In Between Worlds
I reported to you a little over a week ago that I will soon receive my first paycheck for a creative writing effort. I am, of course, very pleased about this, for the most part. I have learned over the past week, however, that the benefits are not all good.
Pros
Con
In my opinion, that one con significantly outweighs all three of the pros I listed. If you're like me, perhaps you're thinking, whoa - surely that does not apply to Tamara. She's had two tiny articles printed in two tiny magazines and she's only being paid for one of them. No disrespect to those magazines, they're very fine publications, but they're tiny. And they're only local. And both them are free to the public, for the love of God.
Doesn't matter. I'm "published." I asked. I would be rejected based on prior publication. So I cannot submit to many of the little guys any more. The big guys are all free game though.
So what now? I guess I'll clip my fabulous little personal essay right out of Parent: Wise Austin and send it in to the New Yorker along with my best short story and a copy of my $50 check. I'm in like Flynn.
Pros
- I am officially a "published" author. In case you don't know (and previously, I did not), if you have received money for your work and that work has been published in the United States, you are officially "published." What does this mean? It means you can say it out loud in conversation, perhaps at a happy hour. Or you can write it down in your blog. Here, let me write it down again, since this is one of the benefits: I am officially a "published" author. Yes, that's nice.
- At some point, I will receive (so I am told and I do believe it to be true) $50. Money, even the mere promise of it, is good.
- I now have a "clip" or "clipping" that I can send to other publications along with my writing. Many publications, especially the biggies, require such clippings. So now I have, ahem, ONE clipping.
Con
- I am now, as a "published" author, officially prohibited from sending in my creative work to many fabulous small print and online magazines that highlight "up and coming talent" because these magazines want only unpublished authors.
In my opinion, that one con significantly outweighs all three of the pros I listed. If you're like me, perhaps you're thinking, whoa - surely that does not apply to Tamara. She's had two tiny articles printed in two tiny magazines and she's only being paid for one of them. No disrespect to those magazines, they're very fine publications, but they're tiny. And they're only local. And both them are free to the public, for the love of God.
Doesn't matter. I'm "published." I asked. I would be rejected based on prior publication. So I cannot submit to many of the little guys any more. The big guys are all free game though.
So what now? I guess I'll clip my fabulous little personal essay right out of Parent: Wise Austin and send it in to the New Yorker along with my best short story and a copy of my $50 check. I'm in like Flynn.
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