"Narrative Magazine Is Our Fault" by Mike Meginnis

Above: a screen cap from their tax files, link here, that that shows what Narrative pays its founders a six figure salary. 


Mike Meginnis writes an expose of the online magazine Narrative in his "Narrative Magazine Is Our Fault" article at Medium.

My take:

I know a little. I know the cartoon bit.

They buy cartoons. They have a POP policy. That's Pay on Publication, as you may know. It's a despised policy. Most publications are POA (Pay On Acceptance). I know of cartoonists who have waited months and months for their cartoon to run at the Narrative. And the payment is $35 per cartoon. But not for everyone. It's a sliding scale and cartoonists can get up to $150-200 a cartoon. I don't know what the scale is based on. It's not at all the usual editorial policy, but it's their online magazine.

According to this article, Narrative is a nonprofit. It's exempt from taxes due to its religious status. Yes. Go read.

They have a fee for writers who submit. It costs $23 to send them something that you wrote. A lot of places are now charging fees. A lot of places charge about $3. Narrative is now selling a guide for writers, and asking $225 a copy.

And people pay. 

There's one born every minute.