Why I’ve Decided to Be Choosy About Where I Submit

By Amanda Le Rougetel

Once, when I was teaching an academic writing course on contract at a university, I calculated my hourly pay.

It came to well below minimum wage.

That bottom line shattered my sense of self and financial security—until I shifted the paradigm of what I was doing from teaching to learning.

This was in my early “take any contract offered” teaching days. Facing an amphitheatre of bored university students in class only because it was a program requirement, challe...