Consternation has broken out in the Irish literary community with news breaking last night of Dublin independent publishing house Liberties Press instituting a €100 reading fee for authors’ manuscripts.
Liberties boss Seán O’Keeffe plays it off as covering costs and maintaining standards in this piece in the Irish Times.
“They are, of course, free not to send material our way. However, we have a hard-earned reputation as an innovative and successful publisher, and we believe that in a few years, this will be standard practice among publishers.
We receive hundreds of unsolicited submissions every year, and if this policy results in the number declining, that will be no bad thing.
We hope it will encourage authors to think carefully before submitting material to us, and to value the work we do.”
Irish lit Twitter is, of course, apoplectic. Writer and founder of Gorse.ie, Susan Tomaselli has been vocal since the story broke last night.
1/ “Ireland’s leading independent publisher” will be charging writers €100 to read manuscripts: https://t.co/twWMhhQgzA #libertiespress
— Susan Tomaselli (@STomaselli) October 7, 2016
2/ Problematic on a number of levels, not least because they don’t pay their published writers. #libertiespress
— Susan Tomaselli (@STomaselli) October 7, 2016
Writer Thomas Morris, currently of Faber Books, has his carefully-measured thoughts on the matter:
1. I think there is a fair model to be had where independent publishers could charge a fee for manuscript assessment/book reports.
— Thomas Morris (@tolmorris) October 6, 2016
2. It should, however, be in addition to the ordinary submissions route, which should remain free of charge.
— Thomas Morris (@tolmorris) October 6, 2016
3. The publisher could charge for a report and promise a yes/no response within a timeframe that’s quicker than the traditional route.
— Thomas Morris (@tolmorris) October 6, 2016
4. The fees raised should be used to pay the people writing the assessments – in most cases in Ireland, these people are unpaid interns.
— Thomas Morris (@tolmorris) October 6, 2016
5. Having said all this: I think such a model only works where a) the book reports are of quality, and b…
— Thomas Morris (@tolmorris) October 6, 2016
6. THE PUBLISHERS ARE DECENT PEOPLE AND PAY THEIR FUCKING WRITERS.
— Thomas Morris (@tolmorris) October 6, 2016
7. Sean O’Keefe operates in the same realm as Donald Trump – a land where he believes he can ride roughshod over everyone & everything.
— Thomas Morris (@tolmorris) October 6, 2016
8. Including staff, printers, freelance designers, his writers, and most statements of fact.
— Thomas Morris (@tolmorris) October 6, 2016
FIGHT!
Publisher takes Liberties (Irish Times)
I don’t like this guy Sean O’Keefe
He seems a harbinger of grief
He should visit his neighbours
The place they call Fabers
And from their book take out a leaf
Nice!
What do they mean by he doesn’t pay the writers? How does he get away with that?
*hollow laugh*
I don’t know the details here, but there are enough horror stories and cautionary tlaes about publishers not paying writers to give anyone the blues.
excellent response from Thomas Morris
They don’t pay their writers?
At all? How does that work?
If you’re a writer NEVER pay a publisher NEVER pay an agent.
Obviously they are free to charge this and you are free to pay them, and there are legitimate reading and editing services out there that do charge and give value for money, but when it comes to publishers and agents – money flows to the writer. What little money there is, making this even more of a sad, exploitative practice joke. A publisher or agent who charges you to read your work is not primarily interested in representing you or publishing you, they are interested in your money. They are almost certainly a scam, so at best this is a business model based on a scam, legitimising a scam as a business model. Reading manuscripts by hopeful authors is THEIR JOB and the writer is not employing them to do this, the publishing house or the agency they work for is. Nothing illegal about this, but it is dubious and unethical and, frankly, and unpleasant precedent for others to do the same, making it more difficult to distinguish the scams from the real publishers/agencies. There are a lot of people trying to get published out there and a lot of people preying on them. This is one more.
+1 for any art. never pay to play
Thank you so much for raising this!
Charging people to submit is one thing, but will these people be reimbursed if they are signed by Liberties Press?
This, by the way, is the same guy that published that disturbing memoir that turned out to have been originally written as a novel – argh, bits of it were read out on morning radio as factual, if I remember right:
http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/publisher-takes-liberties-by-charging-writers-100-per-manuscript-1.2818089
The was a strange and unsavoury episode. I’ve never seen anything that was so clearly written with one hand.
(OK, maybe Don Quixote.)
Oh Ok I am actually so mad about this (I am a writer, in case you hadn’t guessed).
ART IS NOT A LEISURE ACTIVITY. ART IS NOT A TREAT I GIVE MYSELF. ART IS THE VERY ESSENCE OF OUR HUMAN CONDITION IT IS THE ONE SOURCE OF CONSTANT HONEST INVESTED SUBVERSIVE RISKY COMMENT, INTERROGATION, EXPRESSION, VULNERABILITY ETC. ETC. ETC.
WITHOUT ART WE LOSE OUR HUMANITY.
HENCE THE DECIMATION OF ART AS A WAY OF LIFE BY CAPITALISM.
Hence the heinous inhuman disgusting idea that a writer should pay to find an audience, to be represented by what is in fact NOT a high-end or well-paying publisher. Hence the idea that writers should please for and justify their very existence as something other than 9-to-five embittered wage slaves.
This kind of carry-on has decimated academic writing and driven intelligent people who are not independently wealthy out of academia. It proposes to do the same with creative writing. It is morally wrong.
Also props to Susan Tomaselli, she is a lady and a force for terrific writing in this country, and also Thomas Morris, who was until recently at the helm of the terrific Stinging Fly.
I think your caps lock is sticking.
It’s ART
Where’s your humanity
Irish fiction is becoming an amateur pursuit in the same way Irish theatre has, almost all young actors work for free nowadays, some are even paying casting agents indirectly to be seen for auditions. The sad thing is budding writers will find the 100 euros somewhere and Liberties Press will set the standard.
I’d write some really tedious nonsense with atrocious spelling and grammar and then pay them €100 to make them read it.
Even better. I’d just download some rubbish script off the internet, do a find change on random words to really melt their heads and send them that.
Tedious nonsense with atrocious spelling and grammar? If only there were some place you could find that of a Friday.
Ooooh! Haha
I thought everyone was self publishing through Amazon, these days.
I’ve opened a kickstarter to raise €100 so I can copy paste all Frilly Keane’s “columns” and send them to this O’Keefe man. That’ll learn him. Doubt he’ll be able to manage even a coherent tweet after that.
Count me in!
Sorry lads
Too late
I’m tied up
Niamh – so all people who work 9-5 are “embittered wage slaves”? And you as a writer are so much better than them? Get off the stage.
Writers work 9-5. Or more likely 5am-9pm.
Agree. Niamh is so up her own bottom. Any person, writer included, who thinks themselves above any one else, cannot claim to speak for humanity, or write for humanity for that matter.