your own on your own terms and keep your rights. It doesn't sound like this start-up has the distribution you want. (Edit: I just realized you didn't mention if this anthology is paying you or not. So, if it is, adjust my comments accordingly.)

It is indeed paying - that's why I'm tearing my hair so much. If it wasn't it'd be a no-brainer.

Polenth · May 26, 2012

I wouldn't sign a contract like that. Some places offer the author a choice of copyright or CC, but I've never seen one try to enforce a commercial use CC contract for stories. It sounds like they don't know what they're doing.

As it's a startup, the chances of getting exposure are slim at best. Warm fuzzies fade quickly if no one reads the story, and you won't be able to sell as a reprint (because you've already given commercial rights to the world). At least with most startups, if it fails and you decide it was a bad idea, you still have the rights to your story. In this case, you're signing it away for good.

Maybe you won't sell anything for the next five years, but better to take a bit longer and be published well than to sign a contract you're going to regret.

cairnchime · May 26, 2012

Theo81 said:
If you are done with this story, then agree. You're getting more out of this deal than having the story sit on your hard drive.

If you think you can do better (more money, more exposure, a credit you can actually USE - this one doesn't sound like you could, not just because the editors sound like fools: we can't stop burglaries so we'll make them legal so it's not longer a problem?), then don't.

FWIW, there is no way in hell anybody but me is going to release my work under a CC licence. There are also many different CC licenses - why are they releasing it under one which allows commercial re-use? Not all of them do.

I have to say I haven't been super impressed with the editors' professionalism throughout the process, not just in terms of the contract. They weren't upfront about the details of their requirements for the story; I got asked for a rewrite/resubmission because my POV character wasn't the one who fitted the niche subject, which I wish I'd known before I started writing. I ended up resubmitting a different piece because I couldn't figure out how to change POV without totally changing the story I was trying to tell (which I really shouldn't have agreed to write to a three-week deadline, since it nearly killed me with stress) - and then they decided to accept the original piece without the rewrite. That left me totally boggled. And they definitely weren't upfront about the Creative Commons thing. I have the strong impression they're winging it, which isn't reassuring. I think CC licenses are a fantastic idea but I've come across them before and I'm well aware that there are lots of available options that wouldn't be as crazy as this one, which is a lot of why I'm balking at the idea of signing.

Digressing a little, I'd love to submit elsewhere but the problem is it's *such* a niche subject. There aren't that many queer lit places out there to start with, and one of the best known serials (Chroma) has actually just closed. The whole reason I committed to this anthology in the first place is it's pretty much the first time in a decade and a half that anything explicitly dedicated to this particular group of people has been published, and I was so completely behind the idea of that happening. It's not that I don't think I write well enough for the mainstream - I take pains to write at my absolute best all the time because I've seen the kind of wince-inducing made-for-your-grandma's-birthday stuff that gets into a lot of "community" publications. I want to be the kind of writer who makes mainstream readers say "Hey, maybe these queer types really can tell a story about Their Stuff that actually entertains me too". I just have a terrible suspicion that many mainstream anthology editors would pick up a story like this, realise what it's about and put it straight on the rejections pile because they can't quite deal with the subject matter. "It's just not the kind of thing we publish". Well yes, but - nobody publishes stuff like this. I come from a community that genuinely doesn't *have* a voice in fiction.

In short I'm not sure whether to put my underwear on over my trousers, declare myself a superhero and start submitting to major league serials in the hope of breaking new ground for my community, or dish up the humble pie and look for somewhere more "in the family" as a starting point. Or indeed where "in the family" I could even look. *sigh*

Polenth · May 26, 2012

cairnchime said:
I just have a terrible suspicion that many mainstream anthology editors would pick up a story like this, realise what it's about and put it straight on the rejections pile because they can't quite deal with the subject matter. "It's just not the kind of thing we publish". Well yes, but - nobody publishes stuff like this. I come from a community that genuinely doesn't *have* a voice in fiction.

