Thinkerbeat | Longshot Press | Longshot Island Magazine | Unfit | Unreal

[CathleenT]

I hope I have this posted in the proper place. I was going to ask a mod, but none are listed for this particular subforum.

Anyway, Longshot Island is a literary magazine that doesn't pay, but they submit your work to awards that I consider "real"--the Pushcart Prize and the O. Henry awards.

Daniel White, the editor-in-chief, has been very helpful, not only to me, but to others who are trying to break into this writing gig. Longshot Island is looking for short stories, 500 to 2500 words, and collections of poems. You can read more about their preferences here: http://www.longshotisland.com/submissions/.

I also blogged about them recently, so you can get views from some of their other published authors here: https://cathleentownsend.com/2017/02/22/4-ways-longshot-island-helps-emerging-authors/.

It's a nice group of people, so I'd like to see them do well. And we can all use more publications.

 

[slhuang]

Unfit / Unreal / Thinkerbeat / Longshot Press

There are several different publications under this press, as the title indicates -- Unfit Magazine, Unreal Magazine, Thinkerbeat Reader, and Longshot Press I believe covers all of them.

There's a lot hitting social media on this at the moment. Including:

• An account to submit being free at first, but then submission fees being charged starting at 3 months. It's being reported that this information is buried pretty far in the terms & conditions so it is easy for account holders to be unaware.
• The press is publicly publishing(!) the titles of rejected stories, along with the LEGAL names of their authors and a star rating. (This is despite a line in their terms and conditions saying they will not share people's data.)
• The owner of the press has been responding unprofessionally to people who try to express their concerns about the above two facts.

I know Writer Beware have been contacted, and a lot of other people are talking about it. There will likely be more links soon, but here's one to start: http://benjaminckinney.com/writer-warning-unfit-unreal-thinkerbeat-reader/ (Blog author is a reputable writer and editor.)

Here's the notice that's been posted on The Submissions Grinder: https://thegrinder.diabolicalplots.com/Market.aspx?mid=8232 (Also a reputable source; I know he always makes an effort to verify that type of information.)

 

[AW Admin]

I'm going to merge this with the extant thread.

 

[mrsmig]

Thanks for the heads up. I submitted a story in late October of last year but it doesn't appear on the list McKinney mentions.

 

[frimble3]

What a jerk! What possible purpose does listing the stories he has rejected serve, aside to rub the authors' noses in the rejection? And, he seems to reject pretty much everything. (As do most other places, but they don't feel the need to make public lists.)

At least he did post one warning: 'Longshot, Unfit and Unreal' seems to cover his operation pretty thoroughly.

 

[Helix]

I see that the Twitter account (@thinkerbeatread) is retweeting criticism, so I would imagine that rubbing authors' noses in it is probably the motivation. So edgy.


ETA: Or it could be automated to retweet any mention. In which case, someone's going to have a surprise when they check their socmed accounts.

 

[Filigree]

On the list's header, Thinkerbeat posts something like this: 'We post the stories rated 2 - 4 to compliment the authors for stuff that is still pretty good, just not a 5.' To their credit, they don't show the stories rated 1.

I subbed here a while back, I'll have to double check what happened with mine.

 

[shadowsminder]

The same person in charge of Longshot Press (Longshot Island, Unfit, and Unreal) also has a non-paying review ezine called Mythaxis.

By the way, that person is Daniel Scott White. He doesn't always list himself as the editor on his publications. When he does, his bio is crowded with the names of big authors. I don't think I've seen a magazine editor do that before.

 

[NinjaFingers]

They are now threatening their critics.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ER_sQfrXYAAYpUu.jpg

(Yes, this was made public on Twitter by Lee).

 

[Woollybear]

Scanning through thinker beat and unfit magazine on twitter it looks (to me) like both accounts have some sort of auto-retweet set up, and both are retweeting the same tweets.

Nothing wrong with that, I guess, and maybe I'm inferring too much from their TLs, but ... meh. It's so algorithmic. Personally, I'd rather get a human vibe.

 

[mrsmig]

This all seems very odd.

I had some dealings with Thinkerbeat/Longshot Island/Unreal/Unfit publisher Daniel White some years ago, when I won a Thinkerbeat monthly short-story contest that eventually ended up in a Thinkerbeat anthology. He seemed like a reasonable and courteous individual who was still learning his way in the publishing business. We've touched based on occasion when he's been starting new projects such as Longshot Island, Unreal and Unfit. I didn't pursue any of them since at the time there was no compensation, beyond being nominated for awards like Pushcart (see Post #1 above), although I did join the Thinkerbeat site. Daniel encourages members to blog on the Thinkerbeat site (free content, I guess) but I've never done so.

