Yog's Law

English

Etymology

Coined by American author and critic James D. Macdonald, known online by his nickname "Yog Sysop", in or before 2000 (see quotations below). The nickname is a reference to the fictional deity Yog-Sothoth from the Cthulhu Mythos.

Proper noun

Yog's Law

1. A maxim about publishing which states that "money flows toward the writer"; that is, an author should never pay to have their work published.
   • 2000 January 11, red_...@my-deja.com, “researching the world's most outrageous scams”, in alt.writing.scams‎^[1] (Usenet):

     One more thing ... and you can quote me ... To avoid being scammed, remember Yog's Law: "Money flows _toward_ the writer."

   • 2006 June 30, James D. Macdonald, “Yog's Law”, in SFF Net‎^[2], archived from the original on 2006-09-27:

     That radicalized me. Since then I've seen it as my duty to warn naive writers of the dangers of the fee-charging agents and the pay-to-play vanity presses. But how to do it? What simple meme could spread out in the new-writer community to serve as a tripwire? Answer: Yog's Law. ¶ Money flows toward the writer.

   • 2017, John Scalzi, Don't Live for Your Obituary: Advice, Commentary and Personal Observations on Writing, 2008–2017, Burton, M.I.: Subterranean Press, →ISBN, page 168:

     [Harry] Connolly is correct that the rise of digital self-publishing puts a new wrinkle on things. I disagree, however, that it means Yog's Law no longer generally holds.

Further reading

• Yog's Law on Wikipedia.Wikipedia