Writing Contracts - /lit/ (#24526922) [Archived: 501 hours ago]

Anonymous
7/6/2025, 8:46:58 PM No.24526922
IMG_4389
IMG_4389
md5: d3448d3c7d219a76bd84d901185df82d🔍
I signed my fifth writing contract today. Feels good to be productive. Do you guys get a lawyer to check it first? I just sign it and hope for the best.
Replies: >>24526928 >>24526963
Anonymous
7/6/2025, 8:48:48 PM No.24526928
>>24526922 (OP)
> Do you guys get a lawyer to check it first
No one on /lit/ will be able to answer this question iykwim
Replies: >>24526946
Anonymous
7/6/2025, 8:52:31 PM No.24526946
>>24526928
I just signed my ebook rights and global serial rights away.
Anonymous
7/6/2025, 8:56:36 PM No.24526963
>>24526922 (OP)
I have never signed a writing contract and doubt I ever will. I have signed publishing contracts, so far paying a contract lawyer has always justified their price.
Replies: >>24526968
Anonymous
7/6/2025, 8:57:50 PM No.24526968
>>24526963
Got any tips for a fledgling such as myself? I only sold short stories.
Replies: >>24527022
Anonymous
7/6/2025, 9:16:19 PM No.24527022
>>24526968
All I did was publish short stories in the journals until an agent found me and got the novel I was working on published. Best I can offer is to target agents with your about the about the author blurb journals give you, I used mine to pretty much ask agents to contact me, things along the lines of "unrepresented writer attempting to get my recently finished novel published" and included as much detail about what I had gotten published so far as the constraints of the journal allowed for the blurb. Beyond that, a story is not done until it is published, keep working on them and revising them until they get accepted.
Anonymous
7/6/2025, 10:36:08 PM No.24527268
I've Published 5 short stories and one novella in mostly unimpressive magazines. What do you think my path forward should be? Congrats btw.

I had an offer once to publish a novel as an e-book lol. I passed on that and put the manuscript away. It wasn't good enough.

Also should add I've been writing for about 6 years, but only trying to publish for about a year and a half now? Although i haven't been able to focus on it a lot because of life stuff.
Anonymous
7/6/2025, 10:39:29 PM No.24527277
pkd
pkd
md5: 13c7168558862000fc3667d805028168🔍
Stop wasting your SFF stories by posting them on 4chan. Write a short story once a week or once a month and try your hand at making it as a writer. The chances are slim, but you will get paid if you send to these places. Don't look back once you make your first sale.

>Clarkesworld
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/submissions/
1000-22000 words, no exceptions
12c (USD) per word. No horror but dark SF/F permitted.
No use of Chat GPT nor AI allowed
No simultaneous submissions (do not send the story somewhere else).
Stories must be well-written, suitable for audio (since there are narrated audiobooks), and convenient for screen reading (so no weird formatting).
Rigor in science fiction is appreciated, but it does not need to be "hard."
There can't be any of the tropes listed on the site.

>Asimov's
https://www.asimovs.com/contact-us/writers-guidelines
up to 7500 words, at 10c per word (USD)
Character oriented stories, but there is also some poetry $1 per line
Absolutely no use of Chat GPT nor AI allowed
No simultaneous submissions (do not send the story somewhere else).

>Fantasy & Science Fiction
https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/glines.htm
No simultaneous submissions (do not send somewhere else).
Up to 25,000 words in length. 8-12 c (USD) per word. You must read a sample of the magazine before sending.

>Interzone Digital
https://interzone.digital/submissions/
Simultaneous submissions accepted (you can send somewhere else).
Maximum of 5000 words. 1.5c (EURO) per word. Double-spaced and emailed.

>Amazing Stories
https://submission.amazingstoriesmag.com/guidelines/
$20 per story, $10 per flash (USD), and poetry also
No simultaneous submissions, no multiple submissions
1000 to 24,000 words

>Apex Magazine
https://apex-magazine.com/submissions/
8c per word (USD), up to 7500 words
Usually dark sci fi or horror is accepted.

