Short Story Markets

You’re a writer, but you’re also interested in making a few bucks (or more than a few) from your writing. Here are a few paying markets.

Tales of the Talisman is looking for sci-fi, fantasy and horror. $10 per story. Up to 6000 words.

Leading Edge is looking for science fiction and fantasy. They also take longer works of up to 15,000 words. Pay is .01 per word.

Necrology Magazine is looking for fantasy, horror and sci-fi. They take stories up to 15,000 words and pay $10-$25. I have a story submitted to them now, in fact. They prefer Lovecraftian horror, so if you’re a fan like me, this may be a market to look at.

On the Premises is a contest based magazine. You’ll need to check the site for the current premise. First prize is $130.

Greatest Uncommon Denominator takes a wide variety of genre and literary fiction. I’m not sure I quite follow their payment setup, but they do give you a cut of what they make.

Okay, so none of these will make you rich. In fact, given the time it takes to put together a good story, you’re not even looking at minimum wage, or anything close to it. However, it is rewarding to get a little payment from your work, even if it is very little. Having a few published short stories is also a terrific way to build up your credentials before approaching agents and publishers for a book.

I hope the market listings are useful. I’ll put something together next time for the non-fiction writers out there. If you enjoy this type of post, let me know, and I’ll try to make it a weekly feature. I’ll also try to mix it up a bit so there are a variety of market listings to choose from.

Writing for Money: Sharing Ad Revenue

I’ve been seeing ads for a couple sites lately, Helium and Triond. I was curious, so I’ve done a bit of research.

The Business Model

Both seem to have the same basic business model. They collect material from writers on multiple topics and publish that material on their own sites or on their affiliates’ sites.

Next, they track the revenue that each entry makes. I’m guessing they’re running ads on the sites, whether Google Adsense or something else. Then, they split the revenue with the writer. Triond has a simple 50/50 split structure. Helium is more complex. They add a rating system to their articles, so higher rated articles make more money. Their payouts also depend on the popularity of the topic and how much advertisers are willing to pay. Helium doesn’t disclose any specific percentage split with authors.

What’s Good about It

It’s obviously a good model for the companies. They got lots of content, quickly and, essentially, for free. Once that content starts generating revenue, they share it with the authors. Other than hosting and advertising, I doubt that they’re putting out a large initial investment.

It can be good for the authors as well. It’s a good place to try out your work and see how it does. If you’re not interested in monetizing your own blog, this might be a way to earn a little extra money. I doubt, however, that it’s possible to make much in this way.

What’s Bad About It

For the companies, I’d think that building a good reputation would be the biggest challenge. Sure, they can gather lots of content, but is it good content? I could go out to free content sites and load this blog up with content, and probably earn a lot more from adsense links, but I’d alienate the regular readership by delivering material they’re not interested in. That’s not a good trade-off, in my opinion.

Helium seems to be trying to deal with that problem by providing a rating system, but in all honesty, even the top rated articles on Helium can seem a bit shallow to me.

For writers, the obvious problem is not building your own name, your own reputation. If you’re going to devote the time to write for money, and produce the quantity and quality needed to do so, why not do it for your own site? Yes, it will take a lot longer to get that first check in the mail, but when you do, you’ll know that you’re building your own site that will keep on generating revenue for you.

Disclaimer

I haven’t signed up to write for either, and I don’t know of anyone who has, so my opinions are based on their descriptions of how the business model works. If you have any experience with either of them, post a note in the comments below.

Change in Constant Content Policies

I’ve blogged about writing for constant content before, so I thought some of you might be interested in a recent change in their policies. They’re no longer accepting articles for free; that is, you can no longer offer free articles on their site and attach promotion information to them.

I’m not sure when that change took place since I don’t put up free or promotional articles there. I’ve been using Constant Content for some time, and I’ve been happy with their services. I’ve sold quite a few articles there, and while you won’t get rich, you can certainly make some pocket money.

Blogitive Review, Final

Here’s what I’ve learned about Blogitive.

  • It doesn’t matter if your post really has a lot to do with the web release. Some of the ones I’ve done had very little in common with the release, but they were approved.
  • The blog entries have to be on the main page, I think. I submitted one and got it approved, but the next one that wasn’t on the home page was rejected. I guess someone was a bit more diligent in checking the posts.
  • Offers are sporadic. You may go a few days with none and then suddenly see three or four show up. Accept them all and decide later if you really want to do them. Many of these are limited, so if you don’t accept it right away, it can disappear in a few hours.
  • They approve the blogs in a day or so, on average. Some get looked at in a matter of hours, but I had one that took a couple of days to get approved.
  • They do pay out weekly, as promised.

