Ripe Magazine

[angelahoy]

This pub not only insults writers by not paying, but they charge $10 per submission! What a joke!! Please email info@ripemagazine.com to tell them how you feel about this horrible practice. Hey, if you can't afford to pay writers, and you have to charge them just to stay in business, you're a horrible business owner and you need to go get a real job.

Angela Hoy
WritersWeekly.com

[Krupp]

Ahahaha....and we're having gripes with people who only write for free......ohh deary me, I'll email them so.

[Krupp]

Got a reply, see what you make of this:

[Lori W]

Surely she's joking! No one makes money? Gee, who gets the cash the advertisers cough up? Who gets the ten bucks per? If she's not making any money, it's because no one is gullible enough to fall for her scheme.

I've heard it all now!

[ridexc]

Must be the Tuesday after a holiday Monday, because I'm much more interested in getting my back up over something like this than I am in actually getting back to work. <G>

Anyone take a look at the RIPEmagazine website? It's full of rhetoric like how they are "inviting" writers and photographers the chance to "cash in on the opportunity" to be published in their rag. Gee, wonder where the cash part comes in? And their portfolio page has only two -- count 'em, two -- photographers featured. No writers of any kind.

I also like that there's absolutely no explanation of how they "market RiPE to the Publishing,Advertising, Design, Visual Art communities, and Photography & Writing communities in BC" or what, exactly, that might entail. (They leave a stack of copies on the front desk at the Vancouver Art Gallery, maybe? Wow. Hold me back.)

This is what I sent their editor:

*********
Dear Ms. Neely,

As a full-time freelance writer, I feel compelled to comment about the policy of your publication, RIPE, to charge contributors to have their content appear. Like many others you've heard from by now, I find the policy insulting and your reasoning flawed.

You've no doubt discovered that your recent e-mail to Aaron McKenna was posted on WritersWeekly's "Whispers and Warnings" bulletin board. Well, here's my take on your 'explanation': In nearly 20 years of freelancing, I have never once had an editor clamour to pay me for my work after seeing it in a non-paying publication. At best, such an editor would assume that because I had been paid nothing for the use of my material in your publication, I was obviously not seeking renumeration -- and my work was not worth any. At worst, many small-time editors might assume my content was free for the stealing based on its appearance in something like RIPE.

Publications which don't pay always use the excuse of "exposure" for their policy. It's as if you're doing us all a huge, fat favour. Sorry -- if I want "exposure" I can always pin my articles to a bulletin board at the laundromat. Won't cost me a cent. I can put up my own website for mere pennies, with all of the contact info an editor could possibly use. I can go put flyers on the windshields at Transcontinental Media.

That you've gone past the point of being a no-pay to actually charging newbies for their vanity is ... well, it's offensive and reprehensible.

Please consider that a professional writer or photographer, whether new to the profession or an old soldier like me, is a tradesperson/artist with skills that are worth renumeration -- always. Just like your layout person, your printer, your graphics team ... or your plumber. Or do you offer your plumber the unparalleled opportunity to do your work for free, promising in return that you'll put a sign on your lawn to give him "exposure"?

You claim "no-one (on your staff) makes any money" -- yet you obviously charge your advertisers, and that $10 per writer or photographer (for those foolish, untalented, or desperate enough to pay it) must be going somewhere. I can only hope that if you're making no money, it's because there's no contributor gullible enough to fall for this scheme, and few advertisers willing to support it.

Sincerely,
Karen Briggs.
_________________
If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning.
- Catherine Aird

[denverd0n]

This magazine is playing on the basic misinformation that exists out there about what clips do for you. This misinformation is also the foundation of most of the debate about writing for free.

The Myth: You need published clips to prove that you're a "real" writer. You can't get writing jobs that pay until you have clips, so it is necessary to start out writing for free.

The Truth: No editor judges your ability to fill his or her needs by looking at your clips. They judge your ability by READING your clips! They don't care where or how many times you've been publised. That doesn't impress them. The ONLY thing that impresses them is your ability to WRITE, and that is the ONLY thing they are judging when they read your clips!

I just don't understand why this is so hard for so many writers to understand. If we writers would stop perpetuating the myth then the cheapskate publishers wouldn't find it so pathetically easy to sell that same myth to the newbies! (And in the case of Ripe Magazine the word "sell" applies quite literally!)

[Keziah]

I checked out Ripe's website and was thoroughly saddened that Stephen Osborne (publisher of Geist Magazine and 2003 recipient of a National Magazine Award) was on the writers panel. Here is the letter I sent to him today at Geist:

Dear Stephen,

I have always been a huge admirer of your work and of Geist. I watched with pride your acceptance of the NMA award this year. I am on the Board of Directors of The New Quarterly (NMA Gold Medal Poetry 2003) but am not writing this note in an official capacity.

I have reviewed the website of Ripe Magazine and have noted that you are on the writing panel. I was horrified to learn that the magazine CHARGES money for submissions. The official explanation is that the website is run by volunteers and provides huge exposure to BC writers and photographers.

As I'm sure you're quite aware, many, if not most, magazines in Canada are run by volunteers but manage enough fundraising, advertising, and grant-garnering activities to fund the costs of printing. Ripe is online and does not even have the burden of printing costs. It seems wholly unnecessary and quite distasteful to try to fund the website on the backs of writers trying to scratch out enough coin to pay for rent, food, and the occasional ream of paper.

I am saddened that you have loaned your name to this publication and I hope that writers have enough common sense to continue to promote and sell their work to legitimate magazines for money.

Sincerely,

Angie Mohr

[ad agent]

I'm a copywriter at an ad agency. We get promotional magazines/books all the time, most of which charge their contributors.

Think of it this way: You're not paying to be published, you're paying to advertise. And when you look at the fee of $10, or even $1000, compared to the cost of mass-producing, and distributing, your own portfolio, it begins to seem like a bargain.

I'm sure the publishers of most of these magazines make money. Why shouldn't they? It's a business. But with a $10 submission fee, plus whatever local advertisers are willing to pay, it's entirely believable that Ripe doesn't make anything after production costs.

I will say, though, that I've never seen one of these magazines that features writers. They're pretty much all photographers, designers, artists, and illustrators. So does it make sense to submit something? Maybe if you're a copywriter and you've got a piece that really looks great. Otherwise, probably not.

These publications have their value if you take them for what they are.

[jrnymnjay]

denverd0n, thank you so much for this little myth-busting lesson.
I have always heard of the "you need clips" issue--but you are the one who made it click for me. The effective factor of clips isn't that the work has been published, but that it demonstrates to the editor/publisher what your abilities are.
You've made the 'eureka' moment of my week!
Jay

[logan]

We are often bombarded by claims of success in breaking into the writing market. Let's be frank: Selling ones work is a mammoth task. I know of writers- excellent writers- that threw in the towel after failing to convince publishers that their work is worthy of finding a place in books and magazines. I once had an interview with an editor of a magazine.
He started the interview well, hurling words of praise at me for my writing. As the interview progress I realized that he was interested in making for the company at my expense. He used these words ad nauseum: "You realize that you could make several thousands or even millions within a year. How could you reject our offer? We would go all the way with you."

He wanted to offer my submission to others in the market( for a "small" fee ,of course).
Had I accepted his offer and paid all the charges, I would have had to sleep in an old abandoned car close to a creek.

A word of advice: If somebody claims to have made fantastic money,ask the person for the names of the books/magazines etc. published.

L.N.

[Whistler]

They're posting a call for writers again. $10 plus getting past 2 out of 3 on the panel will get you published.
_________________
Horseback riding is life, the rest is just details.