American Teacher Magazine
Report: $250 for a 500-word opinion piece in the magazine of the ATF. “They invited me to submit.”
Dazed and Confused (UK)
Report: £175 for 2,000-word culture feature (print) in 2012.
Report: £125 for 2,000-word interview (print) in 2013.
Report: £75 for 1,000-word intro and Q&A (online) with celeb in 2012.
Report: £0 for 500-word intro and Q&A (online) with a non-celeb in 2013.
Shecky’s Nightlife
Report: $20 per assignment (150-200 word review of NYC bar)
Report: $20 per bar/restaurant review ($25 with photos) for 150-180 word review. “standard rate for the last several years (at least 2010-2013).”
One writer wrote us with a lengthy, angry story of underpayment, which included the following notable points:
“Shecky’s will take FOREVER to pay you these measly amounts. Random checks for random amounts will arrive randomly (often 4-5 months after work was completed).” The reporter also encourages contributors to “keep very accurate records of the work you’ve done for them” and double-check 1099s at the end of the year.
Tate Publishing
Report about Tate Publishing, a “Christian-based, family-owned” self-publishing scheme:
“Tate Publishing, in Mustang, OK, pays its ghost writers $29,000 a year, which works out to about $2,200 a month. They charge ghost writing clients $6,000 to have a book written, and assign each author 2 books a month. They expect you to churn out 10,000 words a week. … I used to work there and it was horrible.”
SF Weekly
Report: $35 for a blog post, 400-600 words, 2013
Report: $150 for a print article, 500 words, 2013
Report: $150 for a “Top 10” Article, ~1,000 words and original photos
Report: $50 for music blog post, 1,000 words, 2013
“In early 2013, getting the check took 2 months but that’s their new payment schedule, according to editor, who was helpful and communicative about it.”
Previous reports: http://whopays.tumblr.com/tagged/sf%20weekly
The Atlantic (online)
Report: $150 for 1,100-1,300 word originally reported feature article (2012/2013) accepted on pitch. Check received in about two weeks.
“Pay is low but you work with fantastic, mentoring editors who give invaluable feedback and critique for both pitches (when rejected) and accepted pieces.”
Previous reports: http://whopays.tumblr.com/tagged/the%20atlantic
Christian Science Monitor
Report: $1300 for a 4000-word cover story; $300 for a 500-word sidebar.
Weekend Reading: Feels Blind
Feels Blind
by Emily Gould
Emily Magazine
May 10, 2013
http://www.emilymagazine.com/?p=898
Last weekend I talked to a friend who has a books-related job. This woman wants to be a writer. I mean, she is a writer, but not of books, yet. And she’s not exactly, at this particular moment, on a career track that will lead her closer to the goal of writing books. She is really young and has plenty of time to swerve. But at some point she’ll have to make a decision about whether she wants to continue to work at her fulfilling, stable job that she’s great at or write books, because there isn’t enough time in the day, no matter how early she wakes up or how late she goes to bed or what kind of productivity-enhancing software she installs on her laptop or how much hygiene/fun/personal life she neglects, to do both. Or enough time, I should maybe say, to do both well. Some people are superhuman and can do both well. But such people are very rare, and that pretending they’re anything but rare just makes everyone else feel bad, so let’s actually just pretend they don’t exist. They functionally don’t exist. She told me it’s taken her a long time to figure out that she carries around a lot of resentment towards people who make their entire living by writing. Although she has a close relationship with at least one such person, and so she knows firsthand that making your whole living that way can make you crazy. So it’s not like her resentment is predicated on a fantasy: she knows both ways of living have their pitfalls/can make you crazy. But the bottom line is that one way of living results in books and the other, mostly, doesn’t.
