Hello!

I'm a newbie to this forum. I wasn't sure where to write this message so thought either the Newcomers board would work, or someone might tell me where it would be better suited.

I'm part of a group of people who love reading, and we are creating a new online magazine of short stories, called New Mercury Press.

It will contain short stories and flash fiction that can cover many genres: from steampunk to sci-fi, and murder mystery to parody, anything that will take the reader to a faraway place.

We're looking for submissions of short stories for our first issue and would love to read yours.

If you’d like to submit, or just find out more, please visit http://newmercurypress.com or email questions@newmercurypress.com and we’d be happy to answer any of your questions!

We just want to share the great stories that are out there and make a fun magazine to read over coffee, in the bath, or just before bed.

Thanks!

Amy

Thanks for posting this. I wouldn't be interested in submitting stories without payment, but others may be. However, this interested me:

You will keep the full copyright to your story but as soon as you submit it, you are giving us permission to be the sole publisher of that story.

That seems a bit tough considering there is no payment, or am I misinterpreting this?

I agree. If you actually mean you will be the sole publisher of a short story, that's very much against normal practice.

I've just had a quick look at your Q&As. I think this needs to be made clearer:

We also ask that your submission hasn’t been published or sent for consideration to any other publication.

i.e. do you mean you don't accept simultaneous submissions or that you won't consider a story that was sent to and rejected by another magazine? If the latter, then I don't see how you can seriously expect writers not to try paying magazines first; and in any case, how would you enforce this rule?

This doesn't make sense:

You will keep the full copyright to your story but as soon as you submit it, you are giving us permission to be the sole publisher of that story. If we do not publish, and you wish to submit you story to another publication, you just need to let us know by email so there is no risk of copyright infringement.

How can it be an infringement of copyright for me to publish my own story in another magazine when yours has not published it? And as said earlier, you need to make clear what you mean by 'sole publisher'. If you mean that no one else can ever publish a writer's short story, I don't see you getting many submissions.

I think the consensus may be that this is an underwhelming offer, then.
G

Hello everyone,

Thanks so much for your replies. I’m sorry if our FAQ section is confusing. Please let me try to clear some things up.

I understand that some, if not most, writers will be reluctant to send in their work with no guarantee of payment, however, there are many online publications which are not able to remunerate their contributors. Rather, the idea is to create a collection of stories, willingly shared by people who wish to share their writing. Many people write stories because they enjoy doing so and then share them with friends or add them to their blogs.

While we cannot compensate any contribution, we will be giving the authors a space to include a biography and links to their blog or website, and any other writing such as a book available on Kindle.

We hope that people will get the chance to read work by authors they might not have heard of before and then perhaps go on to buy another piece of writing by them.

When it comes to the copyright issues you bring up, we certainly did not mean to come across as tough or unfair. The main concern we want to avoid is copyright infringement.

Terry, I’m sorry that the following section of our FAQ was unclear.

We also ask that your submission hasn’t been published or sent for consideration to any other publication.

Of course, if someone has previously submitted a story for consideration elsewhere and been rejected, we will most certainly consider that story, and will amend our FAQ answer to reflect that. We simply want to avoid a case where we publish a piece that has been accepted by another publisher, who also publishes it. That could become a case of copyright infringement, which we certainly want to avoid.

Enforcing all this is, of course, incredibly difficult, but major publications face the same issue. They rely on people’s word or even on signing contracts to ensure that they retain full rights to publication. We simply wish to make it clear that we have no desire to infringe upon anyone else’s right to publish.

If writers want to try paying magazines first, then of course, they are welcome to, and that is why we made it clear that there will be no payment from us.

Terry, I’d also like to address your following comment:

How can it be an infringement of copyright for me to publish my own story in another magazine when yours has not published it? And as said earlier, you need to make clear what you mean by 'sole publisher'. If you mean that no one else can ever publish a writer's short story, I don't see you getting many submissions.

It certainly is not an infringement of copyright for you to publish with another magazine if we haven’t published it, and when we know that we will not be publishing a piece, we will certainly let the author know and they are then free to do what they wish with their story.

If someone wishes to submit a short story included in one of our issues elsewhere, they can do so and there is no way for us, as Terry says, to enforce a ban on that, but we simply want to show that the responsibility of doing so is with the author.

However, when it comes to having it published elsewhere, that other publication will then most probably want to know whether they will be the only publishers of the piece. Depending on the other publication, having two entities with the rights to publish the story could lead to copyright infringement issues.

