Word.ws English Dictionary

Yog's Law

Yog's Law proper noun: a maxim about publishing which states that "money flows toward the writer"; that is, an author should never pay to have their work published.

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.
    • One more thing ... and you can quote me ... To avoid being scammed, remember Yog's Law: "Money flows _toward_ the writer."2000 January 11, red_...@my-deja.com, “researching the world's most outrageous scams”, in alt.writing.scams (Usenet)
    • 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...2006 June 30, James D. Macdonald, “Yog's Law”, in SFF Net, archived from the original on 27 Sep 2006

Examples of Yog's Law in a sentence

  • Answer: Yog's Law. ¶ Money flows toward the writer.2006 June 30, James D. Macdonald, “Yog's Law”, in SFF Net, archived from the original on 27 Sep 2006:
  • I disagree, however, that it means Yog's Law no longer generally holds.2017, John Scalzi, Don't Live for Your Obituary: Advice, Commentary and Personal Observations on Writing, 2008–2017, Burton, M.I....

Origin of Yog's Law

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.

Questions about Yog's Law

What does Yog's Law mean?
Yog's Law means a maxim about publishing which states that "money flows toward the writer"; that is, an author should never pay to have their work published.
How do you use Yog's Law in a sentence?
Answer: Yog's Law. ¶ Money flows toward the writer.
What part of speech is Yog's Law?
Yog's Law is a proper noun.

Words near Yog's Law in the dictionary

  1. yoficate
  2. yofication
  3. yoficator
  4. yoficators
  5. yofortierite
  6. Yog's Law
  7. yoga
  8. yoga bag
  9. yoga bags
  10. yoga ball
  11. yoga balls

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Yog's Law (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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