>Beneath Ceaseless Skies
https://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/submissions/
Up to 15,000 words, 8c per word (USD)
Provides feedback on rejections
No use of Chat GPT nor AI allowed
Character-focused, adventure fantasy (no sci fi nor horror) that has a deep sense of world.
Replies: >>24527354 >>24527648 >>24528616 >>24528621 >>24529266 >>24531561
Anonymous
7/6/2025, 11:04:05 PM No.24527354
>>24527277
Publishing SF&F is just pissing into the wind.
Replies: >>24527444
Anonymous
7/6/2025, 11:38:18 PM No.24527444
>>24527354
What literary movement is worth tacking yourself to in 2025? At least postmodernism was daring and experimental. Now it’s all the samey corporate writing you’d expect from lesser species of lemmings.
Replies: >>24527494 >>24527638
Anonymous
7/7/2025, 12:02:15 AM No.24527494
>>24527444
Literary postmodernism was just the continuation of the previous decades and the only people who think it was daring and experimental are people who are poorly read. Modernism and postmodernism are the names of schools of criticism, they are not the names of literary movements. Attaching yourself to an ism is retarded and outside of genre, the literary world does not really care.
Replies: >>24527534
Anonymous
7/7/2025, 12:19:45 AM No.24527534
>>24527494
I studied literary modernism in a PhD on Ezra Pound
Not fooling me with your bullshit answers
Replies: >>24527541 >>24527633
Anonymous
7/7/2025, 12:22:39 AM No.24527541
>>24527534
>i larped on the internet
ok. Feel free to show how I am wrong.
Replies: >>24527553
Anonymous
7/7/2025, 12:27:02 AM No.24527553
IMG_4465
IMG_4465
md5: 0ec5e11c4ee042ee29aeacbe929b06fc🔍
>>24527541
>larp
Nice try.
Replies: >>24527571
Anonymous
7/7/2025, 12:34:04 AM No.24527571
>>24527553
>still no answer
Unless you are willing to all out dox yourself and prove it is you beyond a doubt, that is meaningless and even if you do that you are still avoiding addressing what was said and making the weakest sort of appeal to authority by appealing to yourself. Should not have to point this out to a phd.
Replies: >>24527584 >>24527614
Anonymous
7/7/2025, 12:39:25 AM No.24527584
>>24527571
Modernism wasn’t a school of criticism; it’s an abstract term to diagnose the modernising period of globalising capitalism and whatever that denotes for the contradiction against nation states. Postmodernism also isn’t a mode of criticism; it describes a condition of late stage capitalism. Both are historical abstractions that spawned their own art movements. You only asserted that there were no literary movements called “modernism” or “postmodernism” despite them being used by world figures to describe a type of art form; it was concretised in political discourse as an art movement as far back as the thirties and forties in the Soviet Union.
Replies: >>24527620
Anonymous
7/7/2025, 12:50:56 AM No.24527614
IMG_4466
IMG_4466
md5: 3c25eae77254c6972bb2195caa7089e3🔍
>>24527571
Here’s the heir apparent of the Soviet Union (Zhdanov) publicly denouncing “modernism” which he calls an art movement in his capacity as a great state censor of music and art. This use of “modernism” for art movements goes as far back as the 30s and 40s.
Replies: >>24527631
Anonymous
7/7/2025, 12:51:58 AM No.24527620
>>24527584
Describing a form is criticism.
Replies: >>24527626
Anonymous
7/7/2025, 12:54:39 AM No.24527626
>>24527620
Rewrite all the textbooks and repurpose all the literary terms. Anon decided that criticism can be boiled down to one thing to win an argument!
Replies: >>24527631
Anonymous
7/7/2025, 12:57:16 AM No.24527631
>>24527614
