We Charge A Submission Fee & Here’s Why
Publishing Is Fucking Expensive
Image courtesy Kelcey Ervick
Today’s writing prompt: It was the meanest thing anyone had ever said to me and I vowed revenge.
We Charge A Submission Fee & Here’s Why
It feels like everyone’s making money but us.
Would you expect to go to the theater for free? Or a movie?
Of course not. But we demand free content from lit magazines. Google tells me 1,700 people read Hypertext last month. If we had a paywall, how many of those readers would pay for our content? I’m guessing not more than a handful.
I agree that exorbitant submission fees are greedy. I also agree that some so-called publishers take advantage of writers or operate in bad faith.
Most lit mags do not.
In our most recent issue, only our poetry section was solicited. Sure, we only have the woman-power and budget to publish about 100 writers annually but 99% of fiction and nonfiction published in Hypertext is unsolicited. Last year, we made about $1,000 via Submittable submission fees. Of that, we pay about $350 for Submittable’s services. To be clear, I’m happy to pay for this excellent service.
Since 2010, Hypertext Magazine has been publishing without a safety net. In other words, we don’t have wealthy or famous founders like, for example, Paris Review. Most lit mags don’t. We do not operate under the fiscal umbrella of a college or university. We are wholly independent. For a decade, we operated on less than $5,000 a year and, because our largest grant has been $6,000 (secured in 2022), it feels like every issue will be our last. Because of this and a number of other reasons, Hypertext charges a $5.00 submission fee (less the percentage charged by Submittable). During the pandemic years, we waived the fee.
And here’s why.
Every bit of Hypertext’s online content is free. But we pay contributors, we pay graphic artists, we pay interviewers, we pay for hosting and hosting security, we pay for the online store platform, we pay our editors (not our founder) small annual stipends. In addition to publishing an online magazine, we publish a biannual print journal. Last year, our hard-earned revenue (from working our tails off to write/secure grants, individual donor contributions, & Submittable) was $16,000. Our expenses were $13,000. Sixteen thousand was the most we’ve ever had in our bank account. Thirteen thousand was the most we’ve ever paid out.
I formed Hypertext as a nonprofit in 2017. Apparently, big foundation grants shifted in 2018 and foundations that used to write $60,000 grants stopped that dreamy practice. Many Chicago lit mags closed shop after that. Good timing on our part, right?
Every online service that used to be free or inexpensive has skyrocketed. Back in 2010 when I started the magazine on Wordpress, I think we paid $60 for hosting. In 2022, we paid over $2500 split between hosting, security, WooCommerce, website optimization, redesign. We have a hell of a lot of content and it’s expensive, with that much content & all of those images, to get the website to run efficiently and quickly.
We charge $15 for our print lit journals but our lit journals cost (between contributor stipends, printing, design and art, etc.) over $3,500 to produce. We’ll never make that back but we do it because, I mean, it’s print and it’s beautiful and we want our contributors to see their work in print.
We’ve been with Submittable since they started and the service is invaluable to us as a small lit mag. Back in the day, they didn’t charge for their basic service (or, perhaps, it was a nominal fee). Mind blowing, right? Additionally, it would be very costly and difficult to duplicate Submittable.
We publish because we’re committed. It’s a shit ton of time and energy to do what we do and we will never be adequately paid for it (although that’s one goal). Most lit mags are like us; every issue feels like our last.