In short I'm not sure whether to put my underwear on over my trousers, declare myself a superhero and start submitting to major league serials in the hope of breaking new ground for my community, or dish up the humble pie and look for somewhere more "in the family" as a starting point. Or indeed where "in the family" I could even look. *sigh*

You appear to have convinced yourself that you have to go for bad contracts, low pay and poor exposure because your stories have queer characters. This is self rejection, and if you find yourself self rejecting, slap yourself. Then go to Duotrope, find the best market you can that you've not submitted to yet, and send off your story. Let the editors do the rejecting.

There are two markets I'd recommend avoiding with queer characters: Flash Fiction Online and Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show. The editors of both have expressed anti-gay sentiments, so you're not going to get any joy there. But that still leaves you with a whole lot of markets. (Also read the markets... if you've not come across a queer SFF story in a mainstream market, you're not reading enough.)

Pippi · May 26, 2012

Have you asked them to change the CC part of the contract? These things are negotiable. I've often had parts of contracts changed with absolutely no hassle.

Katrina S. Forest · May 26, 2012

It's easy to tell oneself when a story gets rejected that it wasn't the fault of the story, that the problem lies with the publisher -- they just didn't "get it," or weren't open-minded enough, or were in a bad mood that day, ect. You're actually jumping ahead of that and assuming rejections will come for those reasons when they haven't come at all. (At least, that's what I'm getting from your post.)

The problem is when you place the blame with the publisher, you never question the story. I've sent out plenty of stuff that I thought was awesome, and it sure wasn't bad, but it wasn't up to pro levels either.

Now, I haven't read your work. Maybe it's pro stuff already. In that case, you just need to find the right home (and all the more reason to look for the best home.) But in the event it's not, look at the story, not the publisher* for answers why rejections come in.

*Exception would be if you flat out didn't do your research and submitted to a magazine that already stated it didn't accept that genre.

happywritermom · May 26, 2012

You don't have to limit yourself to publications devoted to gay and lesbian literature. Good writing is good writing. Good stories are good stories.

I wouldn't do it.
If it's exposure you're looking for, you're not likely to get it there.
So it's not worth the risk.
Look elsewhere.

I did sell nonexclusive permanent rights to a print anthology/website once, but I knew I would get good exposure in return and I liked the idea that I could also sell my short story via epublishing on my own.

So far, my experience with the particular publisher has been wonderful and I would do it again. But I am primarily a novelist. It's not for everybody. Keep your career goals in the forefront. Other opportunities will come along.

lauralam · May 26, 2012

Plenty of agents/editors are open and happy to receive more diversity in their submissions. Don't rule it out if you haven't even tried the waters. As mentioned, it's self-rejection.

Theo81 · May 27, 2012

cairnchime said:
In short I'm not sure whether to put my underwear on over my trousers, declare myself a superhero and start submitting to major league serials in the hope of breaking new ground for my community, or dish up the humble pie and look for somewhere more "in the family" as a starting point. Or indeed where "in the family" I could even look. *sigh*

Well...

Polenth said:
You appear to have convinced yourself that you have to go for bad contracts, low pay and poor exposure because your stories have queer characters. This is self rejection, and if you find yourself self rejecting, slap yourself. Then go to Duotrope, find the best market you can that you've not submitted to yet, and send off your story. Let the editors do the rejecting.

There are two markets I'd recommend avoiding with queer characters: Flash Fiction Online and Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show. The editors of both have expressed anti-gay sentiments, so you're not going to get any joy there. But that still leaves you with a whole lot of markets. (Also read the markets... if you've not come across a queer SFF story in a mainstream market, you're not reading enough.)

Katrina S. Forest said:
It's easy to tell oneself when a story gets rejected that it wasn't the fault of the story, that the problem lies with the publisher -- they just didn't "get it," or weren't open-minded enough, or were in a bad mood that day, ect. You're actually jumping ahead of that and assuming rejections will come for those reasons when they haven't come at all. (At least, that's what I'm getting from your post.)

