[dotsamuelswan]

If you're writing a lot, it's not a risk. You've got something sitting in a folder that you haven't touched in five years. Blow the dust off, polish the edges, and maybe you make a couple bucks.

Lining up those SFWA ducks will be important. At that point, even as a new publication, if they're easy to work with, they'll quickly become a great second or third stop for fresh stories. They won't get first submissions for awhile, because you can't compete with Terraform's (and others') 25c/word rate. But that's okay. Gems fall through the cracks. Loads of great fiction out there looking for a home.

[SolaceQuantum]

A pro-rate story (over 5 cents a word) worth of writing can take weeks or months to polish to an acceptable level. If this person plans to be affiliated with SWFA and get a reputation as having good taste in stories to publish, it's not just a "sure, I can take your trunk story" deal. Trunk stories are trunk stories for a reason.

[dotsamuelswan]

If you write every day, and you've been published at a pro-rate previously, you most likely have something near-publishable in your trunk.

Obviously, the publisher needs to be discerning in what he actually buys. But if you're a writer trying to build a relationship with a new publication, I don't see any problem recycling work that didn't quite hit with some of the established markets.

If you're unpublished, or you've only been paid lower rates, you probably shouldn't be asking the question "Why should I submit here when I can submit to XYZ?" You should just tack the new publisher onto the end of the list, and when you've worked your story through the others, drop it here before it hits the trunk.