Jayne ,'The Train Job'
This thread is for fanfic recs, links, and discussion, but not for actual posting of fanfic.
Wrod with a side of wrod cakes to everything that's been said.
I occasionally ask amazing ficcers if they already write professionally, because I'd really like to pay to read their work. And sometimes I've said "I'm an assistant editor at this magazine. Have you written any original fiction you might maybe want to submit to us? I'd love to be able to publish your writing."
I know a surprising number of professional writers who also write or have written fanfiction; as one of them said, "whatever gets you writing...." I don't think any of their work is archived on the net, though.
Signed, got a $200 kill fee for a week's worth of article research and writing work today, and is feeling like getting paid for one's writing is one of those things that, like Western civilization, would be a very good idea...
Aw jeez, Michele. I hate kill fees. Half the time, they barely cover materials costs.
So what's a kill fee?
It's what a magazine (or in my case, back when I was a researcher, a scholar needing or wanting some ghostwriting done) pays you in order to get out of actually publishing what you've done for them.
Generally it's a pittance. Evil prats. Worst of both worlds: you do all the work, possibly incur some expenses, and you get neither a full paycheque nor your work in print.
Squirrel bastards!
Does that mean you can sell it elsewhere, though?
That's where the "kill" part comes in, I believe.
Yes, unless you've done something truly odd and signed something to contrary, generally in blood. In which case, you're hosed.
The first time I ever got kill-fee'd was a professor doing Elizabethan lit critique (article). Won't say who, when or what country. even now. I signed something, did two months worth of writing and research for a minimal weekly fee and the understanding that I'd get a co-credit and a big fat pub cheque.
I got dick-all. The bugger invoked the kill-fee clause and the article, without my name with damned all my work, appeared anyway.
Rebecca, most of the kill fees I've come across are generally the EQ of a publisher taking your book out of print; after a certain time, the rights revert to you. But it really depends on the individual scenario.
nnnargh. Feedback? Best drug ever.