Should You Submit To The Non-Paying And/Or Semi-Professional Markets?
By Masimba Musodza
In a nutshell; yes and no.
There is a trend I have noticed of late. The comments sections of every ‘Submissions call’ page I follow on Facebook tend to be full of snarky remarks about payment. It’s almost as if there is a coordinated campaign against magazines and anthologies that make it quite clear that they want your 5000-word literary effort for free. Writers all over the world are waking up and demanding payment across the board.
A wise YouTuber once said to me (well, not me particularly, but I watched the video), “In life, you do not get what you deserve, only what you can negotiate.” For me, this means that the question that forms the heading of this piece ought to read; Should You Submit To The Non-Paying And/Or Semi-Professional Markets?
As terrible as that sounds, not every writer is ready for the big league, however one may choose to define this. Having a very high opinion of the potential commercial value of your writing is all good, but it matters if there is somebody at the other end ready to pay what you feel you are worth. What do you do in the meantime?
My career has taught me that what should inform your decision to submit to non-paying and/or semi-professional markets is which non-paying and/or semi-professional market exactly. They might form a cluster on the literary landscape, but they are not all the same.
One of the earliest markets I submitted to was a pioneer e-zine called StoryTime, run by compatriot Ivor Hartmann. I never got a penny out of it, but I saw Hartmann worked hard to put the name of every author who submitted out there. He also went through a vigorous editorial process with the authors. Not only did this ensure that our work was of quality, but it reinforced the importance of always having one’s best work forward. He encouraged readers to vote on the best stories, and these were put in a print anthology called African Roar.
This led to an email from a South African publisher named Jenna Bass, who had a pulp fiction magazine called Jungle Jim. Again, no pay, but the exposure was establishing my reputation as a unique voice in the world of speculative fiction. I did get EU100.00 for taking part in the Galactic E-Zine Sweatshop. When Geoff Ryman began to put together his list of 100 African Writers Of Speculative Fiction, he was given my name. When Hartmann began to focus on speculative fiction, creating the AfroSF series, he got in touch to invite me to submit a story. This I did, penning a story set in the same universe as the first science fiction story I wrote for Jungle Jim.
From these experiences, I have learnt that non-paying markets can not only provide a launchpad for your career, but also the first stage rockets as to hurtle to the stars. But, that all depends on whether the people running them are prepared to put in the hours building your reputation and also working with you to improve the quality of your writing. There have been markets that have simply copied and passed my story from the email attachment, and I only see the mistakes when I get my free copy of the book or when I see the story online! There are also markets where the website is shut a few months after they have posted your story, and you garnered three hundred comments. If these two undesirable situations happen enough times, you will be able to look back after a few years and find that your corpus of writing so far is either badly presented that you don’t want anyone seeing it, or it no longer exists altogether.
So, the answer is; submit to non-paying/low-paying markets that will still add value to your writing. Little things, like putting your story on the Internet Speculative Fiction Database or editing it with you so that it will be in its best possible state should a paying market that accepts previously-published work comes along. Do your research, don’t just stop at how much they are offering to pay. Find out who runs it, their digital footprint can give you an idea of whether you are dealing with a really good but cash-strapped resource, or some have-a-go who would not know how to advance your career with a million-dollar budget! At any rate, it is more useful than posting snarky comments on submission calls.
