Game & Puzzle Design journal

Looks interesting. What rate do you pay?

I see. Well, let me give you an idea of how self-promotion works. Magazines are ranked according to circulation and payment to authors. The SF magazine, Aurealis, is a semi-pro zine on account of its low circulation of 5,000, which they make up for with professional level payment rates. So, someone submitting there isn't really getting their story out to a wide market, but that's made up for by the payment received.

In gaming terms, I get 3 cents/word for writing game articles that typically take me less than an hour for a magazine with a circulation of 17k+ readers. I try to hit $20/hour to make it worth my time, and I know that my publisher is satisfied because my work meets a much higher standard than they typically receive from the amateur market.

My understand is that you are asking for "high technical quality" writing (technical writing being the highest paid standard) with no compensation, so that the author can self-promote to an audience of . . . with subscription rates of 50 Euro for 2 issues, I'll take a stab and say 500 or less readers?

I have written for nothing or next-to-nothing because I was getting copies of a gorgeous magazine with high production values, my name in print next to industry icons, etc. Those are actual encouragements that you can offer to capable writers, because "self-promotion" and "getting your name out" is considered to be the most tasteless form of condescension when it comes to new, unproven publishers still struggling to promote their own product.

I've also published a magazine that didn't compensate authors. You'll do just fine, so long as you have good connections and a long list of talented friends willing to pitch in, but don't expect much from your slush pile, because you get what you pay for. Trying to publish a professional trade journal while paying rates for Stephanie Meyer fan fiction puts you at a disadvantage. If the authors are essentially paying for promotion then you may want to reconsider your outlook and offer good reasons why they would want their names associated with your publication.

Folks, this is an academic journal, and it's very rare that any such journal pays authors, in fact some require authors to pay the journal! Academics have to get articles published to retain jobs in "research universities" (which is most well-known universities, nowadays). (Little-known fact: when you see a list of "best universities", that is usually judged by faculty research, not by teaching or student success. It's easy to count articles and books produced by faculty.)

The people involved may not have a lot of experience as editors, for example "1-12 pages" is meaningless (especially for a not-yet-printed journal), this should be expressed in word count. And "exposure" is a lame reason for non-academics to write for them.

Dr. Pulsipher