The problem is when you place the blame with the publisher, you never question the story. I've sent out plenty of stuff that I thought was awesome, and it sure wasn't bad, but it wasn't up to pro levels either.

Now, I haven't read your work. Maybe it's pro stuff already. In that case, you just need to find the right home (and all the more reason to look for the best home.) But in the event it's not, look at the story, not the publisher* for answers why rejections come in.

*Exception would be if you flat out didn't do your research and submitted to a magazine that already stated it didn't accept that genre.

happywritermom said:
You don't have to limit yourself to publications devoted to gay and lesbian literature. Good writing is good writing. Good stories are good stories.

.

lauralam said:
Plenty of agents/editors are open and happy to receive more diversity in their submissions. Don't rule it out if you haven't even tried the waters. As mentioned, it's self-rejection.

Is there any reason your story can't appear in *insert appropriate mainstream market* simply because it has a gay MC? "Straight" people like to read about gay people too, you know. Should Toni Morrison only be read by people of colour?

Huge strides have been made in the last ten years to bring gay characters into the mainstream - don't do yourself, your community, your writing, or "straight" people the disservice of assuming your writing only has a market amongst its peers.

As for your community's voice- Patrick Gale? Armistead Maupin? Alan Hollinghurst? Jeanette Winterson? Sarah Waters? These are just the hugely successful, internationally bestselling prizewinning ones.

Start at the top. Work your way down.

If you are looking specifically for a "queer" market because it suits the story, try asking on the QUILTBAG board for recommendations (I've just ahd a check, they have a sticky on this topic).

cairnchime · May 27, 2012

Polenth said:
you won't be able to sell as a reprint (because you've already given commercial rights to the world). At least with most startups, if it fails and you decide it was a bad idea, you still have the rights to your story. In this case, you're signing it away for good.

That is a darn good point, which hadn't occurred to me. Thankyou.

cairnchime · May 27, 2012

Polenth said:
You appear to have convinced yourself that you have to go for bad contracts, low pay and poor exposure because your stories have queer characters. This is self rejection, and if you find yourself self rejecting, slap yourself. Then go to Duotrope, find the best market you can that you've not submitted to yet, and send off your story. Let the editors do the rejecting.

There are two markets I'd recommend avoiding with queer characters: Flash Fiction Online and Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show. The editors of both have expressed anti-gay sentiments, so you're not going to get any joy there. But that still leaves you with a whole lot of markets. (Also read the markets... if you've not come across a queer SFF story in a mainstream market, you're not reading enough.)

Thanks for the tip about IMS and Flash Fiction, I wasn't aware of that.

As for the self rejection – no, I haven't convinced myself that I'll be rejected, I'm just terrified I'll be rejected. Subtle difference. The editors of the anthology, on the other hand, definitely appear to have convinced themselves that there's no possible revenue in any of this work and therefore it should be released into the public domain for the sake of what they keep describing as getting the authors exposure. That really does sound like self-defeating thinking to me.

Pippi said:
Have you asked them to change the CC part of the contract? These things are negotiable. I've often had parts of contracts changed with absolutely no hassle.

Yes. The reply I got was a flat refusal, accompanied by a long ramble about how the entire philosophy of copyright is evil-bad-and-wrong and a link to an anti-copyright radicalism website. I think that was all the answer I needed.

Katrina S. Forest said:
The problem is when you place the blame with the publisher, you never question the story. I've sent out plenty of stuff that I thought was awesome, and it sure wasn't bad, but it wasn't up to pro levels either.

Now, I haven't read your work. Maybe it's pro stuff already. In that case, you just need to find the right home (and all the more reason to look for the best home.) But in the event it's not, look at the story, not the publisher* for answers why rejections come in.

I do my best to be professional; I have a trusted critique partner who writes for a living, and I've put in my ten thousand hours over the years. Having read that lovely article about the twelve or so reasons things get rejected, I can see myself in three of them - “nice that you're working out your issues, but have you tried therapy instead”, “author is talented but has written the wrong book” and “great book but it's not for our market”. But I'd like to think most of the “author is borderline illiterate” ones don't apply!

