"Not to mention the ethics behind having the artist pay to publish a book that Renderosity wants to make a profit off of by selling. Seems like 'rosity gets it's the cake and the pleasure of eating it too." That's exactly why I have a bad taste in my mouth about this. If they're confident the book will be a success, and get the amount of exposure they have said, then why not just take the risk as a publisher and allow the sales to offset the expense? This 'submission fee' tactic isn't really a gift to the artists, it's a way for a company to make optimal profitability, while not having to pay the artists any kind of subsequent royalty at all from the sales, nor a commission for their content... regardless of how much money they do generate in the end. It's a proven business strategy that, if successful, takes away virtually all the financial risk from the publisher and basically trickles it down to the content providers. Even though it may be a fairly common practice for art publications to utilize this strategy, it certainly doesn't give a great opportunity to the artists. I can't imagine an independant film producer requiring anyone who wants to audition for a starring role in the film to pay a fee. It may happen, but it's very rare. Usually producers raise funds from 3rd party sources, or their own pockets. I think something like a revshare plan, where each paying participant acts like a "shareholder" in that they each get a small cut of the book's sales, with the possibility of making their money back (or better) over time, is a much better strategy. You'd get a lot more people interested in such a venture, and a lot more paying participants to aid in the initial publication expense. It would be like an "investment" for everyone who contributes, even if they don't get selected for the publication. Sure, there's risk involved there too, but it's softened by the assurance of regaining at least some of your investment, with the possibility of making a profit for everyone involved. Just a thought.

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Tools :  3dsmax 2015, Daz Studio 4.6, PoserPro 2012, Blender v2.74

System: Pentium QuadCore i7, under Win 8, GeForce GTX 780 / 2GB GPU.