MARY magazine..Legit?

[DMW]

Just recieved a Private Msg from..

Sounja Gilespie of MARY magazine. Wanting Christian writers for the magazine.

She/He is a member, but not gold or sliver, with no articles etc. on file.

Offering $25 per 1000 words

Is this legit? Or another scam?

[Deb Porter]

Hi Donna. I don't know anything about this magazine, but it could be a new one.

The best approach is to ask for more information. Ask where you could find a copy of their magazine or whether it's an e-zine. Ask her what type of content she is looking for.

I'm pretty sure it's not the Mary: Literary Magazine I found in a search (yikes!). However, Sounja is listed on Linked-in as the editor of Mary! Magazine. So either it doesn't have much of an on-line presence yet, or it's a relatively new publication.

Certainly worth asking some questions, and there's no harm doing that. I doubt it's a scam, as anyone can go to the free reprints section if they want material for their magazine (without paying a cent). It's probably legitimate, but the main thing is whether the platform of the magazine is one that fits your writing. So ask away, and let us know how it turns out.

Love, Deb

[Deb Porter]

Ah ... here we go. I found a little press release about it here:

http://www.magcloud.com/browse/Magazine/97855

And here's more about Sounja and the magazine:

http://www.wix.com/sgillespie2362/marym ... the-editor

So there is a website for it, but it doesn't have its own domain, which is why it was a little harder to find.

From the Editor's page above, you can click on other links to read more.

Hope that helps. It appears to be a legitimate attempt to launch a magazine. If she hasn't already got it off the ground, I wish her well.

Love, Deb

[DMW]

Thank you Deb,

Is $25 for 1000 words normal? That's not much bigger than our Challenge entries.

Thanks for the tip...I will contact her and get as much info as I can...

[Deb Porter]

Hang on ... whoa!!!!

Did you say $25 for a THOUSAND pages? Did you mean a thousand words? (Somebody re-start my heart!)

If words, then that's fairly reasonable for a relatively unknown magazine. A lot of them can't afford to pay anything, so it's really nice that this lady is obviously trying to reward the laborers for their efforts.

Love, Deb

[Deb Porter]

LOL ... were my eyes playing trick on me, or did you go back and edit that.

Okay, $25 for a 1,000 words is pretty good, as mentioned above.

Love, Deb

[Deb Porter]

Just noticed a message has been posted on the boards about Sounja's call for writers. It's come via FaithWriters, so she has obviously been putting the call out. No harm in giving it a try.

viewtopic.php?f=25&t=34685

In fact, it could be very encouraging for you.

Love, Deb

[DMW]

Didnt mean to stop your heart
Yes I changed it ...lol

[PureJoy]

Deb, I sent back an inquiry to Sounja as well asking for some additional information. I sent links to some of my articles online so that she'd have some different writing samples. I couldn't get a good sense of what she needed so I asked for any writer's guidelines or theme lists.

We'll see what comes back. But I did check this particular board as well.

[Deb Porter]

Karen, if you get some clear guidelines and themes/topics, please feel free to share them here. We'd probably be all interested.

Love, Deb

[PureJoy]

I let you know what I receive. I tried very hard to find an online presence and didn't find anything more that what you posted, Deb. It sounds interesting, though.

[Deb Porter]

I got the impression she is just getting it off the ground. If she succeeds, it may be quite good. It's a difficult market to break into though.

Love, Deb

[PureJoy]

FYI: I did receive a quick and nice response last week from Sounja stating that they would contact me if I was "selected for an interview".