Theo81 said:
Is there any reason your story can't appear in *insert appropriate mainstream market* simply because it has a gay MC? "Straight" people like to read about gay people too, you know. Should Toni Morrison only be read by people of colour?

[...]

If you are looking specifically for a "queer" market because it suits the story, try asking on the QUILTBAG board for recommendations (I've just ahd a check, they have a sticky on this topic).

I'm not actually talking about gay characters. I suppose I should be specific; I'm talking about transgender ones. Since I'm trans myself. We really are the minority within the minority – and yes, you're right, vast strides *have* been made with getting gay characters into the mainstream. Trans ones? Decades behind. I've heard it said that being trans now is like being gay in the 1970s; in fiction, we're still at the stage of “trans character dies at the end” or “trans characters are not allowed to have a happy ending”. Not to mention that the only trans characters out there are “comedy man-inna-dress” and “I Was Born In The Wrong Body I Never Played With Dolls It's All A Cruel Joke Just Let Me Be”.

My own life experience is that the T word stops people thinking like a bullet to the frontal lobe no matter how liberal and intelligent they are, and I have no reason to believe that editors would be any different. That's why the idea of automatic rejections because the human being behind the desk can't cope with the subject matter on a personal level worries me so much.

Katrina S. Forest · May 27, 2012

The article you're talking about I'm guessing listed the easiest reasons to pinpoint why work gets rejected. There's tons of other reasons, not the least of which is, "not bad, but this person over here did something better."

It never hurts to have multiple people critique your work. When you have 50 posts, you can share on AW as well.

I disagree that all editors are as closed-minded as you think they are. If they say they're open to a subject, then I'd take them at their word. If you're convinced you'll get rejected due to some universal dislike of the subject, you might as well not submit.

Edit: Just for clarification, I'm not suggesting that as a solution. I'm trying to say on some level you have to trust editors to be honest about what they're open to and what they're not.

James D. Macdonald · May 27, 2012

cairnchime said:
As for the self rejection – no, I haven't convinced myself that I'll be rejected, I'm just terrified I'll be rejected.

Is that it? Okay: I reject you, I reject you, I reject you. There, that wasn't so bad, was it? Now go and submit your work to the best appropriate markets.

Remember, when you get rejections, that they aren't rejecting you, it's just that they're not buying this particular story at this particular time.

Yes. The reply I got was a flat refusal, accompanied by a long ramble about how the entire philosophy of copyright is evil-bad-and-wrong and a link to an anti-copyright radicalism website. I think that was all the answer I needed.

The only thing to do is thank them for their time, wish them well, withdraw your story, and cross them off your list of markets. Otherwise you'll have a story published that, in years to come, you won't mention in cover letters and that you will leave off your bibliography.

Katrina S. Forest said:
The article you're talking about I'm guessing listed the easiest reasons to pinpoint why work gets rejected. There's tons of other reasons, not the least of which is, "not bad, but this person over here did something better."

I expect that the article is Slushkiller. Which everyone should read.

Note that "Main character is LGBT" is not one of the reasons listed.

Theo81 · May 27, 2012

Started on UK tv this week, a show called Hit and Miss. ~~Look it up -I'm on kindle so I can' link you and I haven't watched it myself.~~ This is the official website.

This is from this page regarding casting news.

[Chloe] Sevigny will play Mia, a contract killer with a big secret: she's a pre-op transsexual. Mia's life is sent into a tailspin when she receives a letter from her ex, Wendy, who reveals that she's dying from cancer and that Mia had fathered a son, 11-year-old Ryan. Travelling to a tiny village in West Yorkshire to see the boy, the assassin then discovers the rest of Wendy's brood...

I can't tell you how the subject is handled, as I said above, I haven't seen it. It just happens to have started this week and pertains to the subject matter.

There's also Patrick McCabe's Booker shortlisted (and made into a film) Breakfast On Pluto.

