What is your view of publications that charge a fee just to submit work through their online submission portals? I notice many of the literary journals are now charging around $3 to submit, justifying that it’s what it would cost for postage, administrative fees, and to help pay writers, like this quip from a lit journal:
“We charge a $3 submission fee, which is the postage that would be needed for a submission. This helps keep us in business…”
In my opinion, it’s a scam. Free email completely trumps their postage excuse. If writers are submitting via an online form, how can they use “postage” as a justification for charging writers? That’s ridiculous!
If the publication can’t support itself on advertising, and pay a decent wage to writers, and if they’re forcing pseudo donations of this sort (when they know most of the submissions will be rejected anyway), they shouldn’t be in business. No fledgling publisher or editor should expect writers to support their hobby in this manner.
It sure seems like everybody has found a way to dip their hands in writers’ pockets these days!