If the idea of New Mercury Press seems like an underwhelming offer, then I’m afraid you might have taken a somewhat grander view of our own magazine than we have. For those who have grand literary aspirations, those who wish their particular story to be published on the NYT bestseller list, then perhaps this would not be an appealing proposal. We just love reading and want to try and spread fun stories with others.

Of course, we want it to be a very high quality magazine, containing well-written fiction that will entertain people, but we don’t want to create an image of ourselves other than what we wish to be: accessible and fun. The idea is to create an electronic publication of good, engaging short stories that can be enjoyed by all.

I’d just like to emphasise that we aren’t trying to take advantage of any writers. We don’t want to take people’s short stories, add them to our repertoire, and publish them without giving anything back to the authors. We simply want to create an outlet that acts as a great collection of stories for readers and a place for writers to share their work. And since many writers are also readers, then I’d like to think that those contributing would also enjoy reading other people’s work.

I’m sorry for the long reply and I apologise that the FAQ section seems unclear, but I did want to make myself clear and address your issues as well as I could.

If you have any questions, comments, or ideas, I’d love to hear them. Again, apologies for being unclear, I hope this helps.

Thanks,

Amy

Hi Amy,
Yes, there are lots of places that look for (and receive) stories from writers for diddly, I've sent a few to them myself, but it's important for writers to know why they're doing it and also to get a fair if not a good deal.

I think you'd do well to take a look at some of the other sites and their agreements. For example, http://www.everydayfiction.com has a fairly clear agreement where the wording, I think, does what I think you are trying to do and they are in a very similar space - the money they pay is, as they clearly state, symbolic at best. Take a look on their submissions page and you'll see. They based theirs on the SFWA boiler plate, which is another place you could look for sample wording.


It has to be clear what is being given and what is being received in return before anybody should exchange anything or agree to any contract.
G

Hi G,

Thank you so much for your advice. It’s always helpful to get input and to see other examples of this kind of language. Thanks also for taking the time to respond.
I hope one day to read some of your writing.

Thank you again!

Amy

Amy,

Thanks for responding in detail, and it's good you're going to clarify your Q&As.

However, I'm still not clear about whether you're simply saying 'no simultaneous submissions' - which is fair enough - or that you mean you will be the sole publisher of a story, forever.

If someone wishes to submit a short story included in one of our issues elsewhere, they can do so and there is no way for us, as Terry says, to enforce a ban on that, but we simply want to show that the responsibility of doing so is with the author.

This seems rather muggy. It's not a case of you enforcing any bans; it's surely about what kind of contract you make with the author. It's likewise nothing to do with the author's 'responsibility'. Either his contract with you allows him to sell the story somewhere else after X time, or it doesn't. This is why I questioned 'sole publisher', i.e. do you mean for a limited period of time or forever? It's still not clear from your answer.

However, when it comes to having it published elsewhere, that other publication will then most probably want to know whether they will be the only publishers of the piece. Depending on the other publication, having two entities with the rights to publish the story could lead to copyright infringement issues.

What the other publisher will want to know in fact is whether or not your contract with the author allows him to sell it to them.

Terry

Hi Terry,

Thanks for your reply. Sorry for not replying earlier, I’ve been traveling. I can see where the confusion lies and I really do appreciate your response. We really want to make sure everything is as clear as possible.

In response to your queries, I’ve been over the language and hope I can clear things up.
We will be accepting simultaneous submissions but we will ask the authors to agree to contact us immediately if the piece is accepted elsewhere.
To clear up the rights issue, we will ask to acquire the First World Serial Rights and the First Electronic Rights. 30 days after publication of the story in New Mercury Press, the author will be free to submit the piece to other publications. We will also ask to retain the right to include the piece in a future anthology issue and the piece will remain in our online archive.
We will update the FAQ to reflect this.

We do look forward to receiving submissions and producing our first issue.
Again, I’m very sorry that it seemed unclear and I hope this is now more transparent.

I do hope that you will consider taking a look at our first issue when it’s released.

Thank you again,

Amy

To clear up the rights issue, we will ask to acquire the First World Serial Rights and the First Electronic Rights. 30 days after publication of the story in New Mercury Press, the author will be free to submit the piece to other publications. We will also ask to retain the right to include the piece in a future anthology issue and the piece will remain in our online archive. We will update the FAQ to reflect this.

Yes, that's clearer. I wouldn't have got that from the original.
Good luck with it,
G

Yes, I agree, that's much clearer. Thanks Amy.

I understand now too. It's excellent that you were able to be so constructive in your approach to the feedback given.

Great! I'm very glad it's much clearer now.
Thanks for your replies each time! We really do appreciate it!
Amy