This PA author has requested free stories for a publication from his fellow authors and is running into flak:
Our print issue are in fact free, and distributed in many outlets in the Chicago are--i.e. bookstores and coffeehouses.
We don't advertise on our site yet, but we are moving that way.
We hold free readings monthly where we give away copies of our issues.
Egos of the inexperience is something I don't understand. The idea behind writing is that someone will read your work--not monotary reimbursement. Our print circluation is something like 200 or so--small, yes, but growing--and our online edition get abouts 250 hits per month. That's pretty good readership for a tiny start-up only a few months old. I would argue that readership is more important than the few dollars you would receive for you story.
This is the answer from another:
The "few dollars" is not quite the point. Either you are a professional and write like one and expect recognition through payment (which shows your work has worth), or you are a dilettante who just wants to see the name in print.
I've always operated on the assumption that if it's worthy of print, it's worthy of compensation for the time, effort and expertise expended in turning out a finished product. I have to pay the plumber, the lawn mowing man, the electric company...who offer products/services just as I do. And they don't do it out of the kindness of their hearts.
The solicitor seems to think that writing should be a free exercise, and can't understand why no one wants to contribute for free.
The other comment is a taste in irony, since she explains that writing is a job and one should be entitled to compensation for the time, effort, and expertise expended in turning out a finished product. But yet the "few dollars" is not quite the point? Then what is the point?
I find this wierd, since poo-pooing the idea of contributing a small story doesn't equate to the severity of selling a novel for a dollar. If she sold a short story for two dollars, she would beat the advance that PA gave her. Gak!
Tri