What writers actually called themselves modernists and purveyed the ideals of modernism? Perhaps in the USSR this was more prominent (not well versed there) but in the west most writers who called themselves modernists were writers trying to avoid being associated with postmodernism. Also, using a politician and propagandist as proof is fairly weak.
>>24527626
>stawman
Replies: >>24527632
Anonymous
7/7/2025, 12:59:35 AM No.24527632
>>24527631
https://www.britannica.com/art/intentional-fallacy
Replies: >>24527640
Anonymous
7/7/2025, 1:00:15 AM No.24527633
>>24527534
i luv me zome ezra pound. good on you, anon. i hope that thesis went good
Anonymous
7/7/2025, 1:01:42 AM No.24527638
>>24527444
>literary movement is worth tacking yourself
You have to find your own voice
Anonymous
7/7/2025, 1:02:34 AM No.24527640
>>24527632
>another strawman and an appeal to authority
Replies: >>24527646
Anonymous
7/7/2025, 1:03:35 AM No.24527646
>>24527640
>If Shakespeare never said he was really writing early modern English then he never was!
That’s your argument. It’s a form of intentional fallacy.
Replies: >>24527652
Anonymous
7/7/2025, 1:04:44 AM No.24527648
>>24527277
>Don't look back once you make your first sale.
Why do you people said this all the time? /ic/ also said this to motivate a potentially talented anon: dont look back, dont visit this place again, why?
Replies: >>24527649
Anonymous
7/7/2025, 1:05:18 AM No.24527649
>>24527648
People are either trolls or crabs. It’s a time sink for creatives.
Replies: >>24527655 >>24529266
Anonymous
7/7/2025, 1:07:32 AM No.24527652
>>24527646
That is not my argument at all.
Replies: >>24527657
Anonymous
7/7/2025, 1:08:28 AM No.24527655
>>24527649
We need more lions, more eagles
Replies: >>24527660
Anonymous
7/7/2025, 1:09:04 AM No.24527657
>>24527652
>What writers actually called themselves modernists and purveyed the ideals of modernism?
This is intentional fallacy, plain and simple. By the way, there are no “ideals” in modernism; it’s almost completely bereft of idealism.
Replies: >>24527669
Anonymous
7/7/2025, 1:11:25 AM No.24527660
>>24527655
The vast majority of people who post on 4chan just do it for lighthearted fun. Some are slightly malicious. Almost all users don’t give a fuck about a struggling or middling artist trying to make it. Not saying that out of spite. I just don’t see why you’d get feedback here. Develop your inner voice on your own.
Anonymous
7/7/2025, 1:14:18 AM No.24527669
>>24527657
>ideals means idealism
lol.
Replies: >>24527673
Anonymous
7/7/2025, 1:15:43 AM No.24527673
>>24527669
You have no argument.
Replies: >>24527680
Anonymous
7/7/2025, 1:17:04 AM No.24527680
>>24527673
You have yet to address anything but your strawmans.
Replies: >>24527682
Anonymous
7/7/2025, 1:17:56 AM No.24527682
>>24527680
You learned maybe five fallacies on the rhetorical list and now bleat them out nonsensically.
Replies: >>24527689
Anonymous
7/7/2025, 1:19:27 AM No.24527689
>>24527682
Why should I argue against points which complete ignore what I said?
Replies: >>24527694
Anonymous
7/7/2025, 1:22:21 AM No.24527694
>>24527689
I said you committed an intentional fallacy by purporting that “An author has to explicitly say ‘I am XYZ’ to be XYZ.” That’s like saying Elizabethan Theatre never existed because Shakespeare didn’t call himself an Elizabethan Theatre Writer.
Modernism is a complex topic, which is what I laid out before you, and you ignored the definition I gave. Tell me: what is modernism?
Replies: >>24527717
Anonymous
7/7/2025, 1:36:07 AM No.24527717
>>24527694
I never said an author had to and your analogy is nonsensical high school tier, do you really want to make it about that? At best your argument is that everyone is a function of their circumstances, in which case this entire discussion is moot.

