The Escapist has much wisdom, so I present my case to you:
I'm a writer in college. I've just started sending stuff out for publication, but then I ran into a dilemma. My university has a publication where they accept short stories such as mine. As I see it, I'm thinking, well, duh, of course I want to send them stuff. I should want to be recognized by my own university. But here are the problems:
The story has to be 1200 words or less. That's a joke. Most professional publications won't take anything under 3000 words.
There is no pay involved.
They take full rights to anything I submit. Most professional publications only take first time rights, but these guys take full rights.
The advantage here is that I'm practically a shoe-in. I already have a pair of pieces I'm ready to send, but I'm not so sure. I'm not so sure I want to give them full rights to my stuff for no pay.
Then again, it's publication at my own university.
So, I ask of you... in my shoes, what would you do?
Addendum:
In case you were wondering, I'd be sending shortened versions of these two stories:
http://www.storyaweek.org/2010/07/week-sixteen-god-chair.html
http://www.storyaweek.org/2010/04/week-3-monarch.html
I'm a writer in college. I've just started sending stuff out for publication, but then I ran into a dilemma. My university has a publication where they accept short stories such as mine. As I see it, I'm thinking, well, duh, of course I want to send them stuff. I should want to be recognized by my own university. But here are the problems:
The story has to be 1200 words or less. That's a joke. Most professional publications won't take anything under 3000 words.
There is no pay involved.
They take full rights to anything I submit. Most professional publications only take first time rights, but these guys take full rights.
The advantage here is that I'm practically a shoe-in. I already have a pair of pieces I'm ready to send, but I'm not so sure. I'm not so sure I want to give them full rights to my stuff for no pay.
Then again, it's publication at my own university.
So, I ask of you... in my shoes, what would you do?
Addendum:
In case you were wondering, I'd be sending shortened versions of these two stories:
http://www.storyaweek.org/2010/07/week-sixteen-god-chair.html
http://www.storyaweek.org/2010/04/week-3-monarch.html