The Willows Magazine

[Paulmnz]

I had a story accepted for publication by The Willows Magazine.
www.thewillowsmagazine.com

I felt confident this was a good step, knowing some authors who had been previously published by them in their print zine.

My story was accepted as a "feature story" meaning I got paid for it. (US$25.00)

I signed and returned a contract agreeing to this in December.

The issue was due out in January (and is out now).

In late January I emailed them to query the publication date, and my lack of payment.

ONLY THEN did they email me back to say my story had been relegated to "non feature status" due to it's length not being sufficient to merit a featured position. Which meant of course, I don't get paid (though I still get published).

So they breached contract with me. I'm not going to pursue it for the sake of $25.00 but I certainly learned something about the reliability of small press magazine publishers.

 

[Unimportant]

You might also want to drop a note to Ralan at ralan.com. He can modify the market listing to reflect their contractual breach, where pretty much every writer on the planet will see it.

 

[heatheringemar]

Ouch. That's not good.

Thanks for posting this (I was thinking about submitting there!!! ), and I agree with Unimportant -- contact Ralan, and you might even want to report your experience at Duotrope.

Sorry that happened to you. That's a bummer.

 

[Paulmnz]

They did publish my story, so it's more of a "be careful" story, not a OMG this is a scam! Which it clearly isn't.

If you do get something accepted by them, then make sure you keep in touch.

 

[Unimportant]

Breaching a written, signed contract is a fairly bad sign, and other writers like myself certainly appreciate it when Ralan flags such magazines on his market listing.

 

[Sheryl Nantus]

well, if they agreed and signed a contract to PAY you and didn't - that's a lot more than a "be careful" there.

just my opinion.

 

[CaoPaux]

ONLY THEN did they email me back to say my story had been relegated to "non feature status" due to it's length not being sufficient to merit a featured position. Which meant of course, I don't get paid (though I still get published).

Their guidelines:

Fiction
We pay $25 for four featured stories per issue; any other work will be accepted on a non-paid basis.
pieces must be less than 5,500 words in length
DOC, RTF, or PDF format, and not in the body of an email
left-aligned, double-spaced, 12 pt., in a readable font (Times NR, Courier, or Ariel preferred)
paginated header with the title, your name, and your email address (if you have one)
contact info on the first page in the left hand corner, followed by a word count

Since there is no minimum word count specified, for them to suddenly claim one is suspicious. IANAL, but if you have contract in hand that declares you were to be published as a feature story and receive payment for same, for them to do anything less without at least notifying you of the change is a serious issue.

 

[Dragon-lady]

They did publish my story, so it's more of a "be careful" story, not a OMG this is a scam! Which it clearly isn't.

If you do get something accepted by them, then make sure you keep in touch.

I kind of disagree that it's not an OMG story. Some of us do not give away stories. I would consider my story to have been stolen if this happened to me--especially after signing a contract.

Definitely follow up with Ralan and Duotrope on this please. As several have mentioned, this is a very bad sign. Breach of contract isn't a minor matter.

 

[IceCreamEmpress]

That's an OMG story to me. These people defaulted on a signed contract.

 

[CaoPaux]

Closed April '09. http://aldersgatecycle.wordpress.com/2009/02/18/helping-the-willows-magazine/