Anatomy Of A Bad Idea
I was idly browsing the internet (bad habit, trying to fix) and I saw this guy on Reddit looking for fiction writers for his new anthology:
I won’t talk about this guy in particular in this article, but bearing in mind that he’s got a “new magazine” and asking for people to submit for a chance to win exposure and a world-shaking $10 prize whilst having no exposure to offer (seriously… no Patreon subscribers or social media accounts… no audience = no exposure) this tale is a good example of what writers of all stripes should be wary of.
Now, let’s talk about writing for anthologies… or other people in general.
Writing For Other People Is For Dinosaurs, But Sometimes It Pays Well
I’ve written at length elsewhere about avoiding traditional publishing contracts. As a general rule, it makes absolutely zero sense to give away the copyright to your work over the long term in exchange for lower royalties, less control over the end product and what amounts to a paltry advance in most cases.
However I don’t want to be accused of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Sometimes you can get a contract with good terms for short-term projects and make more money in the long run whilst retaining your rights.
Let’s take writing a short story as an example. Some short story anthologies or magazines pay a couple of hundred dollars for a short story. They don’t come up very often and they’re highly competitive. Usually the terms are pretty scary; they want exclusive rights to keep your work in print forever.
That’s scary unless the pay is very high.
Sometimes though, you’ll find a magazine that wants first print rights (i.e. it’s a new story) and they’ll keep it in circulation for a year before the rights revert to you. They might pay you $200.
This is essentially renting your short story out for one year to a publication that’ll pay you for the privilege and depending on their success, may give you some exposure as icing on the cake.
If you have a massive audience and would make more than their payment anyway, you don’t need to do this. But for a starting writer, it’s not bad. You get your $200 and then you can release the story yourself in a year’s time.
That’s the good. Here’s the bad though, and it brings us to today’s topic.
Most Writing Anthologies Never Make Any Money
I’ve written for a few short story anthologies and I’ve written for a ton of websites as a non-fiction freelancer. Here’s the harsh and sad truth.
Almost none of these projects make any money.
If you imagine a person who should start a fiction anthology or a website on a particular subject, you imagine someone who is passionate about the subject, knowledgeable about the subject and most importantly knows how to make the project profitable.
If you’re all three of those things, then you stand a good chance of success.
Now, if you’re looking to sell your work to a new publisher of any kind, be wary of the fact that you aren’t usually getting someone who has any of those qualities.
Most people who start fiction magazines fail. They don’t know how to write themselves (hence they’re hiring you,) they can’t market the product and they can’t even create the product properly.
All in all, it adds up to failure, which is the case for 99% of websites and publishing houses and all of that.
Does that mean that any one company is an example of this? No, but in general, that’s what you’re looking at.
And bearing in mind the criteria I’ve set above, let’s talk about the biggest red flag you can find in a proposal.
Writing For Exposure
If a publishing company of any kind approaches you and offers to publish your work in exchange for exposure, then run away. They may or may not be a scammer but they certainly don’t have your interests at heart as opposed to their own. Why would they reach out to you if they already have massive exposure?
This is a massive red flag. Now, you might want to approach a company and work in exchange for exposure. Here’s the deal with that.
If a company is offering exposure in return for your work, check them out. Do they have any exposure?
Most companies that approach you, and some you’ll think you should approach, don’t have what you’re after.
Say you’ve written some short stories and up pops a guy on Reddit who says, “Submit to our magazine and we’ll give you exposure!”
You don’t have to stumble around in the dark guessing about whether this is a good idea. Go and look at their Twitter account and see how many followers they have. Look at any magazines they’ve published previously and see their Amazon sales rank. If they have a Patreon account or other public subscription service, look up how many subscribers they have. If they don’t, then ask for those numbers or circulation rates or whatever.
Assume that maybe 1% of that readership will convert to your readers. So if you’re in an anthology with 100 Patreon subscribers, you might get one customer. That’s just how the game works. Similarly, if you guest post for a website that gets a thousand visitors a day, maybe ten of those will cross over and check out your other work. In business circles, a reader like this isn’t a sure bet for a future customer; they’re a warm lead and nothing more.
Most Of The Time Though… Dead End
Most of the time you’ll find the above calculations are academic anyway. Most publishing companies fail not because they can’t create content, but because they can’t market it or sell it.
Look at most publishing outfits and you’ll see they have hardly any followers on social media, hardly any projects completed and no subscribers or few subscribers.
Now, you might want to write for their publication if you’re their friend or to get over your amateur nerves or whatever. I’m not saying “Don’t Do It” totally. I am saying the following:
You Don’t Get Any “Exposure” From This
You Won’t Get Any Money From It Either
If you’re trying to be a professional, both of those things are primary concerns for you… but it’s your choice.
Final Thoughts
You don’t need exposure and it’s not the magic bullet thing that a lot of writers think. If one million eyeballs accidentally landed on your website tomorrow, you wouldn’t have a million new customers. You might have zero.
When people offer you exposure, at best it’s like having a warm lead- a person who might slightly be interested in your work. Now, that’s all well and good, but most exposure-sellers can’t offer you the exposure that they say they can. It’s within your power to check this out, so do it.
In the modern world of internet business, you can build your own platform and gain your own exposure. This isn’t an easy or short-term thing by any means, but if you have the option of creating your own platform from zero visitors towards a profitable number, and you’re balancing that against giving your content away to some other person with zero visitors so that they can build their platform, it’s not really a choice.
Don’t give away your work for free unless you’re going to gain more in the long term and you know this is the case. Don’t just accept “It’ll be great for your career” from someone. You need numbers, facts and to use your common sense.
Remember, the alternative is controlling everything yourself and profiting yourself. Writing for other people is a hard sell and it should be.