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I feel like I need to disrupt the narrative that poorer publications that can't afford to pay are "exploiting" their submitters. A thread:
I would like those that are saying this to examine their circumstances and recognize their privileges. A lot of poorer pubs are run by marginalized people who were shut out from other publications that ran as if white, cis, het, abled, etc perspectives were the only "taste."
They created avenues for people like themselves to be published and get their work out, paying for everything themselves when they didn't have much. I speak from experience here. We would LOVE to pay our submitters, and that's always been our goal. But how do we get there?
How do you get there when you don't have generational wealth? When you don't have access to people with generational wealth? Be honest about where the money comes from. Did it come all from you or did you have help? Did you have access? Did you have living expenses covered?
If you also didn't have generational wealth or investors with it (which poorer people tend not to know any one with wealth who has the same values and will hand that over, btw), SHARE how you got there. Don't just look down your nose and refer to us as "exploiters!"
If you are a marginalized person who put together an avenue and volunteers countless hours of free labor to it, and you're getting guff from a larger publication run by someone with more privilege than you, please know, you are doing amazing and you are NOT exploiting anyone.
For one: in order to actually exploit someone, you'd have to make money on the endeavor, and who among us makes enough to even run the avenue we run? (If you do, hit my DMs and let me know how, would ya?! I'd love to break even or make money, because then I'd pay my submitters!)
People have their choice to submit to your publication or submit to these white-, cis-, het-, abled-, etc-led publications who have coffers with which to pay, and they are choosing YOU. There's a reason for that, believe me on that.
Whenever I see a publication run by BIPOC or LGBTIQA2+ folx or people with disabilities, etc, that's who I want to submit to, whether or not they pay. I want to see us succeed and I want to see us supporting each other in our endeavors, and I DO SEE THAT. And I appreciate you. 
Just realized this would be a good place to plug that we are trying to raise money on our Ko-fi to pay our submitters. Dana and I put aside a sizable chunk of our money and we're asking folx to help us get the rest of the way there: https://ko-fi.com/thebk
We are looking into more long-term ways of making this feasible for us, but for now, this is what we have. Again, if you have advice, PLEASE share! We've been around for 10 years and have never broken even.
