Print v. Web

I've never really differentiated. I try to get paid for my stories and print certainly pays better. BUT, I've had five stories on web zines subsequently selected for print anthologies. A double whammy. I got paid (plus royalties) for the secondary printed books in addition to the small amount I got for the original posting.

So, examine the web zines. Do they have an annual anthology? That might make the lower pay worthwhile and give you a print credit.

There are also a number of small press publishers who start with an ebook and then upgrade you to a print book if sales are good enough.

I prefer print mags, but will submit my work to either.

I'm new at this game, but I've been told (by someone wise and experienced) that print first is a good rule, so that you can then sell your story to other countries as 1st translation rights. If you publish on the web first, then print publishers will probably only buy reprint rights, as they assume anyone anywhere in the world can have already read your piece.

This is a completely different issue from the status of webzines - some of which have the work of well-known and respected authors.

c.e.

I submit to both. I have started working on short stories, since completing my first novel. I felt it was a good idea to put myself to work while waiting for the publishers' responses.

Print definitely has its perks as well as the pay, but I've gone for both. Exposure didn't hurt when I first started. The editors at e-zines aren't any less picky about the quality of work they publish and some are as reputible as any print mag. Chizine comes to mind. Good pay and a team of editors that demand quality.

Pike

If they pay, I will submit.

I'm easy that way. (Okay, every way, but that's not important now.)

I submit to both...my only bias is in the fact I won't sell my stories for free.
Yes, I'm a short story whore.

I submit to both, but only to those that pay...

if they can afford to either print the 'zine or afford to have a website active they can pay the writers.

I submit to both. I have a fondness for ezines. There is a lot of quality flash on the web right now. I'll settle for token payment if it's a magazine I really enjoy.

To repeat...

sell your print rights first, then sell to the web.

mikeland said:

Does that really happen? My poking around at the ezines seems to indicate that they want the same first rights as the print pubs. I'm not seeing a lot of secondary web markets, let alone paying ones.

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There are a decent number of ezines that will consider reprints, although since I write fantasy and SF I don't know of any particular lit-only markets that might help you. A few months ago I queried Big Pulp (a new ezine) to see if they were interested in a SF story reprint. They first asked to make sure it had never appeared online, then said send it, and then they bought it. So yeah, it happens.

I do like selling to print mags first--there's just something extra satisfying about getting a check and a comp copy.

I prefer submitting to webzines and short story ebook pubs, simply for availablility. So far, all the people I've talked to really like the fact that they can download my stories from the Internet and read them.

The thing is, who will pay me for my work? So far, my odds with online markets are TONS better than my odds with print.

Although I have only been submitting short fiction for a few months, I have focused primarily on electronic publications for two reasons:

1. Odds of publication. There's really no reason for me to kill trees (or tax the electrical grid in the case of electronic submissions) for the sake of submissions to Glimmer Train, Ploughshares, Zoetrope, One Story, etc. I'm simply not good enough for them. Maybe someday, but not now. Once you eliminate the 20 (or 30? or 40?) paper publications I put into that category, then I feel like the "prestige" factor isn't too different from web publications, which leads me to reason number ...

2. Quick response times. With relatively few exceptions, web publications have shorter response times. So in the case of non-simultaneous submissions, my piece is out of commission for a shorter period. And in the case of all submissions, I just like finding out quickly. I have neither a huge catalog of polished unpublished pieces to submit nor the time to quickly generate. So I like to keep my small catalog in circulation as much as possible.

All that said, I can't wait until I have a bound volume of something-or-other that contains something written by me.

As for this thing called "payment" of "money" -- I know not of what you speak. Are you referring to the green barter vouchers I receive for sitting at a desk all day long? I didn't realize one could obtain such vouchers by writing.

If it pays I'll submit it. Either one. Although there is something nice about seeing a story in print.

