[midnightwriter]

I wouldn't write non-fiction for free, but I keep publishing my flash fiction with no pay. Mainly because it is "exposure", and because most of the best flash fiction magazines are on-line and non-paying. But I wonder if I contradict myself

What are your thoughts on writing for free? hHave you done it? Would you ever do it? Is there a difference between fiction and non-fiction? Is length a factor?( I won't publish a short story for free, but flash, I will. )

Thoughts?

 

[Miss Information]

I don't know what flash fiction is, but this is how I feel about writing for free. I do it all the time on my blogs (though not fiction works).

I just submitted applications for 2 online writing positions, one paid and one un-paid.

I'm a writer at heart. I don't write fiction, but I blog and write to help others. While I would love to get paid for what I do, sometimes it's more important to be simply being able to write and get some sort of recognition for my work. Hopefully it will lead to paid publications. What writing for free does do is that gives you practice and perhaps you get useful feedback with which can take and possibly refine your writing.

I'd keep doing the not-so-guarded writings for free and see what happens. Perhaps something you wrote on a flash fiction work could be expanded into something full-blown and lead to a paid publication.

 

[evies_mom]

I don't know what flash fiction is either, and I am generally a non-fiction writer. For me the deal-breaker would be if I had to give up rights to my work. It would have to be some major awesome exposure or some wonderfully good cause for me to write for free and give up my publication rights.

I would ask what is keeping you from pursuing paid services? Have you tried? Perhaps you could find something that gives you both -cash and quality exposure?

That being said, I don't think that just because a publisher will pay for your work, means that it is good for your career. I do think it is good to scrutinize where you publish. For me, I want to be paid but I also want to be sure it is advancing me as an author (either by building an attention-getting resume or by stretching me as a writer).

Best of luck!

 

[midnightwriter]

That's beside the point, but I'd like to write more about flash fiction, because I see that not everyone knows what it is, and it is the love of my life

:

It is a form of short story, usually under 500 words--perfect for busy mom

. Some definitions say under 1000, but at one 1000 words, it is more of a short-short, than a flash.

Other names for flash are post card stories, or suddent fiction.

There are many definitions, of course, and some say that it has to have all the elements of a short story, only in a condenced form, while others say that it doesn't have to. I love writing flash fiction, love how it engages me, and how I need to focus and be precise with words, in order to write a story, create images that are just right.

I love how flash fiction can be in between a story and a prose poem.

The best outlets of flash fiction are on line, such as SmokeLong Quarterly, elimae, flashquake, Frigg, Wigleaf, to name just a few. Some literary magazines would take flash fiction, but often call it "prose poems."

Frankly, it is very hard for me when people read my flash and say, on, it could be a story. It is the same as someone would say to a poet, well, such a nice poem, you could write a story out of it. Short stories and flash fiction are different forms of expression. They can be similar, but don't have to be. Flash fiction is complete as it is. And it has been variously discussed wheather it can be a training for short stories, and in a way it can be, but they are often so different that it is the same as saying that writing poetry prepares you to write novels. In a way it does, but it doesn't.

I have links to my flash fiction in my blog, in the right hand column, some are more poetic, some are more like miniature stories.

I know it was sort of besides the point, but I really want to spread the word about somethign that I love, both writing and reading!

 

[AndVeeGeeMakes3]

Well, I write for free sort of. I mean, when I have something published in a prestigious literary journal, I know that it is not exactly free because, as an editor, I know that editors and agents do read those journals and do pursue people based on what they read there. If you look at the acknowledgment page of any short story collection (or memoir or collection of personal essays), you'll usually see that most of the pieces have already been published in lit journals. Also, if I am particularly fond of a story/essay and don't really want to let it go for nothing, I'll submit it to a contest where I will get a subscription in exchange for the reading fee AND (if I'm lucky) a prize, which is usually somewhere between $500 and $3000 - so, again, not free.

As to giving up rights to one's work, lit journals almost universally only retain first rights. The author can do whatever they want with it after that - including selling it to a publisher for a collection or anthology. And, it having appeared in a lit journal actually gives it more credibility, sort of a vetting, than a cold submission. I've even had authors' work come out in a collection before or simultaneously with appearing in the journal that I edited (one you'd recognize if I said the name, most likely) just because of printing time/acceptance turnaround and such.

