For Writers Who Have Been Hustled Paying Submission Fees And Don’t Realize They’ve Been Hustled

A writer pal of mine just called me disheveled. They went on a submittable/cool subs binge and started just applying to magazines, paying all types of submission fees to get into higher end publications. Weeks after this calamity they’ve essentially been ghosted by every single imprint and publication they paid a submission fee too. Nobody’s answering emails or social media.

It’s a tale as old as Dorrance Publishing, preying on writers trying to get in the game but getting hustled. Which leads me to today’s OpEd: Writer 101 for those that do not know:

YOU NEVER EVER EVER EVER PAY TO BE PUBLISHED!

It’s not fucking cute for you to pay to submit to be considered for publications or magazines. I don’t give a fuck if they are on a platform like submittable and say they have to pay to use their service and bitch about costs.

If an imprint or publication is asking you to pay for them to consider your work -RUN.

Why the fuck does this even have to be stated in 2025?

Once again, more and more writers are crossing their moral line and giving into desperation, then trying to double down why it is “okay” to pay to be seen. It’s not. Every single one of their asses should be slut shamed for wasting money that could be used to MARKET their stuff on making someone’s pockets fatter with no intention of promoting their work. They should also be tarred and feathered for even suggesting other writers follow suit into that stupid ass line of questioning.

Once again, and I’m going to keep saying it, people who should not be in the LITERARY BUSINESS are fucking it up from those who do take this shit seriously. These types of people/imprints/organizations have zero fucking clue what they are doing and only care about vanity – the vanity to see their “name in lights” and not about the fucking work and getting down on the WRITTEN PAGE.

These types of people need to STOP FUCKING WRITING.

I don’t give a fuck if the publications and imprints are saying charging a submission fee cuts down on being overwhelmed by submissions. I don’t give two shits if they claim it’s compensation for the time spend rummaging around submissions looking for something worth printing. News flash – THAT IS THEIR FUCKING JOB AND IT COMES WITH THE TERRITORY! It is not fair that you are paying a fee at a chance at publication. That’s called payola. Look it up.

Most imprints/publishers that do this are crooks. You pay money to be seen and never hear from them again. If you are paying ten bucks to submit work on the off chance they may pay you 25 dollars for a story, look at it like this – there are 1,000 people that just paid them 10 bucks competing for 10 slots. They made ten grand while they are only paying 250$ for 10 stories. See how much money they are making off your desperation?

If you want to waste money, buy a lottery ticket. There are plenty of places to submit to worth a damn that are not trying to steal money from you and your work. If the imprint or magazine is worth submitting to, they can AFFORD, in an era of online magazines, to read your shit FOR FREE before they decide to publish it.

That is all.