9.1 KiB
The Future of Death
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Author: u/embrodski *
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URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/9jzve4/the_future_of_death/
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Score: 61
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Created: 2018-09-29T19:37:49
Post:
io9 wants stories of 2000 words or less about the Future of Death. And they're paying a ton. 50 cents per word. That's nearly ten times what is considered "professional pay rate." I think this is a cool challenge many of us would be up to.
" We’re looking for pieces under 2,000 words and the deadline for us to receive your submission is October 25, 2018. Our rates start at $0.50/word and authors will retain the copyright to their work, granting Gizmodo a right to first publication and a 90-day exclusive period.
To submit, please email a short summary (a few sentences will do) of the scope and plot of the story, as well as links to any other published work you’d like for us to see, to fiction@io9.com. Please include your story as an attachment."
https://io9.gizmodo.com/io9-wants-your-short-fiction-on-the-future-of-death-1829209247
Comments:
u/Kuiper [+40] (6 hours later)
they're paying a ton. 50 cents per word. That's nearly ten times what is considered "professional pay rate."
They're paying 50 cents per word on spec work. (The listing says, "Please include your story as an attachment." You write and submit a story, and then they decide afterward if they want to pay you.) If you submit a story and they like it, you get 50 cents per word, but if you submit a story and it's not accepted, you get 0 cents per word.
If you assume that you have, say, a 2% chance of getting your story published, and factor that into a calculation of expected value, then a 2% chance of getting paid 50 cents per word (and a 98% chance of getting paid 0 cents per word) gives you an EV of 1 cent per word. Obviously, you can adjust this number up or down depending on whether you think your odds of being accepted are better or worse than 2%. (Things to consider: the estimated size of the slush pile, the number of submissions they're going to accept, and where your skill level as a writer places you within the (presumably bell-curve shaped) distribution.) Your EV calculation could also factor in the likelihood of your story getting rejected by io9 but accepted by another magazine (or the potential reputation gain of self-publishing the work and posting it to forums like /r/rational, if you care about such things).
u/chlorinecrown [+10] (16 hours later)
I can help proof-read if someone wants.
I'd be pretty happy if the winner isn't something pro-death.
u/zpinnis [+3] (19 hours later)
I'll remember that, thanks in advance.
Same
u/None [+12] (an hour later)
[deleted]
u/embrodski [+15] (2 hours later)
That's part of the reason I put"professional pay rate" in quotes. Pretty much everyone realizes it's not enough to live on. Which is why no one makes a living writing short fiction anymore.
u/Kuiper [+12] (6 hours later)
Back in the 1920's and 1930's (the "Golden Age" of science fiction), magazines paid between 0.5 and 10 cents per word for submissions. The rates have stayed the same, the only thing that's changed is how much you can buy with a penny!
u/nicholaslaux [+5] (a day later)
So... the rate decreased a lot, then.
u/alexanderwales [+19] Time flies like an arrow (an hour later)
2000 words per day is easily doable. National Novel Writing Month is for complete amateurs, and most don't have much problem hitting the 1667/day mark.
u/None [+10] (13 hours later)
most don't have much problem hitting the 1667/day mark.
The success rate for NaNoWriMo is around ~15%. That's not even close to "most."
u/DaystarEld [+3] Pokémon Professor (13 hours later)
Uhh... I'm pretty sure 85% is "most" by "most" definitions :P
u/None [+9] (13 hours later)
Whoops, sign problems. I meant to say "success" :P. The failure rate is 85%. Fixed.
u/DaystarEld [+2] Pokémon Professor (13 hours later)
Ah, that makes more sense, yeah :)
u/xThoth19x [+3] (21 hours later)
I would assume the failure is from burnout not from running out of time on a given day to hit those last few words. Like I think if the requirements went down to 500 words a day the success rate would not go up v much.
u/None [+2] (22 hours later)
Maybe, but having "won" it, I would never say something like "most have no trouble." Every day was definitely a struggle, even during the first week, although of course it did vary a lot from day to day.
u/SimoneNonvelodico [+2] Dai-Gurren Brigade (15 hours later)
I dunno, for me 2000 words is doable in a good day. But then you have to consider all the attached strings to that. I don't know if I could output 2000 words per day, consistently, 5/7, with my livelihood depending on it.
u/Watchful1 [+3] (an hour later)
He said 50 cents, not 5. That's $1000 for a 2000 word story.
u/Gurkenglas [+12] (an hour later)
From what he quoted, he was arguing against a tenth of that being professional.
u/fassina2 [+7] Progressive Overload (15 hours later)
The future of death..
It stops happening. The end ;P
u/Nimelennar [+4] (a day later)
Where should we send your $5?
u/xamueljones [+3] My arch-enemy is entropy (a day later)
Hmm, I have no intention or desire to submit anything to this, but if I were to write something for this prompt it would be a short story based on HP Lovecraft's quote from the Nameless City:
That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even death may die.
You see this fascinating poem is a reference to the Old Ones' immortality and state of mind. They are eternal and will never die. However they spend time in a death-like state as a sort of hibernation.
I choose to interpret this as if they are so fundamentally different from humanity, that death is not a end for them like to would be for us, but rather a state from which they can revive from which would imply death has died, no?
So I would write a story where humans have changed into a form of Old Ones like the ones described in HP Lovecraft's stories. It's up to the reader whether or not this is a bad thing.
u/hyphenomicon [+2] seer of seers, prognosticator of prognosticators (a day later)
I've heard the hibernation interpretation before and think it downplays the grandeur of that line. I prefer more abstract explanations.
For example, maybe entropy's effects on Old Ones are different due to their embodying the underlying stuff of the universe, and so where time wears down the minds and bodies of mundane creatures it reinvigorates theirs, either directly or by wearing away at surrounding matter that impedes their connection to greater sources of power.
Or, we could have a "the arc of the universe bends towards horror" huge timescales thing going on where these are beings of such power and size that they can't meaningfully decay until billions of billions of billions of years have passed, and so are usually coincidentally jolted into resurrection before that point.
u/Ms_CIA [+3] Derp (a day later)
Fifty cents a word? For short fiction, that's amazing. It's usually much lower (if you get paid at all). I'll definitely submit something if I get any ideas. I feel bad for the slush pile readers, they're going to get slammed. XD
u/knasos [+1] (a month later)
So.... did anyone submit? Got a word back from them? I didn't get any kind of feedback :/
u/embrodski [+1] (a month later)
I submitted a few days beforehand. No word back yet, but I would be patient. Some markets get back to you really fast, but usually it's a wait of 2-3 months. Considering that they are paying a ridiculously high per-word rate, and they are io9, and according to comments they don’t have any interns helping… I would expect a very long wait.
u/knasos [+1] (a month later)
Well, i thought it was a one-time-thing only applicable for the special Death Week but who knows! I would appreciate a word back from them though, even an automated "We really appreciate your submission but" kind of thing.
u/embrodski [+2] (a month later)
I spoke to an editor friend last night. She said that, given the probably volume, lack of manpower, and use of an email address for submissions rather than a submissions system; and seeing that io9 published a Future of Death story on Oct 31st -- they are probably done with this, and no one will receive any rejections, even form rejections. We should consider the publishing of that story to be our notice, and feel free to send our stories elsewhere.
Tho I would suggest waiting a few months, so avoid the crush of everyone else doing so.