I've been looking at submission calls for short fiction again and the number of literary journals that don't pay writers kind of pisses me off.
I read an article from one journal editor about it, where they made the justification that journal publishing doesn't make much money anyway and it's hard work for the editors etc. On that subject:
I think if the journal is making literally no money, as in, it's free or profits go to charity, fine. Then you and the writers are in the same boat. They know what they're getting into.
If you are making money, any money, and the writers get none of it, that's ridiculous. Of course editing and publishing is hard work and quite time consuming. But so is fucking writing. And without the writers, you would have nothing to edit and publish to begin with.
I actually think there's a huge difference between nonpaying markets and token payments btw. Sure, neither pays your rent. But a token paying magazine or anthology is giving you what they can afford. A nonpaying magazine, if they are making ANY profit, does not believe you deserve to share it.
Saying all this as a self published author. I don't make much money self publishing, but my worst selling short story on Amazon has still made me something like 10 dollars, not counting collection sales. If a publisher of short fiction can't be bothered to pay you even 5 dollars, you can do better financially on your own.
As for exposure... hhjhygggjj. I'm not getting into it.
