Dare to dream! Go ahead. Relish in it. Believe in it. Let the joy of fantasy become the ecstasy of reality. Let the anticipation of success in the future become the motivation for work today.
Let’s go ahead and talk about what happens when your story is accepted.
As the title suggests, I’m going to talk about my experiences with payments, contracts, and other things that come with an acceptance. However, in order to talk about payment, we have to go back to a time before your story is accepted.
Calls for submissions will have a lot of information, including what the publisher is able to provide to the author in exchange for their story. First and foremost, you should never have to pay to have your short story considered for a call. Some publishers will give you the option of making a donation but it should never be mandatory. Also, so long as you are writing only short stories, you don’t need a literary agent to get published. Save them for when you write your novel.
With regards to getting paid, there is no industry standard. There are some publishers who don’t offer payment. They may be upfront and tell you that the best they can offer in exchange for your story is publishing it for the world to see, which is not a bad deal. Some publishers will offer you a free copy of the published work. However, most publishers will offer monetary payment of some kind. They usually offer a flat rate per story, or a rate per word – usually something like one cent per word. What I see most often is a modest payment and a contributor’s copy.
In rare instances, you will see more established publishers able to offer royalties on the sale of the book, but I wouldn’t recommend holding out for that.
Being Canadian, I have the benefit of a nice return on the exchange rate for the dollar. Thus far, I have been accepted for publication in three different countries: Canada, The United States, and Australia. The lowest amount I have made for a story is $5 and the most was somewhere around $75 (that was by an American publisher during a time when the exchange rate was favourable). As you can see, writing short stories is not a way to make a living.
When do you get paid? Every time so far, I have been paid very shortly after signing the contract. I’ll get to those later. Technically, the publisher is paying you for the use of your story, so you should be paid before the work is published, unless you are being paid royalties. Most times, publishers have paid me via PayPal, so if you don’t have a Pay Pal account yet, I would recommend you get one. Other times, the publisher sent an e-transfer to my email address.
As per most contracts, you get paid even if the work is never published, so long as you were offered an acceptance and you signed the contract. If something happens that delays the publication, or prevents it altogether, you still get paid. I did experience a situation in which the proposed publication was going to be delayed by a full year. The publisher had already paid me, but still gave me the option to wait the full year, or to pull my story and try it elsewhere without expecting me to give back the money.
After your story is accepted but before any payment is received, there is the contract. Once your story has been accepted, you can expect to receive a contract that outlines the legalities of the business relationship and the sale of the use of your intellectual property. Sometimes publishers include the contract with the acceptance email but most times, I find they come shortly after, once all successful authors have been notified.
Contracts do vary from publisher to publisher, but what they all generally have in common is some formal address of the following: The amount to be paid and any additional compensations such as free or reduced rate contributors copies of the work. A statement that the publisher owns the exclusive rights to publish your story as they wish for a time of, usually six to twelve months. After that time period, the rights to the story revert back to the author. A statement saying something to the effect of, if the purposed publication is not release within a certain time period, the rights to your story automatically revert back to you. Details of any advertising or publicity they expect in return for publishing the story. A statement regarding any editing or alterations, or lack thereof, to your story for the publication.
Budda-bing, budda-bang, budda-boom! You’re done! Once the contract is signed and you have been paid, all that’s left is what Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers warned is the hardest part… waiting for the published work to be released. Even though I have been paid for every story I’ve sold, I still always buy/request at least one contributor’s copy. Right now, I have five physical books containing a story I wrote with my name on the title, and it feels awesome every time!
You can experience that too!
Thanks for reading,
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