[Obawok]

Here is a contest I thought I would let everyone know about.

Orcs, Robots, and Unicorns, Oh My!

PegLeg Publishing's first sci-fi and fantasy short story contest
We receive a lot of fantasy and science fiction short stories for GlassFire Magazine, so we've decided to make our first short story contest a sci-fi/fantasy themed contest. We're looking for short stories that focus on anything fantastic, magical, or futuristic. Dragons and space ships, aliens and knights, even pirates (if they're in a fantastical situation, of course) are welcome. Below are the specifics for the contest or you can go to http://www.peglegpublishing.com/contests.htm. (http://www.peglegpublishing.com/contests.htm)

Deadline: October 31, 2008

Reading fee: $10.00 per story.

Submission limit: two stories per author.

Word length: 5,000 words or less.

Payment: You can either submit your entries with a check made out to PegLeg Publishing via snail mail or you can submit online. If you submit online, we will put your entry into a waiting queue and send you an online invoice to pay through PayPal. Once we receive your payment, we will move your entry to the reading queue. Yes, it's a bit complicated, but it's the best way we've found so far (and it's green!).


Prizes (yes, there are prizes!)

1st Prize - $75, publication in the winter issue of GlassFire, and a PegLeg Publishing gift basket!

2nd Prize - $25, publication n the winter issue, and a gift basket

3rd Prize - Publication n the winter issue and a gift basket

To submit stories to our contest, email them to contests@peglegpublishing (mailto:contests@peglegpublishing.com)or snail mail them to the following address:

PegLeg Publishing, LLC
P.O. Box 75409
Oklahoma City, OK 73147-5409
(Please remember to include your contact information and SASE for our reply)

[Sonja Ravenscroft]

Forgive me, as I know little about legalities in publishing, so I'm not familiar with a "reading fee".

I'm to send 10.00 per story-so I'm "paying" them to read my story?

Is that a normal business practice?(I really have don't know, that's why I'm asking.)

I just know other publishers I've sent to haven't asked to pay anything except maybe postage.

[Rocket Sheep]

Very often if you're applying for a mentorship or to win a place at a supervised writing retreat (these have all sorts of names) then you pay a reading fee. I've paid around $60 a go to get into these sorts of things, but usually I find out all about which publishers are involved etc, and whether it's worth submitting my style and genre... (I was totally wrong the first time I submitted and learned the hard way. I got to speak to the publisher involved six months later and found out they never intended to do the age group or genre I submitted... what a waste of time, effort and $, and yet they never said upfront. I was mad. Two years later they opened it up to my age group and genre and I still haven't reapplied... the readers haven't changed and I'm still mad.)

If you enter contests they often fund them with fees of around $5 per entry. $10 US is steep, especially if you only win $75 US which is what you'd expect to be paid when you get published in a small mag anyway... but maybe you can see value in it if you have a knock 'em dead story and need the publishing credit or reckon they have a really good gift basket.

The total cash prize pool is only the same as 10 entries so perhaps they really need to fund the publication of the winter issue? It's not easy for small mags to get by, (being hemispherically-challenged I hate seasonally-named issues.)

So you may see it as something of a rip off or you may see it as a fun thing to do to help out small press and maybe get a publishing credit.

We've all got to work it out for ourselves, according to Brian.