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Chicken Soup for the Soul

edited August 2013 in - Writing Tales
I saw the ad for this on the front page of Writer's Online, so I went to have a look at the details for submissions.
'If the story or poem you wrote is published by us, you will be paid $200 upon publication of the book plus you will receive ten free copies of the book your story or poem appears in.'
All well and good. But a little further on:
'It can take up to three or four years for Chicken Soup for the Soul books to develop. Please be patient, as this is an important, yet time-consuming process.'
Patient? You have to wait 3 or 4 years to be paid, if you are paid on publication.
On mature reflection, I shall not be sending my catty tale into limbo for that length of time.

Comments

  • Does it remain your copyright? I often wonder this as Chicken soup for the soul stuff is always being reprinted, particularly ina 'newspaper' sent out by our Christian carpet cleaner. He sends out a tract which I immediately bin well recycle, but have noticed that on the front page there is often something from chicken soup for the soul.
  • [quote=Liz]our Christian carpet cleaner. [/quote]

    Is that like a Vax or a Dyson?

    At 77 I probably can't afford to wait four years for a decision. I'll give it a miss.
  • LOL!

    He is a man. But also a Christian.

    His tract newspapers are part advert, part Christian rubbish, part teeth-grindingly sickly stories about life-lessons learned via Chicken Soup publications.
  • I have one of the books on my shelf, I pick it up now and then (more then).
  • When I saw the title, I thought you mean REAL chicken soup, cos my late Russian Grandmother made wonderful chicken soup, and-of course- beetroot soup, known as Borsch.
  • You can't beat a good soup, toothlight! I'm about to lunch on home-made soupe a la pistou - got Mr Bear to beat the crap out of garlic, fresh-picked basil and olive oil for me. Wonderful stuff!
  • Ooooh, recipe please! (I also love chicken soup.)
  • edited August 2013
    Okay, Liz, since you ask:
    Saut
  • Thank you! We have lost of French beans in the garden, so this is well-timed!
  • Liz, your carpet man might be copying the stories without permission. Some people seem to think that's OK if they say where they got it from instead of passing it off as their own. (I had to tell my horticultural society that they really shouldn't be copying things out of gardening books without permission even if they were crediting the source in the newsletter.)
  • I bought an old edition of Chicken Soup for the Soul in a charity shop. Some - a very few - tales were well written and entertaining, but - dare I say it - I found the vast majority to be awful American over-sentimentalised 'schmaltz'. Not my sort of thing at all!
  • I thought the original book was non-fiction. I remember reading it years ago.
  • I think they are all meant to be non-fiction, but there is nothing I hate more than hearing tales like someone saying God has 'spared' them and helped them recover etc, when others have died. It's just so... horrible.
  • Don't remember anything like that - just acts of kindness - nothing to do with God.
  • Yes, there are different ones!
  • I remember seeing a number mentioned in WN in past years.
  • The edition I read had lots of stories that were god-related. Have to agree with Liz - some of them were so self-righteous.
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