The Rag raglitmag.com The classic scam against hopeful naive creative writers. Internet http://raglitmag.com/index.html, Internet

I am one of the owners/editors of The Rag and I would like to rebut the accusations made by “writersalliance” that our magazine is hosting a scam. Our magazine is not a scam. We are a legitimate literary publication and we pay the authors we publish. I can produce the issue that we publish and I can also produce records of the financial transactions that show we pay the authors we publish. We do offer an electronic submissions service for a $3 fee. We also offer a mail-in submission option in lieu of the electronic fee, which we do not accept payment for. There are many other legitimate literary publications that operate in the same exact manner—many of which use the exact same Submittable platform that we use. There is a list of the publications that use the Submittable program posted on the Submittable homepage http://www.submishmash.com/.

I would also like to point out that “writersalliance” has posted several false/misleading statements in this report.

1) “He (the writer) finds a promising outlet through some paid advertisement, typically offering employment. The outlet then contacts the writer with not employment, but an offer filled with optimism, as if his success is just a submission away to the outlet. Somewhere in the ensuing paragraphs, once the writer is drawn in, follows a stipulation for a submission fee. Then continues a few more paragraphs of the success the writer will most definitely receive from his submission.”

We do not (and have never) advertised ourselves as employers, but only as a medium to submit writing for publication, which if accepted will be paid for with a flat rate. There is no promise whatsoever of being published. This is standard in any literary market, paid or otherwise.

2) “The writer loses his money and gains nothing; furthermore, his hopes are shattered because he was duped into believing the odds of success were anything more than, in a best case scenario, an innocuous fraction of a percent.”

“writersalliance” has no evidence of this whatsoever. We, however, do have evidence showing that we pay the writers we select for publication. Although the number of authors we publish compared to those who submit is less than 2%, anyone who knows anything about the writing/publishing industry knows that the overwhelming majority of submissions to any publication (unless they operate as a vanity press) are rejected, as the literary market is very competitive. In short, it’s difficult to get published. You don’t have be a writer to know that, as it is common knowledge.

Below is the response we send to those who contact us about submissions, either through craigslist.org, or a writer’s resource website. This response clearly states that the writer is not obligated to pay us in order to submit—that they may use the second option to mail in their submission, free of charge if they prefer. In short, the fee is an option.

"Thanks for your interest in submitting to The Rag, a new literary magazine specializing in the publication of short fiction and poetry. The Rag is an electronic publication, but unlike online literary magazines we target the e-reader markets, exclusively (i.e. Kindle, Nook and any other e-reading device or app) rather than publishing content on the web. The overall goal of our publication is to create a sustainable magazine that can afford to pay its writers, while also producing a competitive product in the literary marketplace. You can find out more by visiting our website http://raglitmag.com/

So, how much do we pay? Short answer: as much as possible. We paid between $100-150 per piece for the publication of our first issue, which was when our magazine didn't yet exist, so that would be the minimum payment for subsequent issues, and for our next issue we hope to pay more within the range of $150-200 for each piece, and possibly more depending on the level of support we can drum up over the next few months.

Our submissions process is as follows. Click on the "Submissions" link on our website, and that will take you to http://raglitmag.submishmash.com/submit. We use a company called Submittable to manage our submission process, which requires no cover letters, bios, synopses or special formatting.

There is a $3 fee for online submissions. This is one of two options. If you would like to take advantage of our electronic submission service, as it is often cheaper, easier and much more convenient than mailed paper submissions, you may do so for a small fee which we greatly appreciate. However, if you are unable or unwilling to pay for this service we also offer the traditional, printed, mail-in method which is available upon request. If you prefer this method over the electronic method you may email me dan@raglitmag.com and I will send you the mail-in guidelines.

For those who are interested in also subscribing to The Rag, we are currently crediting electronic submitters $4 off our yearly subscription, so you'll also have the option of subscribing to our magazine for a full year for only $4.99 with an electronic submission (regular price is $8.99, available as a PDF or EPUB file). We hope this pricing structure encourages writers who submit to also subscribe. It's an affordable way to get to know what kind of work we publish, it helps us grow as a competitive magazine, and more importantly, it increases our support to those we publish. However, if you can’t afford it or just aren’t interested, don’t sweat it. We understand money is tight these days and that many people just don’t have the time to read every publication they submit to, so rest assured we give all submissions the same consideration whether they paid to submit/subscribe or not.

If you would like to get a feel for the sort of material we publish before submitting to The Rag, there are plenty of samples posted on our blog section under the caption, “The Rag: Criminally Overlooked.” Also, if you’re concerned with the potential exposure your work will receive (as you should), we’re happy to report that our reader base is rapidly growing. We’ve been on the market for a very short time, and already we’re receiving about 3 subscriptions per day, plus individual Amazon Kindle/B&N Nook sales, so our reader base is currently in the hundreds and we expect to be in the thousands before the end of our first year.

You can learn more about us by browsing around our website, where you can also link to our Twitter and Facebook pages. We hope to see your work soon. If you have any additional questions that were not answered in this email, please write to me at dan@raglitmag.com. We thank you for your interest and support."