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Reading Fees

sirmyk

sirmyk

New Member
Is anyone else sick of seeing the term "reading fee" used in contests and by scum-bucket literary agents? One of my first acceptance letters a few years ago was from some numbnut, self-proclaimed "literary agent" who wanted to take me on as a client... but charged $451 for first-time authors under his contract. REDFLAG!REDFLAG!REDFLAG! So I gave this shitweasel a call... no answer. I wrote back to Mr. Assface with a couple questions... no response, e-mailed the authorfucker... nope, follow-up call weeks later... nothing! I just checked his webpage... "This page cannot be displayed". I could go broke in a week if I ever chose to stoop down low enough to pay someone to read my work. I can somewhat understand an "entry" fee for certain contests (short story, poetry, etc.) where there is a cash prize involved, but just to get your name out there in a magazine no one ever reads...
 
I refuse to pay anyone to read my work.

I won't even enter a contest that charges a fee.

I may be a little paranoid, but I have always thought that "reading fees" were a signal that either a) the agent/publisher is inexperienced and trying to "get started" or b) the agent/publisher is a predator who feeds on the egos of young, unpublished, insecure writers. In either case, I would rather trust my work to someone who knows what they are doing, and who is running a legitimate business.

While I do detest those who are doing the charging of fees, I am even more furious with the vain, talentless writers who pay them so they can say they are a "published author". Those are usually the ones who announce themselves as authors at parties and shit, and get a group of people around them "ooh"ing and "aaah"ing over their accomplishments. They usually turn out to be dumber than a sack of hammers with the writing talent of a retarded 5 year old.

Just my thoughts! :D
 
'Money should flow to the writer ... money should flow to the writer'. It's a simple mantra, but accurate.
 
Well, yes, it should flow to the writer; but more often it "flows" drop by Chinese-water-torture drop. :rolleyes:
 
Fahrenheit 451 is a novel by Ray Bradbury about book burning. Firemen no longer put out fires; they are run by the government, burning every book in sight. Two sentence "messed up" synopsis: not bad, huh?
 
leckert said:
The title is the temperature at which books burn. (I think)
Click to expand...
As far as I know it is the temperature at which "paper" burns; I've never trialed paper burning, though.
 
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