September 01, 2010

Letters To The Editor For September 1st

Writing or Editing for Non-Profits: When to Say NO!

Oh my gosh, don't get me started about nonprofits and their publishing efforts. Nonprofit doesn't mean you don't run your entity with standard business sense. As a matter of fact, if they run at a loss, they also run the risk of losing their nonprofit status. You have more of a chance of a business literary review losing money than a nonprofit - just because of the laws involved with nonprofit structure.

Too many nonprofits use the "excuse" of being a nonprofit to say they cannot pay writers or they run their business differently. Sorry, but they need to pay staff and pay contributors. They are required to be self-sustaining - i.e., able to keep running if they don't land a grant. In my personal opinion, a nonprofit that states it cannot afford to pay writers is a nonprofit not being run well and one that should not be in the publishing business. They have to pay the electric bill, the rent, the printer of the review and the postage to mail the books. They sure as heck ought to pay writers.

C. Hope Clark
Editor, FundsforWriters
http://www.fundsforwriters.com
Writer's Digest 101 Best Web Sites for Writers - 2001-2010
A decade of recognized excellence

Finding Garbled, Illegal Copies of Your Articles Online? You're Not Alone!

Your article this week about plagiarized on-line articles is so appropriate to read tonight as we came head to head on a plagiarism issue at my office today. The editor (finally) cut loose a regular columnist because they had plagiarized for the last time. The editor knew the writing on the latest submission was too good to be true, so he searched online for a key phrase that directed him to the article they had lifted. It was from a large network news site no less!

If a "writer" cannot come up with original words and copy, then they are not a writer! Thanks for grinding the ax on this issue (and others). Your newsletter reminds everyone that it takes hard work to be a good writer and, when that work is evident, it deserves credit and fair pay. Let me say this as well, which I know you will agree with me on. Publications that do credit and pay their writers well also deserve something for their money!

I enjoy your newsletter.

Thank you,

L.