So yesterday I went to submit to Versal, who last year had given me an encouraging note suggesting I submit again, and discovered that like The Los Angeles Review, they too have instituted a reading fee (theirs is $2 compared to LAR's $3). Then I found that the staff at Versal have been discussing their new policy on their blog (post quoted below by Megan M. Garr) and have analyzed their submission post-policy as follows:
1. "Overall, submissions were down 39%...And though it's impossible to pin down the exact cause of the lower submissions, we strongly suspect the lower numbers were due to Duotrope's no-fee policy: that it will not list journals that charge fees. The numbers support this hunch: we received a major boost during our Free Week in October, when Duotrope listed us as open, and another large deluge starting Friday, January 13 when Duotrope changed its listing policy (what brought about its change of heart?) and Versal was again listed as an open market."
2. I also found out how they plan to use a portion of the fee-generated funds: "220 writers and artists chose to add an additional $1 to their submission fee, which will be matched by Versal and the total funds divided equally among all contributors to the new issue. As we've stated elsewhere, this is our small but important step towards paying the people who make Versal great. Total donations from writers and artists: $220; total matched funds from Versal: $220; total funds to be equally divided among our contributors: $440."
This explanation makes me feel a little better about the whole fee thing, which I was feeling conflicted about before (see the LAR fee post linked above). What do you think?
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