[Magazine] Quantum Muse

[FM St George]

just putting out a warning to any writers who may be considering submitting to Quantum Muse at www.quantummuse.com - they published my short story in November of 2003 and have refused to pay. Payment, as per their submission guidelines, is supposed to be 6 months after publication - but nothing was received.

E-mails were sent and requests made, but no responses - I did notify them of my intentions to put this post up in the New Year if no payment nor communication was forthcoming, so here it is.

Quantum Muse = bad 'zine to work for.

 

[sfsassenach]

Re: Quantum Muse - no payment!

Payment, as per their submission guidelines, is supposed to be 6 months after publication

Sorry to hear that. Their policy is a giant red flag...what publication pays six months after publication?

 

[FM St George]

Re: Quantum Muse - no payment!

well, I was young and eager... :rollin

but the kicker was no response to my emails - that and the "joke" that they'd put off payment one month for every email they received asking for payment.

I thought it was a joke...

:b

ah, well... so it goes!

 

[Fillanzea]

Re: Quantum Muse - no payment!

For what it's worth, I got paid about a year after a story of mine was published there. Sucks, but that's the small press for you--I don't know if they're wilfully dishonest so much as plagued by lack of time/money/strict commitment.

 

[FM St George]

Re: Quantum Muse - no payment!

doesn't matter to me - if they had just responded to any of my emails...

*shrug*

hey, it's not much but it's the principle of the thang...

thanks for your comment!

 

[DaveKuzminski]

Re: Quantum Muse - no payment!

Well, you appear to be among several writers who haven't been paid by Quantum Muse, so QM is losing their recommended rating at P&E because of this. Joke or not, such behavior as delaying payment because of an inquiry cannot be condoned, either.

 

[FM St George]

Re: Quantum Muse - no payment!

thank you, Dave.

I really didn't want to go this route, but after a certain point you do have to put your foot down, even if it's only ten dollars.

 

[FM St George]

Re: Quantum Muse - no payment!

I just received an email from Quantum Muse that said I will be paid "as soon as possible"... seems that they checked their financial records and found that yes, I hadn't been paid. No mention of the numerous emails I had sent before hand, of course.

I'll keep you updated, but I ain't holding my breath.

:\

 

[KatYares]

Re: Quantum Muse - no payment!

In the hope that QM is possibly reading this board.

- My story Lost Soul was published in February 2003. I never received anything more than an acceptance email, although I did try to contact them several times - both thru email and thru their site.

They also published a story of mine in Feb 2002 - payment came one month later - no problem. It was only after I subbed the second story that their guidelines changed and the 'payment will be delayed a month for every email asking where your money is' started.

Who knows, maybe I'll get lucky and hear something from them now.

Kat

 

[FM St George]

Re: Quantum Muse - no payment!

Kat, I also posted this at The Writer's Magazine board and Writer's Weekly - add your comments to my own topic if you'd like...

as I said, I did hear from him but I'll not be holding my breath on payment...

 

[FM St George]

Re: Quantum Muse - no payment!

just to let you know that payment was received today via Paypal from Quantum Muse.

My dealings with them are therefore concluded and I ask the moderator to close this thread out.

thanks to all who offered their help!

 

[rtilryarms]

Re: Quantum Muse - no payment!

What are the chances that this thread helped in the payment?

 

[XThe NavigatorX]

QM

Maybe not this forum, but her posting on Mindsight helped because a rep from QM came over and discussed the issue.

I hope everything works out for everyone involved. Though I've never submitted anything to them, I am a regular reader. More often than not the stuff is pretty good.

 

[Anaparenna]

I'm bumping this one up to confirm that "6 months after publication" has passed without pay on a published story, and a query about payment has gone unanswered for a week (almost 2, I think.). I knew it was risky, but subbed there because I liked the T-shirt (which they offer in lieu of payment). My opinion on that, of course, has changed. I strongly encourage spec-fic writers to check www.ralan.com (no affiliation) for more reputable markets for their stories. I'm quite disappointed in Quantum Muse.

 

[KatYares]

Try this...

I'm bumping this one up to confirm that "6 months after publication" has passed without pay on a published story, and a query about payment has gone unanswered for a week (almost 2, I think.). I knew it was risky, but subbed there because I liked the T-shirt (which they offer in lieu of payment). My opinion on that, of course, has changed. I strongly encourage spec-fic writers to check www.ralan.com (no affiliation) for more reputable markets for their stories. I'm quite disappointed in Quantum Muse.

The way I finally got payment was to contact Rebecca Gallant - she was the same person St. George talked to over at mindsight. She paid me personally.
Her email is [email protected]

You might want to try emailing her and see if she can find out why you haven't recieved your tshirt.

Best
Kat

 

[Anaparenna]

Thanks for the info, Kat.

 

[James D. Macdonald]

They're still going. http://www.quantummuse.com/submissions.html

 

[Aprylwriter]

I've heard of them. I thought about sending something in awhile ago, but have never gotten around to it.

Apryl

 

[zizban]

Last week I heard that one of the founders left QM; I'm suprised to hear about problems with them because I always heard good things about QM.

 

[veinglory]

I think many of use never really follow up on the payment which is, as I recall, a token amount.

 

[CaoPaux]

Submissions are now "peer review", meaning folks who wish to submit must first critique other submissions to earn enough credits to submit their own work.

 

[JustSarah]

I've had a run in with them when I was younger and less informed. Luckily I've gotten most of my old stories off of there that I felt had any value.

In fact a lot of my issues about critiques come specifically from this "peer review" website. Also I'm glad to see this website on here, I must admit at first I was hesitate to add them on there.

 

[Lady MacBeth]

Thanks for letting us know.

 

[PrisonGuy]

I tried submitting to them. I was put off by their peer review system and decided to look elsewhere.

 

[JustSarah]

Here are some facts I've noticed as someone who was once snared into their "peer review" system:

I formatting my text to have smaller paragraphs, but because I use Safari, it reformats it because of an error on the website that makes it look like huge paragraphs. But guess who was the one that got a two star rating because of this error? This makes it where only those who use Firefox or Internet Explorer to be able to properly use the software.

On their message board, when you complain about the fact that each critique does not go into any real depth, (Like a 150 word critique) they blame you for the website formatting. But then you're the one asked to leave if you don't like it.

Magazine publication from my own understand is having a double spaced 12 point font manuscript with a word count on the side. Instead it written directly into the website, with a peer critique system in place.