There are a lot of reasons you'll get rejcted. Transgender subject matter is rarely one of them. Really- I appreciate where you are coming from*, I had a freind who had full surgery, but you are not an island of one, whatever it feels like.

*to clarify while I'm editing this - I remember when my friend first came out as gay, it was as though he (at that time) was the first person to have done it, EVER. Everything was new, nobody had ever gone through it before, he was out, proud, and wanted to make sure everybody knew about him and what he was going through because he was the only person, ever, to have done it. There were no stories. There was no community. For him, with his background, there wasn't. His family was hugely religious, as was he, so it was something new he didn't have any experience of. It was hilarious at the time (because of how he was, like a three year-old who's just discovered gravity keeps stuff stuck to the floor) and remains a wonderful thing to think back on - him embracing who he was and I'm so glad for him being able to do that.

Don't worry about issues and concentrate on a damn good story well told. Your characters are people before they are anything else - transgender, gay, female, people of colour; always people first.

Polenth · May 27, 2012

cairnchime said:
As for the self rejection – no, I haven't convinced myself that I'll be rejected, I'm just terrified I'll be rejected. Subtle difference.

You can call it what you like, but it's still self rejection. Whether it's fuelled by fear or lack of understanding of the market, it still boils down to the same thing: not submitting to markets, because you've already decided they're going to reject you.

It's not different because your characters are trans rather than gay. I'm not saying there isn't prejudice ever, because sometimes there is... but it's not the universal thing you think it is, where you have no chances of publication. Some markets actively state that they want more diversity in submissions (and when they say it, they do really mean it). Some don't state it, but clearly do want it based on what they choose to publish. One magazine I'm thinking of had a trans staff member for awhile, and there are likely more that I don't know about.

lauralam · May 28, 2012

There's been a few novels with gay, lesbian, bisexual, intersex, transgender, genderqueer main characters/prominent side characters. But not as many as there should be.

My agent has stated she'd love more diversity, but she just never sees it in her slush pile. I've heard an editor or two say the same. Definitely don't self-censor the slushpile due to fear. The worst that happens is they say no. But if you never send it to them, that's the same result, isn't it? The best result is they say yes.

I think you'll find that if the writing and story is good, having a protagonist that's a little different will only prove to be an asset. I have atypical characters in my book, and people found that really interesting.

cairnchime · May 28, 2012

Thankyou for the encouragement, everyone. It's not that I don't know I have a chip on my shoulder but sometimes you need to hear it from somebody else...

Subbed to a Well Known Genre Magazine as of five minutes ago. Fingers crossed

Susan Coffin · May 28, 2012

Cairnchime,

I echo those who say to move on from this magazine. You have not been happy with them and their contract terms are not for you. Start submitting to top markets, and work your way down if necessary, and don't stop until it's sold to a market you are happy with.

Good luck!

rac · May 28, 2012

Susan Littlefield said:
Cairnchime,

I echo those who say to move on from this magazine. You have not been happy with them and their contract terms are not for you. Start submitting to top markets, and work your way down if necessary, and don't stop until it's sold to a market you are happy with.
!

Listen to your instincts and to the people on this thread. If you're uneasy about the magazine, then back away from it. Years ago I signed a bad contract with a major publisher, and I still don't like to think about it.

Steven Hutson · May 29, 2012

I'm with Jager: Most writers need the exposure more than they need the money or bulletproof rights. Whatever exposure this tiny pub might gain for you, is more than you have now. I say get your name into print my any means necessary for now.

Is it worth accepting these contract terms..?

cairnchime

Drachen Jager

Professor of applied misanthropy

Old Hack

Such a nasty woman

Theo81

Katrina S. Forest

cairnchime

Polenth

Mushroom

cairnchime

Polenth

Mushroom

Pippi

Katrina S. Forest

happywritermom

lauralam

Moonshade

Theo81

cairnchime

cairnchime

Katrina S. Forest

James D. Macdonald

Your Genial Uncle

Theo81

Polenth

Mushroom

lauralam

Moonshade

cairnchime

Susan Coffin

Tell it like it Is

rac

Steven Hutson