I LOVE flash!!!! Fiction or nonfiction. So brilliant when done well. And I do think there's a subtle difference between a flash piece and prose poetry. However, again as an editor, it's sometimes easier to just classify something as a poem for ease of organization and in order to stem a (frequently unwanted) tide of bad flash pieces. Have you looked at Brevity? They publish incredible flash-nonfiction.

 

[AndVeeGeeMakes3]

Did I kill this thread?

 

[midnightwriter]

Wendy, I love what you had to say about this.

Makes sense. Hm, I haven't even looked at CNF in flash. Brevity looks super nice. Even if I start writing a CNF piece I end up fictionalising so much it becomes fiction on the second draft

(Here, I revived the thread. For now.)

 

[allgirls]

I've never written flash fiction..I should try...

 

[Smokering]

Say, I'd always wondered what flash fiction was! Thanks for explaining.

Right now the only writing I do for free is my blog. And even that's mercenary, as I'm hoping to build up a big enough readership to make my blog appealing to advertisers, so that one day I can discreetly monetise. That'll be some time away though, if ever; and in the meantime I'm enjoying the creative outlet.

I'm also, in theory, writing a novel and a musical (the latter for Script Frenzy), but I hope that at least the novel will end up making me money... you know, in fifty years' time when I finish the darn thing.

For the kind of writing I do, I don't think writing for free is worth it. I can get work writing articles for magazines for money, so that's what I try to do! Never say never, but right now if I'm writing, I wanna get paid!

 

[dharmama]

i've done quite a lot of free (or nearly free) writing over the last decade.

as i read one writer-mama say recently "i've spent far too much time at the free end of the freelance spectrum."

more in a bit. must make breakfast...

 

[j.lucymuses]

I'm just starting out and will write for free just to get my stuff out there. I have been published twice by a small magazine and I don't care at this point that it doesn't pay. Later on I hope it will be a different story (so to speak

)

 

[eastkygal]

If you are pursuing literary writing in something other than non-fiction, you will probably write a lot for free before you can get any recognition. When getting accepted to a literary journal, you are getting writing credits that will help you show to editors, agents, and publishers that you have a solid body of work. This is for those who are trying to do it without self publishing in literary fields. Plus, many literary journals just don't have large enough readerships or the funds to pay their contributors. The PP that posted about contests is right. If you want to make money, those are your best bet. Some rules of thumb are to really research the contest. Only submit to those from legitimate magazines/journals. Do not enter if the reading fee is more than 10% of the prize winnings. For example $10 for a $1,000 prize. Or I'll submit if it is like $15 and a subscription to the mag for a $1,000 prize.
Definitely check out Poets and Writers Magazine for a good source of contests and info on literary writing and publishing.

 

[midnightwriter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by eastkygal If you are pursuing literary writing in something other than non-fiction, you will probably write a lot for free before you can get any recognition. When getting accepted to a literary journal, you are getting writing credits that will help you show to editors, agents, and publishers that you have a solid body of work. This is for those who are trying to do it without self publishing in literary fields. Plus, many literary journals just don't have large enough readerships or the funds to pay their contributors. The PP that posted about contests is right. If you want to make money, those are your best bet. Some rules of thumb are to really research the contest. Only submit to those from legitimate magazines/journals. Do not enter if the reading fee is more than 10% of the prize winnings. For example $10 for a $1,000 prize. Or I'll submit if it is like $15 and a subscription to the mag for a $1,000 prize. Definitely check out Poets and Writers Magazine for a good source of contests and info on literary writing and publishing.

This is a good rule in terms of the entry fee being not more than 10%, I never thought of that. I usually enter when there's a subsription involved. But so far I only won a hat which I didn't accept at the post office--the customs fee was something like $8!

(but at least there was no entry fee)

 

[Violet2]

I've had some short stories pubbed without pay early on. Since then I've been able to get some kind of payment for my shorts.

But I don't think it's a problem to do fiction for free although I am super picky about the market now b/c I've had some of the free ones close up shop or end up being less than professional.

Short fiction is a hard market. We're lucky to get anything published let alone get paid.

V