that's the thing - websites like that will publish anything - with any amount of errors, complete lack of content, etc. and people will always comment "omg i luv your story, it rockz yay vampires!!11"
i want actual editorial help lol
when you send in your work for publication, the person at the publishing house/magazine who has the job-title of "editor" has the job of "editing" and altering your work in such a way that it results in selling as many copies as possible, this is done because the publishing house receives a percentage of each copy sold and a magazine receives 100% of the sales of each copy unless it's written otherwise in a contract, so it's in the publishing house/magazine's best interest to sell as many copies as possible (catering to a niche audience will result in the magazine/publishing house not being able to cover publishing costs and actually loosing money)
if the publishing house/magazine actually receives any kind of money from the author, this is ALWAYS A CRIME, it's either
A) the publishing house/magazine commiting fraud
or
B)the Author bribing the publishing house/magazine
either way, it's going to result in someone doing FEDERAL prison time
the company your paying is kind of pulling a scam, taking money from the author for doing something that could otherwise be done without any money coming out of the author's pocket, it's only technically legal because they're not actually publishing your work,
but if you pay them for altering your work, and then your altered work is rejected by a publishing house, you could then sue them for defrauding you and not doing what you paid them for, this lawsuit could result in as much money as what a publishing house might offer you, because the publishing house will always try to rip-off the author unless you're already a newyork-times-best-selling-author
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