Of course, the question is, do you want to put this type of entry on your blog, or do you want to keep the blog “pure.” I have to admit that I’m still torn. It’s nice to make a little cash from the blog to help pay for hosting, etc., but I’m concerned that it will make the blog cluttered.

Another problem is that this type of thing really screws with the Google Adsense code on the page. I’m getting all sorts of ads now, instead of only the writing related ones that I’d prefer.

If any of the above changes, I’ll be sure to post about it, but for now, this is probably the last Blogitive review. I’d like to hear your feedback about the ads. Do they bother you, or do you simply ignore them?

Blogitive Review, Part 4

As of now, I’ve gotten four new offers on Blogitive, so perhaps my complaint of no new offers yesterday was a bit premature.

Also, I had a second blog rejected because it’s less than ninety days old. I can understand their limitation; otherwise, it would be all too easy to start a host of blogs just for this purpose and then abandon them later. If I were an advertiser, I’d insist on putting my money (even just $5!) in a blog that has a track record for being around.

Stay tuned for more updates on Blogitive.

Blogitive Review, part 3

Here’s the latest Blogitive update, for those who are interested.

I did the last post on the 21st and was paid today for all three. That’s good; they paid weekly as promised.

I submitted a second blog (a relatively new one of mine) last week and just got a response today. I thought that was a bit long to wait for an answer, especially since their submission form says two days.

What concerns me about them now is that I’ve gotten no new offers since I completed my last one three days ago. If you’re hoping to make some extra cash from Blogitive, that certainly puts a damper in things, doesn’t it? Perhaps they’re still working on attracting advertisers; I have read that they have many more bloggers than advertisers at this point, so that may be the problem.

I’ll let you know when (and if) I get another offer.

Blogitive Review, part 2

As you can see, I’ve done two postings from the offers on Blogitive, and both were accepted. At only $5 per posting, you’re certainly not going to get rich.

As of this evening, Blogitive hasn’t transferred anything to my paypal account, but I understand that they do that once per week. I’ll keep you updated on that as well.

The big question is… Do you want to put ads on your blog for only $5/per ad? Since I’m using adsense, it also interferes with the ads that Google delivers, since the keywords are different than what I usually write.

I haven’t decided, but I’m leaning to not using them, or perhaps using them just enough to pay the hosting fees. We’ll see how things pan out.

Constant Content Site up Again

As I’ve mentioned before, I do some writing for Constant Content. The site had been down for upgrade for a few days, but it’s back up now.

You’re not going to get rich writing for them, and they do take a pretty hefty percentage (about a third), but it is a way to earn a little extra cash. Even writing a few articles a month will likely pay your hosting fees and buy you some coffee at the cafe.

Does anyone have recommendations for other sites that are good for some freelancing or making a little extra from blogging? Please post any ideas here.

Trial of Blogitive

I’ve talked about other ways to make money from writing online here in the blog, and here’s another I ran across the other day. Blogitive pays you to write a blog entry on a topic from their database.

The first step is to fill out the registration information and give the blog address. Then, blogitive will check your blog to verify that it’s suitable. According to their guidelines, they won’t pay for entries on sites that include pornography or hate speech.

After your blog is approved, you can log in and view offers and decide if you want to do a blog entry on them.

That’s as far as I’ve proceeded in the process. I’m hesitant to place advertisements on this blog unless it’s for something that I think you all might be interested in. However, I’m also curious as to how well the blogitive process works.

I’ll be writing a few articles and placing them on the blog under a new category, “Paid Ads.” If you’re interested, by all means read them. If you’d rather not, then stay tuned for a later update on Blogitive and how well it works.

Marketing Goals for Your Writing

Now that I’ve put together my writing goals for the year, I’m beginning to think about my marketing goals as well.

Obviously, I’m trying to earn a little to help pay the hosting costs for this site. I’m sure you’ve noticed the ads that appear on the blog pages, and I hope that they’re not too intrusive.

I also hope to be able to use the blog to market the novel when the time comes, but I’ll also need to think about other marketing tools. What types of marketing work do you do or plan to do this year? I’d be curious to hear other’s feedback as I’m thinking about my own plans.