Maybe they DO want blood...

[Harlean Carpenter {★}]

Yes, this is a rant, which I try not to do too often but today has pushed me to the limit of what I can take without letting off some steam.

I am starting a magazine.  I am very excited about the concept, the submissions I've gotten so far, the way it's starting to take shape, the whole thing.  Now, just starting out, I need to limit my financial exposure, but I also understand it takes money to make money.  So I am doing the following to compensate people contributing content to my very exciting new magazine:

GIVING CONTRIBUTOR COPIES - For which I am paying out of my pocket, and also paying to ship domestically and internationally.  And something I've noticed that a lot of magazines aren't doing, but I hope and actually believe it will have an impact on the quality of submitted material.  So far, it has.

OFFERING ADDITIONAL COPIES AT A DISCOUNT - So that contributors can resell them at the cover price and keep the difference.  The discounted price of which covers printing and SOME of the shipping.  The balance of the shipping is being paid for out of my pocket.  I look at it as an investment in the future of the magazine; I'm not paying for shipping, I'm paying for advertising, and giving contributors a chance to make a bit of cash in the process which, again, I believe will positively impact the quality of future submissions.

If my calculations are correct, it will be costing me, on top of the time it takes for me to put the magazine together, between $400 and $500 per issue, which I then have to cross my fingers I make up in sales.

Sales, that is, from which I will be SHARING THE PROFITS with the contributor that referred the sale to the online distributor.

So in a nutshell: you submit work to the magazine, you get a copy of the magazine, you can order more copies of the magazine to sell at a profit, and you are financially rewarded for sending people to MagCloud to buy the magazine.

And this is not meant to disparage other publications in any way, but in a publishing environment where so many other magazines don't even give a contributor copy, does anyone have any possible explanation for the amount of crap I'm hearing about how I'm not doing enough for my artists?  I'm not saying I'm perfect but, looking at the realities of the situation, I thought I was at least slightly ahead of the curve.

[Plum Pea Dahl {★}]

I'm not an expert in the world of magazine publishing, but it sounds like you're being pretty generous. 

[Harlean Carpenter {★}]

You're sweet, thank you for reading my grouchiness ;)  I know I'm not able to offer as much in the way of compensation as larger publications (yet), but I really am trying to do right by everyone involved, I'm tired of snarky crap about how I'm screwing people over because I'm not able to hand out large stacks of contributor copies wrapped in $50 bills.

Plum Pea Dahl {★} said:

I'm not an expert in the world of magazine publishing, but it sounds like you're being pretty generous. 

[John at My Favorite Pinups{★}]

you have every right to rant and if people want to b**** about how you are treating the artists maybe they need to spend some time out in the real world and see how that treats them

I've written an article or two in my time and if I wanted a copy I had to go buy it myself.

Sounds to me like you are being way more than generous

[The Trousseau]

People will always think that the person "at the top" is raking in the big bucks.  The best you can do is make a decision based on what you think you can give them, and then communicate that clearly.  If they are not happy with the arrangement, I am sure their amazingly valuable talent can be marketed to Vogue or Vanity Fair... or not. 

The thing is, you have to know what you can do, and it seems like you do, and then you can decide if the whiner is worth working with or not.  If their talent is not equal to their annoyance factor, there is more talent waiting.  Entitlement divas are easily found, usually sitting and waiting for someone to discover their amazing talent. 

[Lolita Black]

I think it's a great venture and if you're getting started and being generous it may be a little difficult, but worth it. It sounds to me like you're on the right track and as for taking care of the artists, aren't they submitting their work for free? And aren't they getting so exposure because of your hard work? I say don't worry about them! There will be other people and you sound like you know what you want to do, so go get 'em!

[Harlean Carpenter {★}]

It never ceases to amaze and inspire me how supportive this community is.  Thank you all, so much, I really needed to hear this today <3