Subscribe to the Scorched Ink newsletter to keep track of submission calls, new issues, and other news involving the magazine. (We promise not to spam you; we doubt we'll send more than one or two e-mails a month, unless it's the last two weeks before the final deadline; you may get a few reminders then.)

Q. First, the big one: does Scorched Ink pay?

A. Yes, though payment is entirely variable and your royalties depend on the sales of the issue that your story was published in.

Q. How is payment determined?

A. Every month we tally up the sales for each issue, subtract the production costs of the magazines, and then divide the remaining profits in a 60/40 split. 60% is retained by Scorched Ink to cover operational and production costs, while the remaining 40% is distributed evenly among contributing authors. For example: Say in January of 2009, we sell three issues of the June 2008 magazine and five issues of the December 2008 magazine, with six authors featured in the December issue and eight featured in the June issue. If each issue sells at $6.00 apiece, then that's $48.00. Subtract a $5.53 production cost per magazine times eight, and that leaves $3.76. Split that between the numbers sold of the two issues, and that means $1.41 in profit on the December 2008 issues, and $2.35 in profit on the June 2008 issues. Cut out 60% of each, and that leaves 56.4 cents of the author share for December, and 94 cents for the author share for June. Divide the December share by six, and each author in the December issue gets 9.4 cents for the month of July. Divide the June share by eight, and each author in the June issue gets 11.75 cents for the month of July. Rinse and repeat with the sales from each month.

Of course, that's small-scale, and we hope we'll sell more than eight issues per month, meaning that the author cut each month would be larger than a few pennies.

Q. So...we only get paid if you get paid.

A. Yep, which is pretty fair--and which is why the more people you tell about Scorched Ink, the better it works out for you. If you tell your family and friends and they buy issues of the magazine to see you in print or just because they like literary magazines, then you get a cut of the profit from every issue they buy.

Q. Do you pay an advance?

A. Nope. You get paid for every issue sold.

Q. When and how is payment remitted?

A. We pay every six months via PayPal, 1-3 business days after the last date in the calendar month, every June and December. You must provide us with a valid PayPal e-mail or we cannot pay you. All payment is in U.S. dollars.

Q. Can't you just send me a check or money order?

A. Nope. PayPal only.

Q. So I'll keep getting a royalty payment on the issue I was published in for the rest of my life?

A. No, not for the rest of your life; only for the first five years after the date of publication, after which all future royalties revert to Scorched Ink. That's still 10 payments. That will only change if (a) you voluntarily revoke your right to payment with a written and signed statement, for whatever reason you might have, or (b) the issue that you were published in is removed from publication and distribution, meaning no more sales.

Q. Does it cost money to submit or publish with Scorched Ink?

A. Not a dime. We barely make enough money to break even ourselves; it wouldn't be fair to charge, now would it? If you submit and you're rejected, you pay nothing. If you submit and you're accepted, you still pay nothing; you get a free copy of the issue that you've been published in, so you don't have to spend money to see yourself. The only thing you'd ever have to pay for on this site is 1. issues of the magazine that you weren't published in, 2. more than one issue of the one you were published in, or 3. ad space. If anyone ever contacts you claiming to be from Scorched Ink and asks you to pay a submission fee, they're trying to scam you.

Q. What genres of fiction do you publish?

A. We prefer sci-fi and fantasy, especially if it leans towards the dystopian, but everything gets a fair chance. If it's a good story that we enjoy, it's probably got a good chance regardless of genre. Genre-blenders are also quite welcome.

Q. Do you accept fanfiction?

A. We accept original fiction only. Fanfiction is kind of a grey area involving copyright infringement, where sometimes it's all right if the copyright owner is all right with it and sometime's its a big no-no. We'd rather not run the risk of publishing something involving copyrighted characters belonging to someone other than the author of the piece. It's just not smart.

Q. What about nonfiction?

A. Nope. Fiction, plain and simple. Your autobiography, your friend's biography, or your technical guide on how to roll a perfect d20 every time will have to go somewhere else.

Q. Can I submit my poetry?

A. No. We really, really don't like reading poetry. Nothing personal, but this magazine is an anthology of short stories only. There are plenty of fine, reputable publications that will happily welcome your poetry. In our case, poetry takes up a lot of space for very little content on very expensive pages, so we'd rather not publish it.

Q. How do you feel about gay and lesbian fiction?

A. We're cool with it. Gay, lesbian, transgender, bisexual, etc. - we accept just about anything here. This isn't an erotica magazine, so if your story is just to highlight people of the same sex bumpin' uglies then this may not be the place for it, but we've got no problems with characters and storylines revolving around orientations beyond the hetero.