In October of last year he emailed me that Unfit and Unreal were now paying 12 cents/word. I was surprised by the dramatic change in payment policy and responded that I had something that might suit for Unreal and I'd send it off. He said he'd appreciate that. I submitted and received a rejection almost immediately, without comment. I remember thinking "hmmm, that was weird," but I just shrugged it off.

Regarding the "ratings" page that's causing such furor, he says on the Thinkerbeat site that he got the idea for it from "Writers of the Future which also publishes a list of Honorable Mentions." Make of that what you will.

 

[TMeuretBooks]

My name and story were originally on that list. He has since appeared to have removed it after I emailed him. It was rated 2 out of 5 stars.

I can tell you that 2 out of 5 is no compliment. It's a failing grade and I felt immediately violated. Luckily, I had already sold it to another magazine, but had this happened earlier in my writing career I'd have been absolutely devastated. Had he simply made a list of writers that he thought deserved recognition that might have been fine, but the fact that he rated our already rejected stories while listing the title of the story, while also having a privacy policy in place that explicitly states they will not share your information with anyone (except, apparently, the entire internet), well...

I will never sub to them, or anything affiliated with them, ever again.

 

[JulesJones]

Being a cynical old bat, I did wonder how much of this was looking for publicity (google those names and you find his site, stir up a little controversy and get the clicks, etc), and not liking the publicity he got. Of course, it could be that he's simply oblivious to anything but his own ego.

 

[Corvid]

I submitted to them a while ago but my name wasn't on the list. Guess that means I "failed," haha. More like dodging a bullet if you ask me.

 

[mrsmig]

Longshot Press' submission guidelines for its imprint Unfit Press now state that if you're a member of SFWA, you're ineligible to submit.

Their Twitter account states: "Tip: SFWA members not eligible."

I'm not sure what this is supposed to accomplish, except to raise eyebrows.

 

[Woollybear]

Can you interpret this for me?

Pay: $.25/word for the first 1000 words; $.01/word for any words over 1,000

This either means four words nets you a penny, or a dollar, up to 1000 words (which means a 1000 word piece either gets you $2.50 or $250). After that the pay drops way down.

It just seems remarkably low or remarkably high. $250 for a 1K short story?

 

[mrsmig]

Sorry, Woollybear, I don't have that info - you'd have to ask the press to clarify its rates.

Longshot Press posted a blog about why they've got a mad on with the SFWA. The TL;DR version: they're unhappy that SFWA posted a warning about Thinkerbeat's public "ratings" system for submissions but erroneously attributed the system to Longshot's paying imprints (Unfit and Unreal) rather than to Thinkerbeat. I suppose they have a point, but that warning happened way back in March 2020, so I'm wondering why it's suddenly come to the fore, and why Longshot appears to be "punishing" the SFWA's individual members in retaliation for the warning, rather than approach the organization to clarify the target of the warning.

 

[Woollybear]

Oh, no worries. It's just hard to imagine they can actually fork out 250 dollars per short story, but I know nothing about the industry so there's that.

I scrolled through their twitter feed. Wow.

 

[lizmonster]

Not that they care, but SFWA pro rates are $0.06/word, so their rates are not bad until you hit ~5,000 words (if I did the math right).

 

[AW Admin]

I'm just going to point out that the owner of Longshot and its clones has been banned multiple times from this site.

He is apparently a sock collector.

And don't miss this from Benjamin Kinney regarding the Press' custom of listing people who submit to the press and are rejected.

 

[mrsmig]

I think that list was taken down some time ago. However, I was just looking at the Longshot Press Twitter account and was shocked to see that it doxed Benjamin Kinney about 16 hours ago, posting his RL name plus his resume (including his email addy, phone numbers and both his work and home addresses).

I'm gobsmacked. I just DM'd Kinney on Twitter to let him know.

 

[Maryn]

For the people in the back who didn't hear you:

Longshot doxxed someone who criticized it publicly, posting the author's real name, resume, email, phone numbers, and both work and home addresses.
​

Maryn, freshly disgusted

 

[mrsmig]

Well, I'm glad I messaged Kinney, because he didn't know about the doxxing (apparently Longshot Press has him blocked on Twitter). I also reported the doxxing tweet, and it's since been taken down.

I am still stunned that Daniel White did this. In my dealings with him he seemed reasonably professional and cordial - but doxxing someone on a public site like Twitter is a move solely designed to cause harm. It's vicious.

 

[frimble3]

Longshot Press' submission guidelines for its imprint Unfit Press now state that if you're a member of SFWA, you're ineligible to submit.

Their Twitter account states: "Tip: SFWA members not eligible."

I'm not sure what this is supposed to accomplish, except to raise eyebrows.

Afterwards I read the post about Unfit Press and it's problems with SFWA.
My first thought, though, was that it's the same message as another business might send by saying 'no union members will be accepted'.
It's a ploy to weed out anyone who might have someone in their corner when the going gets crooked.
In this case 'Unfit Press' is both accurate and a public warning as to what you're getting into.