I found a website that shows it's pay rate at about 1/4 a word (darkmarkets) I have no idea if this is a good price or not. I am very new to writing so I am not expecting then to throw bags of money at me but I also do not want to spend time with these sites if this is a very low rate, even for beginners. Not the money is my main motivation but I guess I just wanted to know more about sites like this and if anyone has any experience with them. On a side note, for those of you who are published, how long did it take to get published once you started submitting your work?
A quarter-cent a word may as well be zero, so if you want to be published, and don't care about being compensated, go ahead and submit to them. The going rate for the well-known paper science fiction magazines (and Daily Science Fiction) is eight cents a word.
Pay ranges go from no compensation or a contributor copy to $0.25 + per word. Some markets pay a flat rate per story (usually from five to fifty dollars). The general theory is to submit to markets that pay the best and work your way down. Now, if it's a unique story with only niche markets, then you may not have as many options. there are sites like Duotrope that list markets but also charge a monthly fee. There's Ralan.com which is free and gets you a good list of fantasy/SF and horror markets. If you write mysteries, you might check out the website for the Short Mystery Fiction Society for magazines/ezines/anthologies. It'll take some research on your part, but will probably be worth the time. Follow the guidelines for submission and keep track of when you submitted a story and where. There's a lot of competition, but good stories generally find homes. I don't remember how long it took to sell my first short story, but I had to send it to several markets. Oh, and be sure to read the contract before signing, and remember that there are also markets that take reprints, so once you sell it and the rights are reverted to you, you can try to find another home for the story. Good luck.
It took about 6 months to sell my first writing. You can try with that web-site in order to be to be published even without any compensation.