Q. ...furry fiction?

A. As...long as it's not yiff fiction. If you know what yiff is, then you know quite well why we won't be accepting it. Furries fall under the category of anthropomorphic fiction, and can be a legitimate part of a fantasy or science fiction story.

Q. What about art?

A. The only art submissions that we accept are for cover art. If you're interested in producing cover art for an issue of Scorched Ink, please e-mail editor@scorchedink.com with your inquiry.

Q. How do you pay cover artists?

A. Payment for cover art is negotiated on an individual basis with the artist.

Q. Do you accept stories from authors outside the U.S.?

A. Only if they're written in clear, passable English.

Q. I've submitted a story. How long should I wait to hear a response?

A. Give it about a week or so. If an editor hasn't had time to review your story within a week, someone will contact you to let you know it's still pending.

Q. Why was my story rejected?

A. Any number of reasons. It may have been too long, may have been too short, may not have been of acceptable quality, or may have contained content that we felt didn't suit the publication. Generally, if your story isn't accepted, you'll receive a personal letter explaining why as well as an invitation to resubmit if you'd like to work on the piece to improve it.

Q. Does that mean my story will be rejected for graphic/adult content?

A. Not necessarily. If the graphic/adult content has a purpose within the story, then it will be considered overall as part of the story's merits and may well contribute to its acceptance. If it's just done for the sake of shock value or to see what you can get away with in print, then yes, it probably will be rejected.

Q. What if my story was only rejected because the submissions for the current issue are already full?

A. You're perfectly welcome to submit it again when submissions open for the next issue; if it was an exceptionally good story, the editors may keep it earmarked for the next issue anyway, or as an emergency fallback if one of the other submissions flakes out. If you resubmit, please make sure to mark it as a resubmission when you e-mail us.

Q. If you reject my story for X reasons but invite me to resubmit if I correct the problem areas, does that mean I'm accepted?

A. No; it means we thought your story had promise, but needed work. If you revise the story and resubmit it (please mark it as a resubmission), it will be reconsidered on its original merits plus the revisions. If it's improved enough to be acceptable, then congratulations, as long as there's space for it in the current issue. Resubmissions are still subject to the same deadline as first submissions.

Q. My story was accepted. What now?

A. We'll send you a contract agreement outlining what rights we have as a publisher, stating your retention of copyright while giving us permission to print and distribute your work with exclusivity for six months. (Sample contract.) We'll send two copies of the contract, both signed and dated by someone here at Scorched Ink; you'll sign and date both, keep one, and send the other back in the SASE that we'll include in the mailing. You'll be given a deadline to get the contract back to us via snail-mail. If you don't get it back to us in time, your story will be bumped for one of the back-burner submissions. Once you return the signed contract to us, we'll need a brief (one-paragraph) author blurb about you, written in third-person. The blurb is optional, as is an accompanying photo. Other than that, just sit back, relax, and wait for your magazine in the mail.

Q. Do you accept snail-mail submissions?

A. Please, no. The entire magazine is prepared digitally, and we are not typing your story into the computer for you. E-mail only, unless you'd like to upload it somewhere and make it available for download.

Q. Do you edit the stories before they're published?

A. Minimally. We're not going to cut any scenes and we won't fix your grammar (if we need to do that, your story probably won't be accepted), but we will edit for typos and other minor things to ensure that they fit the layout and design of the magazine.

Q. If I want to submit my story elsewhere, does printing in Scorched Ink count as first publication?

A. If it's the first place it's been published, yes. It's printed, bound, distributed for sale, and you earn money from it, so it's officially published.

Q. How is Scorched Ink published and purchased?

A. We take advantage of Lulu.com's services, and upload the magazine for print-on-demand production. The base price is set by Lulu.com, and right now we barely add a few cents on top of the base price (and that's all the money we see for each sale). Customers order through Lulu, and pay shipping through them as well (we recommend the flat media rate; it's slower, but it's a lot cheaper) and they print up a copy and send it. Should there become a large demand for the magazine, then we'll invest in buying in bulk at a discounted rate, either from Lulu or another printer, and then distributing them ourselves.

Q. Why only publish bi-annually?

A. Partially because the editors have other jobs and many time constraints, and partially due to content availability. Should we receive enough submissions and enough interest, we may switch to quarterly publication.

Q. Will you ever republish stories in a larger, hardbound anthology?

A. Possibly. If that happens, we will discuss payment and contracts with the authors to be included in the anthology.