Writer’s Digest Contests Lament

I have watched with dismay over the years as the once trustworthy and noble Writer's Digest has become a thin shell of what it used to be.    WD seems to have completely shunned any sense of integrity or regard for what is in the best interest of writers in exchange for easy money.  Like the hundreds of scam artists that have sprung up on the internet promising "exposure" to unsuspecting writers, WD has become a contest magazine, not a writing magazine.

Check out WD's current list of writing contests.  Just about every one of them is sponsored by a self-publishing or print-on-demand company.  The message is clear:  if you want to get published today, you have to pay to play.  It is, of course, a false message, but one that nonetheless resonates with countless desperate writers that want to find their big break. 

Start with the poetry contest.  The entry fee is $10 for the first poem, and $5 for each additional poem.  Like all WD contests, they promise a huge list of winners.  First through tenth place get cash prizes.  11th through 25th get gift certificates good toward WD books.  On the surface, not all that bad.  But read the fine print.

3. All entries must be in English, original, unpublished, and not submitted elsewhere at the time of submission. "Unpublished" means poems may not have appeared in print or on the Internet for public consumption (i.e., poems posted on a public forum or on your Web site may not be entered). Writer's Digest reserves the one-time publication rights to the 1st through 50th-place winning entries to be published in a Writer's Digest publication, on Writer's Digest's Web site or in other digital materials.

What that means, my friends, is that you are PAYING THEM for the right to destroy your first time publication rights to your work.  26th through 50th place have to not only cough up the reading fee, but give away their first publication rights for nothing.  You don't even get a copy of the book...unless, of course, you buy it. 

Every contest now seems geared at pushing writers toward self-publishing.  All of the first place winners, for example, get the option of selecting a free self-publishing package from the sponsor instead of the cash prize.  And of course, they will assuredly try to push the winners into taking the self-publishing packages INSTEAD of the cash, because almost all of these services are ridiculously overpriced and therefore have inflated value.  For example, the short story competition, sponsored by Trafford Publishing, has a first prize of $3,000, but you get the option of selecting their "Best Seller Publishing package" instead.  Well, the Best Seller Publishing Package, according to their website, is $1,597.  For that price, you get an ISBN, library cataloging (I assume this means a Library of Congress Number), and listing with "major" distributors.

Now here is the thing...you can buy a lot of ten ISBNs directly from Bowkers for just under $300.  They now sell individual ISBNs for $150.  You can get a Library of Congress control number FREE once you register as a publisher of record (which is also free).  The major distributors are Ingrams and LSI, because LSI handles almost all of the POD printing for the known world and is owned by Ingrams.  And setting up directly with LSI costs practically nothing (though it can be time consuming and requires a bit of techno-savvy).

In short, their special package is a huge rip-off.

Now let's be clear.  I have no problem with print-on-demand technology.  I use it for Bards and Sages (we print with both Lulu.com and Createspace).  I support print-on-demand technology because it reduces waste and saves trees.  BUT, there is a difference between a publisher employing POD technology to control costs and limit waste and a vanity press milking authors of their money.

WD has sold its soul to the vanity press industry, giving them blanket access to the writers that trust WD to give them real-world advice.  Just about every page of WD's website now has an ad for one or more vanity press services.  Frankly, the notion that WD accepts so much money from vanity presses makes about as much sense as a doctor's office allowing McDonald's to place ads in the waiting room and hand out coupons for Big Macs.  They are doing a disservice to the very writers they are suppose to help.

There was a time when WD would not even accept a contest listing that involved a reading fee.  But now they happily allow vanity presses to sponsor contests that can end up costing writers thousands of dollars if fees and inflated services.  Considering that almost all of the contests include "special discounts" toward services for the writers entering, it is obvious that all of these contests are nothing more than opportunities to build mailing lists that can be used to market overpriced self-publishing services. 

I find it pathetic.