As some of you may know, I've been working on an idea to put out a call for submissions for an anthology. More than one, over time, with varying themes. The kinds of stories I'd like to read, and hopefully others will as well. My plan is to hire a cover artist out-of-pocket and have a nice cover made for each one, as that is important to sale.
I can spring for good covers for the anthologies, but some of the really high-quality artists I'd like to use are more costly than what I can put into the project. A friend of mine, who also writer, suggest I charge a small submission fee ($10 or so), with the understanding that the money from the fees goes to making a cover, marketing the anthology, and so on. Any amount that exceeds those costs goes into the royalty pool which will go back to the authors (the payment to the authors will be a royalty-sharing arrangement). The idea is that if I did one or two that way, and if the books sell at all, I could probably drop the fee for subsequent anthologies and still hire high-quality talent for the covers.
I'm not in favor of submission fees, and I think they rightly raise a red flag. Usually the fee goes into some black hole (presumably the publisher's pocket), never to be seen again. So my gut instinct is to say no, I'll just go with the lower-quality, but still nice, covers. I thought I'd throw it out to the forum, though. If the use of the entry fee was allocated specifically to the success of the work, and therefore the success of the authors contributing to it, would it put you off?
I can spring for good covers for the anthologies, but some of the really high-quality artists I'd like to use are more costly than what I can put into the project. A friend of mine, who also writer, suggest I charge a small submission fee ($10 or so), with the understanding that the money from the fees goes to making a cover, marketing the anthology, and so on. Any amount that exceeds those costs goes into the royalty pool which will go back to the authors (the payment to the authors will be a royalty-sharing arrangement). The idea is that if I did one or two that way, and if the books sell at all, I could probably drop the fee for subsequent anthologies and still hire high-quality talent for the covers.
I'm not in favor of submission fees, and I think they rightly raise a red flag. Usually the fee goes into some black hole (presumably the publisher's pocket), never to be seen again. So my gut instinct is to say no, I'll just go with the lower-quality, but still nice, covers. I thought I'd throw it out to the forum, though. If the use of the entry fee was allocated specifically to the success of the work, and therefore the success of the authors contributing to it, would it put you off?