When I was her age, the age she happened to be turning on the day we had this conversation, I thought that making my living exclusively by writing was the goal of my life. Or if not “exclusively,” primarily. Dimly, and without ever lingering in thought too long about the specifics, I imagined teaching, being a teacher almost exactly like my least-engaged college professors, the ones who showed up to workshop with a large coffee and some xeroxed Raymond Carver stories and then sat there for two hours while their students talked, sipping the coffee and sometimes nodding. The rest of my time would be spent alone in a library or a home office, some room with a computer, a desk, a chair. I would write novels and then, later in the day, make dinner. Maybe sometimes if I felt like it I’d accept an assignment from the kind of magazine no one really reads but that basically exists to pad the bank accounts of already-rich writers, travel and specialized beauty magazines, you know, ”[So and So’s] Wacky Adventures In Bangkok,” ”What [Whoever] Really Thinks Of Several Slightly Different Spa Treatments.” I’d slide on up into that echelon effortlessly. My inherent greatness would be recognized and one day I’d wake up and just find myself there. I mean I’d also have published novels, in this fantasy. The parts of this fantasy that pertained to my personal life were just as inchoate and illogical. I thought and maybe (cringe) even said out loud, “I’ll have my first baby after I finish my first novel.” As though those were two goals you could easily work towards simultaneously. As though they were not two distinct and unrelated life paths…
Keep reading: http://www.emilymagazine.com/?p=898
New York Magazine - The Cut
$300 for an 1800-word personal essay, 2013. “My editor said it was standard.”
“The editor approached me and asked for pitches. This essay developed during a lunch meeting—so I didn’t pitch it so much as explain a life event the editor found interesting.”
[A good reminder that it’s all about relationships.
Remember, kids, IRL > URL! -Ed.]
The Economist
Report: £300 for a 400-word reported news story. [Web/print not specified - Ed.]
Mental Floss
Report: $100 for a 500-word blog post, 2013.
Weekend Reading: On Writers, Marriages, and NYC/LA/SF
On Writers, Marriages, and NYC/LA/SF
John Scalzi
Whatever
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2008/02/12/on-writers-marriages-and-nyclasf/
In this blog post from 2008, patron saint of writer rants John Scalzi elaborates on his scandalous advice regarding money, relationships, and leaving town: “Marry (or otherwise shack up with) someone sensible with money, who has a real job,” and “Unless you have a truly compelling reason to be there, get the hell out of New York/LA/San Francisco.”
Find someone you like, heck, even love, and about whom you think you’ll feel similarly 25 years from now. Marry ‘em if you want (or can, since some people can’t marry who they want even if they want, which sucks), or don’t. If they don’t have ace financial skills, oh well. If they do: Bonus.That said, “love” is not the same thing as “long term committed relationship.” That being the case, I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that when it comes to long-haul relationships, it’s not outside the realm of acceptability to consider other factors aside from the love issue, when it comes to deciding whether to bind your life to someone for years and years. I love my wife to bits, but other factors of compatibility (including the fact she was excellent with finances) constituted the tipping point for the actual decision to get married. Conversely, there are other folks in my life who I could very easily see myself in love with but whom I wouldn’t want to marry, because of some fundamental disconnects in personality, worldview and compatibility (note well that the problem child in those relationships should not necessarily be assumed to be the other person; I have my bad points). I love these people and am attracted to them, but the other factors weigh against a bonding relationship.
Read the whole thing here: http://whatever.scalzi.com/2008/02/12/on-writers-marriages-and-nyclasf/ and Scalzi’s general “advice to writers” post that started it here: http://whatever.scalzi.com/2008/02/11/unasked-for-advice-to-writers-about-money/ .
The Airship
Report from the editors of Black Balloon Publishing’s house literary blog: “We pay anywhere from $20 to $400 per piece depending on length and depth, and we cover expenses when approved in advance.”
[They’re also hiring for a senior editor position: http://blackballoonpublishing.com/careers.html -Ed.]
National Geographic - Intelligent Travel Blog
Report: no pay.
Foreign Policy
Report: $200 for 1,00-word reported analysis on international affairs. (late 2012-early 2013).
“Slow to pay.”
Previously: http://whopays.tumblr.com/tagged/foreign%20policy
