Writer Scams & Publishing Pipedreams: Balancing Opportunity Vs. Exploitation

Remember that first time you wrote something you thought should be published? Maybe you sent it out to a magazine or a book publisher with the hope that someone would read it and like it. You wait for weeks, hoping for a positive response. Imagining, they might say, “Where have you been hiding? We love your work!”

Instead, you receive a rejection. Not a personal letter of rejection, just a form rejection which maybe didn’t even reference your name or the name of the work. Sometimes the rejection includes, encouragement. Try again, they suggest, but wait six months. Or they might say your work has potential and there’s “an offer” with the rejection, an offer for personal feedback if you pay a fee. Maybe there’s an offer to provide you with book coaching or classes.

Your initial reaction: they didn’t like my work and now they’re trying to make money off my dreams to someday become a published writer.

Editorial feedback from a literary magazine can cost as little as $15. Is it worth it?

Here’s the dilemma. Did you know, or maybe you did know, how little income authors make from their books? According to the most recent Author’s Guild survey, only $2,000 a year from book royalties and a total median income of $5,000 a year. Not exactly enough to live on… Read the original article here.

Thus, many small magazines, organized by writers look for ways to generate income and one way is to offer their feedback and coaching services.

Writers, like everyone else, have to pay their bills. While many writers do totally unrelated professions to writing-working as food servers, doctors, carpenters, and administrators-others become writing teachers, editors, and publishers.

It doesn’t matter how good a writer you think you are; you can always become a better writer.

Workshops and classes can provide fresh insight and inspiration.

Not all writing instruction, however, is equal. With so many “writers” clamoring for your dollars, how do you decide when and where to sign up for an online workshop or in person writing conference? When is paid feedback worth the cost?

Read the work of the writing teachers. Recently I was invited, free of charge, to attend a zoom conference on plot development. Dozens of writers offered one-hour workshops on various subjects from character development, to writing your introductory first novel chapters. Some of the talks were well organized and informative, others were fragmented and boring. IF I had taken a little time in advance to read the various writers to discern what they had written and where they were published, it would have saved me some time.

In other words, just because someone hangs out a shingle advertising themselves as a writing teacher doesn’t mean they have the qualifications to teach. I’m not necessarily talking about advanced college degrees; I’m talking about mastery of the art form. Before you invest hundreds or thousands of dollars, be cautious.

Repeatedly I suggest, if you want to be published in literary magazines, read the content. If you admire what the editors have selected to publish, you have a better idea of whether this is the venue where you’d like your own work to appear. If you are a fan of a particular magazine, and they offer a writing workshop taught by a writer whose work you admire, then sign-up.

I write because I love the art form. The journey towards publication is slow, but I’d like to share a recent success: one chapter titled “Lorena’s Dilemma” from my “in revision” novel, this month in BarBar magazine! Check it out, press the “like” button and you will have done a good deed for a fellow writer. Thank you.

Originally published at http://nadjamaril.com on October 29, 2023.