I've recently started submitting to web in addition to print, though I'm Olde Schoole enough to still enjoy the luxurious feeling of a bound bundle of paper in my hands. But I'm that way with stuff I read, also, so it's just a personal quirk, one beyond which I expect my kids and their kids will evolve.

steveg144 said:

I've recently started submitting to web in addition to print, though I'm Olde Schoole enough to still enjoy the luxurious feeling of a bound bundle of paper in my hands. But I'm that way with stuff I read, also, so it's just a personal quirk, one beyond which I expect my kids and their kids will evolve.

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Their kids will likely think that web zines are quaint. By then, writers'll be submitting to brain-zines. You know, like Glimmer Brain.

It depends...

electronic rights are not the same as print first serial rights. Some e-zines want them to be but some don't.

Your work is not a reprint if it was published in the UK and you are offering it to the USA. You are selling a different first serial right.

To be sure read the guidelines. Some zine editors are greedy and want all rights. Polite negotiation sometimes works.

mikeland said:

Does that really happen? My poking around at the ezines seems to indicate that they want the same first rights as the print pubs. I'm not seeing a lot of secondary web markets, let alone paying ones.

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I'm not either. Actually I know of more print pubs that are secondary markets (like The Sun who buy reprints).

It's all about pay -- I won't submit to non-paying markets, online or off. But as I've learned, when it comes to fiction the idea of "pay" is more or less a joke. At what point are you happy, $5 a story? A penny a word? Ten dollars a page? I don't know. My attitude now is sell it for as much as you can, to a pub you like, and when you've got a lot of credits in such markets, think about a collection. Think of the story publications as ads for your talents, ways to attract agents, other editors, and readers.

Theoretically, web publications should pay more since they're taking world rights and they've got no print costs. But generally they don't, and that's also the case with nonfiction.

The web ezine world looks like the Wild West to me. I write so-called literary fiction (i.e. I don't fit any genre). I'm having trouble differentiating the best from the rest. Can you recommend some markets that you think highly of?

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I think paper is on the way out, and I think that a number of publishers feel that way, too -- so some of the better print magazines are going online. Boston Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, AGNI, and Kenyon Review are a few examples. Some of them require a paid subscription to reaed, but others don't. The Atlantic is now 100% online.

As for web-only markets, I did a quick search in my db and only one in the top four tiers showed up: Five Chapters.

Sure, I use duotrope, but in the end that's just a list (which is not to knock the site, which I couldn't live without). Are there sites out there reviewing ezines? Kind of like New Pages does for litmags? Are there awards like O.Henry or Pushcart for web writing?

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There's a "best writing on the web" award -- think it's called "Best of the Net" -- but it's still too obscure. There should be more. I think it's the future. I mean, most people I know read more online pubs than print. Many are just the web equivalents of existing print pubs -- nytimes.com, boson.com, newyorker.com, theatlantic.com, latimes.com, wired.com, eweek.com, wsj.com -- but some are not: boing boing, Gawker, Slate, Salon, Mediabistro. Think of the workplace: people are reading the above sites all day, not sitting in their cubes with magazines. The thing about it is that there just aren't any web-only sites in this second category that are devoted to fiction and/or poetry. Oh, McSweeney's. Okay, that's one. McSweeney's is popular. But otherwise, in terms of high-profile commerical sites, there just aren't any. Are there? I hope that changes. I'd like that to change. I think it's the future. But right now, I'm having a tough time naming any.

You mentioned Smokelong and Pboz. I think they're good reprint markets. Another one (on hiatus?) is Swink, based in LA. It's both print and web and I know people who've contributed to them but I have a real hard time submitting to a non-paying market. I've done it, I'll admit that, but I don't think it's right.

lostlore said:

My attitude now is sell it for as much as you can, to a pub you like, and when you've got a lot of credits in such markets, think about a collection. Think of the story publications as ads for your talents, ways to attract agents, other editors, and readers.

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Ads is about right. If you can get your work into a magazine/ezine, people will see it. Some people will read it. And if they like it, maybe they'll track down your other stuff to read.

It's that right there that has me submitting again to mags.