- Joined
- Mar 23, 2012
- Messages
- 16
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Well, I have been burned by an editor. Last year I submitted a short prose poem/flash fiction/whathaveyou to The Dream People; a site I've been aching to crack since I like the fiction and it's a paying market. The story Glowing Signs was published in issue #34 on May of 2011. Standard practice for publishers is to pay the longest of 30 days after publication. So as the time drew near, I sent this email:
5/28/11
Hi Stanley:
I haven't received payment yet for my story, Glowing Sign. Maybe there was a prob with the paypal process. My account should be under (email withdrawn from public).
Thanks,
Stanley responded with:
6/9/11
Hi Mike. You'll get it. We're always late! But I suspect you will survive without the 5 bucks for a few more days
Yours,
I responded:
6/9/11
I don't know, man. Been wanting a new pack of gum lol
Did not know you were late ones. That's fine.
Thanks!
I did not write back until March of 2012. Maybe they pay later than that. So I say:
3/20/12
Hi Stanley,
If you don't mind, I would like to get paid for the story of mine you posted. If not then please take it down. Kind of unfair how you say you pay writers then don't.
Thank you.
Stanley writes back two emails:
Hi Mike. Did you send along a paypal address? If so, you should have been paid, but there may have been a mistake. I assume you have been able to eat and get along in life without the five dollars so far? At any rate, let me know what your paypal address is and I'll see that the money is forwarded. That said, don't you ever fucking write me again with shit like "Kind of unfair how you say you pay writers then don’t," is that fucking clear?
Yours,
and:
On second thought, I will take your story down asap. We don't want anything to do with dips hits who bitch about five measly dollars.
Yours,
So now I await payment for my story. Currently it is down down from the site, which is fine.
I'm not going to say anything to these emails. I'm gonna let them speak for themselves. Although my wise-ass meter is running on overdrive.
Also, I don't feel Ashenbach is reflective or an extension of the people at Raw Dog Screaming Pressor D. Harlan Wilson. his behavior is his own. As is mine.
ADDENDUM
I stand corrected. I have found a blog post from D. Harlan Wilson that seems to be posted the 22nd of March before I had the oportunity to receive Ashenbach's replies to my email for payment.
Since 2006, I have been the editor-in-chief of The Dream People, a magazine you are probably familiar with if you read my stories and books. We pay $5 for unsolicited short fiction, and we only send funds via paypal. My assistant recently received a snotty email from an author we published who allegedly did not receive payment for a story. I'm not sure if this author forgot to send along a paypal address or if payment for the story simply slipped through the cracks (it happens). The point is, IT'S FIVE DOLLARS. We wish we could pay more, but we can't, and in any case, the payment of FIVE DOLLARS fiction writers receive for their work is a symbolic gesture. We assume that, if you sell us a story, you are not making your living off of the sale. MORAL: If authors published in TDP send us their paypal addresses and do not get paid within a month or two after the official publication of whatever issue they appear in, feel free to write us, but don't be an I-take-myself-way-too-seriously-becuase-I'm-so-deeply-insecure shithead about it.
5/28/11
Hi Stanley:
I haven't received payment yet for my story, Glowing Sign. Maybe there was a prob with the paypal process. My account should be under (email withdrawn from public).
Thanks,
Stanley responded with:
6/9/11
Hi Mike. You'll get it. We're always late! But I suspect you will survive without the 5 bucks for a few more days
Yours,
I responded:
6/9/11
I don't know, man. Been wanting a new pack of gum lol
Did not know you were late ones. That's fine.
Thanks!
I did not write back until March of 2012. Maybe they pay later than that. So I say:
3/20/12
Hi Stanley,
If you don't mind, I would like to get paid for the story of mine you posted. If not then please take it down. Kind of unfair how you say you pay writers then don't.
Thank you.
Stanley writes back two emails:
Hi Mike. Did you send along a paypal address? If so, you should have been paid, but there may have been a mistake. I assume you have been able to eat and get along in life without the five dollars so far? At any rate, let me know what your paypal address is and I'll see that the money is forwarded. That said, don't you ever fucking write me again with shit like "Kind of unfair how you say you pay writers then don’t," is that fucking clear?
Yours,
and:
On second thought, I will take your story down asap. We don't want anything to do with dips hits who bitch about five measly dollars.
Yours,
So now I await payment for my story. Currently it is down down from the site, which is fine.
I'm not going to say anything to these emails. I'm gonna let them speak for themselves. Although my wise-ass meter is running on overdrive.
Also, I don't feel Ashenbach is reflective or an extension of the people at Raw Dog Screaming Press
ADDENDUM
I stand corrected. I have found a blog post from D. Harlan Wilson that seems to be posted the 22nd of March before I had the oportunity to receive Ashenbach's replies to my email for payment.
Since 2006, I have been the editor-in-chief of The Dream People, a magazine you are probably familiar with if you read my stories and books. We pay $5 for unsolicited short fiction, and we only send funds via paypal. My assistant recently received a snotty email from an author we published who allegedly did not receive payment for a story. I'm not sure if this author forgot to send along a paypal address or if payment for the story simply slipped through the cracks (it happens). The point is, IT'S FIVE DOLLARS. We wish we could pay more, but we can't, and in any case, the payment of FIVE DOLLARS fiction writers receive for their work is a symbolic gesture. We assume that, if you sell us a story, you are not making your living off of the sale. MORAL: If authors published in TDP send us their paypal addresses and do not get paid within a month or two after the official publication of whatever issue they appear in, feel free to write us, but don't be an I-take-myself-way-too-seriously-becuase-I'm-so-deeply-insecure shithead about it.