Red Lines

At present, my writing work falls somewhere between full-time hobby and fledgling career. I've made a few short story sales and I can see my way clear to the end of my novel (again). I write every day. I put time into professional development and try to get better at my craft.

I've established a few ground rules or red lines for myself in this endeavor. None of these are prescriptive. I imply no judgment or criticism if you do things differently as a creator, and there's no telling if these rules will hold for me indefinitely. But I think they will.

These are my red lines as a writer. The lines I will not cross.

I prefer print to online publication

I'm fine with digital distribution. I'm reading every novel nominated for a 2024 Edgar Awards right now (in advance of attending the awards ceremony in New York later this year), and I purchased them all on Kindle. Digital is great. Audio books are great. Online books are great.

That being said, I have a strong preference for print for my work, and I will nearly always apply to print markets first.

Largely this is because of the validation I feel when my work appears in print. I also like having a physical artifact of my work to display on my shelf. There are some fine digital-only publishers out there (I'm excited to have a story appearing at Shotgun Honey next month), but in most cases I write for print.

Publishers must pay for my work

It doesn't have to be a lot. It doesn't always have to be paid work (though I usually go to MWA-approved publishers first). But if you are going to publish my work, I need to get paid. I have no interest in publishing work only for exposure or prestige. Exposure and prestige are wonderful! But a paycheck needs to come with those things.

I spent decades working in the video game business, and for about seven years I was a founding partner in a mobile games developer and publisher. This was in the early days of Apple's App Store. We entered the business thinking we could sell our games for $5.00 and do just fine. Then Apple set the minimum price for games to "free" and the whole market pancaked in a race to the bottom. We'd shift a million downloads for a game that was free versus at best a few thousand when than same game was sold for a paltry ninety-nine cents.

It was heartbreaking to see what a barrier to entry was posed by selling something for just a dollar. But if "free" offers no barrier to entry, it also has no barrier to exit. Overall I want a buyer (or a reader) with a little skin in the game when they sit down to explore my work. If it is free then you have zero incentive to invest yourself in the work. If you've paid, I know you're serious about reading, just as I am serious about writing. It's like the difference between streaming a movie at home from a subscription service and paying to go to a movie. There is intentionality in the latter choice. That's what I expect from my readers (or at least from my publishers -- if they then offer the work for free, it is their choice).

I will spend to become a better writer, but I never pay submission fees

If a market or a contest requires a submission fee, I do not submit. I recognize the mystery fiction business is feeling the pinch and many outlets could not exist without charging fees. I still won't pay. This is related to the red line requiring publishers to pay for my work. Customers pay. Creators get paid. I will not pay when submitting my creations.

I will happily pay for software tools, magazines, books, travel expenses, membership dues, and conference fees. I promote. I will give of my time to support other writers, sit on panels, and do interviews. I will pay for an editor. I spend much more than I make in this crazy business! But I will not pay submit my work or to have it published. Never.

I own all rights

Publishers of course can expect some period of exclusivity when publishing my work, but rights must always revert to me. We can share the upside if a work is developed for film or TV. No problem with that. Publishers can option audio rights or carve out reprint rights for anthologies, within reason. But if I create the work, it belongs to me. The rights come home, always.

Partly this is because I've spent much of my career working for video game companies that have paid me handsomely but also own all rights to my work -- rights they haven't always treated intelligently or with respect. Partly it is because I take pride in my work and I want to build a library of intellectual property that belongs to me. Mostly it is because the work would not exist if I did not create it. It's mine. I keep the rights.

Rules are made to be broken

I've broken (nearly) all of these rules! This blog is online and offered for free. I have pending publications and submissions out there for digital markets. In the correct circumstance, I could see selling part or all of the rights to something I've created (something that is possible only because I've retained the rights in the first place). And as I mentioned above these rules aren't prescriptive -- do as you will with your own work.

But these rules are my red lines. If I cross them I will do so soberly, and for good reasons. I put them in place to protect against all the bad reasons ... deciding a fee is not unreasonable when it's for a good cause and you could really use a sale; offering up rights to a partner who has genuine access to bigger things but needs flexibility in packaging rights; skipping a good print market because the response time is months or years.

No. No no no. Red line.