Life & Times of a Writer

Finding a (fairly) reputable source, you realize there is quite a long list of
basic book publishing houses that offer prizes, trips, residencies, and other very cool stuff.

The thing is, each one has a "reading fee" of an average of $12-$35. Yeah, thats per.
Yeesh, that adds up, and who's to say they even read your manuscript?

is a basic book contract even what you are after? sounds like a lot of fine print.