There aren’t many ways that a journal that makes no money can pay its writers, but here at The Disappointed Housewife we offer readers an opportunity to bypass the middle man and pay the writers directly.

At the bottom of many of our poems, stories, and essays you’ll find the author’s PayPal (or Google Pay) email address, through which you can send him or her a little something if you really like the piece. And why not? PayPal lets you send any amount – less than a buck, if you want. There’s really no reason not to say “thanks for the poem” the same way you drop some coins into the collection jar of a talented and earnest busker, when you think about it.

The idea is that if enough grateful readers plunk a little bit into the writer’s collection jar, she’ll come away with a nice little payoff. If fifty readers each kicked in a buck? – hey, $50 isn’t bad for a couple of poems in an obscure literary journal. And since a dollar certainly isn’t a lot, a donation really represents a reader’s willingness to spend a little extra time to acknowledge good work.

By the way, I’ve tested the process via PayPal and it works beautifully. No fees are extracted if you take the payment out of your PayPal balance or linked bank account. You give a dollar, the writer gets a dollar.

Please consider throwing a few bucks around our pages. The writers will be grateful, and maybe we’ll actually start a new trend. We know writers invest a huge part of themselves in their art.

Let’s show them how much we appreciate it.