I already said what modernism is, at least in context of literature.
Replies: >>24527718
Anonymous
7/7/2025, 1:36:41 AM No.24527718
>>24527717
Frazzled
Replies: >>24527734
Anonymous
7/7/2025, 1:43:26 AM No.24527734
>>24527718
>still can't address what was said
If you actually are a phd I am going to have to give in and accept that /lit/ is right; academia is dead, its sole purpose is to produce robots to support the institution. I don't think you are a phd.
Replies: >>24527740
Anonymous
7/7/2025, 1:46:29 AM No.24527740
>>24527734
Look at the picture again. It said I withdrew before I got it. Anyone can get into a PhD now.
Replies: >>24527749
Anonymous
7/7/2025, 1:49:59 AM No.24527749
>>24527740
>missed the point
Actually you ignored it as a way to avoid addressing the point and once again tried to make it about yourself instead of the topic.
Replies: >>24527754
Anonymous
7/7/2025, 1:51:09 AM No.24527754
>>24527749
I agreed with you. I know academia is dead.
Replies: >>24527770
Anonymous
7/7/2025, 1:56:04 AM No.24527770
>>24527754
>still can't address the topic
I never gave your picture any consideration and I think I made that clear when I said it was an unsupportable appeal to yourself. Your now saying academia is dead makes that appeal to yourself even weaker, would not have thought that was possible.
Replies: >>24527771
Anonymous
7/7/2025, 1:56:52 AM No.24527771
>>24527770
What topic at hand? Present it to me. I think you struggle with basic English.
Replies: >>24527785
Anonymous
7/7/2025, 2:00:53 AM No.24527785
>>24527771
Hint: it wasn't you and your views of academia.
Replies: >>24527789
Anonymous
7/7/2025, 2:01:46 AM No.24527789
IMG_4472
IMG_4472
md5: 5ee032c1e5225411330791f8b6cde98b🔍
>>24527785
Band 1 levels of communication skills.
Replies: >>24527805
Anonymous
7/7/2025, 2:07:53 AM No.24527805
>>24527789
>infographic
Reread the thread, I will be back in a few hours and will respond if you off anything of worth.
Replies: >>24527808
Anonymous
7/7/2025, 2:09:21 AM No.24527808
>>24527805
That’s a standardised literacy test from the Australian Council for Educational Research.
Anonymous
7/7/2025, 9:52:11 AM No.24528616
>>24527277
Hey spud, You got any for horror magazines?
Replies: >>24528717
Anonymous
7/7/2025, 9:57:38 AM No.24528621
>>24527277
I've submitted to a few of these over the years. Maybe it's time to get back on the horse and submit again.
Anonymous
7/7/2025, 10:54:43 AM No.24528717
>>24528616
>The Dark Magazine
All submissions should follow proper manuscript format (modern edition, preferably). Submissions should be emailed to submissions@thedarkmagazine.com Please attach all submissions in .doc or .docx or rtf format—we will not accept submissions embedded in the body of email. Include your bio in your cover letter.
We pay 5 cents/word for original fiction up to 6,000 words on publication for first world rights; and 1 cent/word for reprint fiction up to 6,000 words on acceptance for nonexclusive reprint rights.
>Deadlands
Stories about related subjects—zombies, demons, vampires, apocalypses, and the various undead—are not for us. We are absolutely not interested in seeing weird West stories, steampunk tales, or military fiction. We are not interested in stories involving Lovecraft’s mythos. Humor will be a harder sell than heartbreaking. If your story begins with someone waking up, it is not for us. We are absolutely not interested in AI-generated fiction, including, but not limited to, work generated with Sudowrite’s Story Engine.
The Deadlands pays 10¢/word for original fiction.
>Crepuscular Magazine
10c/word
250 word maximum
https://www.patreon.com/posts/submission-85137677
>Cast of Wonders
6000 word limit
Our horror offerings tend to be psychological, comedic, or situational — not visceral.
8c/word
https://www.castofwonders.org/submissions/
>Pseudopod
6000 word limit
We’re looking for horror: dark, weird fiction. We run the spectrum from grim realism or crime drama, to magic-realism, to blatantly supernatural dark fantasy. We publish highly literary stories reminiscent of Poe or Lovecraft as well as vulgar shock-value pulp fiction.
8c/word
https://pseudopod.org/submissions/
>Mysterion
8c/word
9000 words
https://www.mysteriononline.com/p/submission-guidelines.html
>Small Wonders
1100 word limit
10c/word
https://smallwondersmag.com/submissions/
>Haven Spec
6000 word limit
8c/word
https://www.havenspec.com/submit/
Anonymous
7/7/2025, 5:05:27 PM No.24529266
>>24527649
Pretty much this. I do work as an editor and ghost writer, and make enough for rent. I also grind away with the Short Story/Self-Publish grind. But I mostly come here for either book recommendations, or for anons like >>24527277
to post actual information. Otherwise, as a writer, you're better off in Discord and Facebook Writing groups for actual information, feedback, and more.
Anonymous
7/8/2025, 1:55:01 AM No.24530359
was just looking for a pynchon thread to post this!
legendary hacker geohotz reading gravity's rainbow on twitch stream for 3 hours, thought it was pretty cool:
https://youtu.be/n1qJpvHl404?si=iUO9fMQPxK3JrgLl&t=5722
Anonymous
7/8/2025, 3:24:28 PM No.24531561
>>24527277
I don't know if you're the same guy that always posts this, but I really gotta thank you.
I took a swing, and now i'm a few thousand dollars richer.
Replies: >>24531594
Anonymous
7/8/2025, 3:50:56 PM No.24531594
>>24531561
That’s great man! I always get rejected by those big magazines but I’m a writer too. I find my style is only appreciated in semi-pro. I’m very happy for you and hope you keep writing!