Writer's Fallout Shelter

First, never, ever be afraid to send a short, courteous e-mail asking an editor for clarification on something. They are people, too, not scary cyber creatures. If they're not willing to give you a polite response on something you don't understand, they're not anyone you want to work with.

Without knowing the publication or reading the guidelines, I can't really say who they would consider paying and who they wouldn't. It does mean they'd prefer not to pay anyone and hope that you would just take the copies in lieu of payment. I'm guessing, but more than likely, they'd have to really, really want your story in order to consider paying cash for it. Previous publishing credits wouldn't have much to do with it unless you were a name that would help them attract readers.

What helps future publications is having a story that a publication wants or needs.

When you're looking at a publication, there's really only three things you need to consider:

1. Is what you're submitting suitable for the market?
2. What does the publication pay?
3. Does the publication have a credible reputation?

Now, these three things are actually a balancing act. If one of the three has a really high value, you can forego one of the others, or skimp on both of the others, but you probably don't want to sacrifice two of the three entirely.

For example, there are lots of publications out there that pay little or nothing that have a credible reputation. Many literary magazines, for instance, are run by universities and pay very little, but are a very good publishing credit to have because they are known to be selective and widely read.

At the end of the day, you want a publishing credit that you're not going to be ashamed to claim five, ten, or twenty years from now, but don't submit to someone in order to impress an editor with the fact that you have been published. Editors are only going to be impressed by what you submit to them, not by what you've submitted to someone else.