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I haven't previously had much awareness of the Rusty Fears competition. Remember that I came to Magnus comparatively late; I skipped over much of the interstitial content for the first several seasons in favor of catching up with the main series. I went back to listen to the Q and A's, but I didn't bother with much else, and being extremely picky about my horror I didn't really bother with Rusty Fears even when I'd caught up to it... and I was never aware of any of them until after the stories had gone up, so I didn't know how it was being run.
Now I do, because the next Rusty Fears is open for submissions.
And I'm upset, because ethically, I can't justify entering it. Entering it, especially if I were to win, would be supporting it, and this is structured the way every taking-advantage-of-the-novices contest is structured, and I am so angry at Rusty Quill right now, because they're so vocal about how they try to be an ethically run business... and they're ignoring that one basic tenet of genre fiction writing.
Yog's Law. Money flows towards the writer.
Sure, there's no contest fee, which I suppose is the absolute bare minimum, but equally at the other end you lose those all-important first publication rights.
I know how they're going to justify it. This is for fans. It's not a professional writing opportunity; it's a fan contest. But they outright say they're looking for new and undiscovered horror writers. And anything good enough to win this contest? Is good enough to sell to a horror magazine. Hell, one of the six winners gets to write an actual canonical episode of the Magnus Archives and it's explicitly noted that that person gets a brief and points to hit just like any other professional... and makes no mention of being paid for this. Your reward is that you get to write for the Magnus Archives.
For that reward you are permanently licensing your story to Rusty Quill. They get to do whatever they want with it with only credit given, no payment. Including "all adaptations"-- they can incorporate it into other stuff they do, if they want, beyond what you originally submitted. Paid in exposure, people, paid in exposure.
People die of exposure.
If you want to target new, you do what the Resnick Award did and say the only people eligible are people who haven't had a pro sale yet. Or haven't had any sale. Or haven't made more than $X total from writing. I promise you the people who are actually going somewhere value their reputations too much to risk them on a sale that will have them easily found out; you don't have to worry that much about verifying it.
Rusty Quill ought to be a pro market by any definition. They have a huge audience and they have an entire paid staff, which is way more than... any of the pro markets have, which means they can afford to pay pro rates. If I sell something between 1000 and 2500 words to a pro market I get paid between $80 and $200 and all I'm giving up is first publication rights with an agreement not to reprint for a set period of time generally measured in months rather than years. (If I sell to one of the anthology podcasts rights bought will include audio as well, subject to similar time limits.)
I really did think better of Rusty Quill than this. I thought they were trying to do better than the usual industry behavior. I thought they were trying to be better.
But no; as it turns out they're just like all the other companies out there willing to take advantage of the new and the young. And I can no longer have the daydream of someday getting to pitch to Alexander J. Newall.
Now I do, because the next Rusty Fears is open for submissions.
And I'm upset, because ethically, I can't justify entering it. Entering it, especially if I were to win, would be supporting it, and this is structured the way every taking-advantage-of-the-novices contest is structured, and I am so angry at Rusty Quill right now, because they're so vocal about how they try to be an ethically run business... and they're ignoring that one basic tenet of genre fiction writing.
Yog's Law. Money flows towards the writer.
Sure, there's no contest fee, which I suppose is the absolute bare minimum, but equally at the other end you lose those all-important first publication rights.
I know how they're going to justify it. This is for fans. It's not a professional writing opportunity; it's a fan contest. But they outright say they're looking for new and undiscovered horror writers. And anything good enough to win this contest? Is good enough to sell to a horror magazine. Hell, one of the six winners gets to write an actual canonical episode of the Magnus Archives and it's explicitly noted that that person gets a brief and points to hit just like any other professional... and makes no mention of being paid for this. Your reward is that you get to write for the Magnus Archives.
For that reward you are permanently licensing your story to Rusty Quill. They get to do whatever they want with it with only credit given, no payment. Including "all adaptations"-- they can incorporate it into other stuff they do, if they want, beyond what you originally submitted. Paid in exposure, people, paid in exposure.
People die of exposure.
If you want to target new, you do what the Resnick Award did and say the only people eligible are people who haven't had a pro sale yet. Or haven't had any sale. Or haven't made more than $X total from writing. I promise you the people who are actually going somewhere value their reputations too much to risk them on a sale that will have them easily found out; you don't have to worry that much about verifying it.
Rusty Quill ought to be a pro market by any definition. They have a huge audience and they have an entire paid staff, which is way more than... any of the pro markets have, which means they can afford to pay pro rates. If I sell something between 1000 and 2500 words to a pro market I get paid between $80 and $200 and all I'm giving up is first publication rights with an agreement not to reprint for a set period of time generally measured in months rather than years. (If I sell to one of the anthology podcasts rights bought will include audio as well, subject to similar time limits.)
I really did think better of Rusty Quill than this. I thought they were trying to do better than the usual industry behavior. I thought they were trying to be better.
But no; as it turns out they're just like all the other companies out there willing to take advantage of the new and the young. And I can no longer have the daydream of someday getting to pitch to Alexander J. Newall.
