Paying Contributors

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Permalink Reply by Fredrik Svensson on August 11, 2009 at 7:59am

Hi, Arlissa
A very hard question to answer. At least for me! I think you should calculate how much money you can totally spend on writers in an single issue and then break it down into smaller units. Then you know how much you can afford to spend on each story/page/section.

Fredrik

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Permalink Reply by Rick Gladman on August 13, 2009 at 7:25pm

I agree with Fredrik. Depending on your budget, some people maybe willing to contribute an article in exchange for a copy of the magazine and the joy of seeing their work in print!

At the end of the day, you need to lay down the ground rules/prices etc and your contributors will then have to decide whether or not it is worth their while.

Fredrik Svensson said:

Hi, Arlissa
A very hard question to answer. At least for me! I think you should calculate how much money you can totally spend on writers in an single issue and then break it down into smaller units. Then you know how much you can afford to spend on each story/page/section.

Fredrik

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Permalink Reply by Taska Hare on August 17, 2009 at 10:40pm

As Rick pointed out some persons are just happy seeing their work in print.I have never paid a contributor they all seem so gleeful to make a contribution,but of course at the end of the year i have to do something special for them.
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Permalink Reply by Krista Guerrero on December 28, 2009 at 8:29pm

You need to figure out your cost per page. Total your expenses design, staff, printing, etc. Then that that total # and divide it by the total # of sellable pages. Then you will have your cost per page. Then you choose your mark-up, 20%, 30% and that will be your minimum ad rate for your longest running contract.

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Permalink Reply by Arlissa Vaughn on January 21, 2010 at 1:44pm

Krista, Thanks for the advice on advertising rates - very useful! However, the original question was about paying contributing writers, not seeking advertisers...Any advice for that?

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Permalink Reply by 6thAveConcepts on January 22, 2010 at 9:24am

Another resource you may wish to check out is: http://www.mediabistro.com/ They have a lot of articles geared toward freelance writers. Their bulletin board: http://www.mediabistro.com/bbs/ has a lot of activity in the freelance writing section. This may give you some good ideas and leads.

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Permalink Reply by Arlissa Vaughn on January 25, 2010 at 11:20pm

Thnx! That seems like a great place to look for writers too.

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Permalink Reply by LJ Cameron on January 30, 2010 at 9:00am

If you pay peanuts, you tend to get monkeys. If you want professional quality material, you need to commission professional writers, and you should expect to pay them for their creativity, their integrity, their research, and their time. I'm not saying that you can't trip over very talented beginners who are willing to work for free or dirt cheap, but... you're more likely to get enthusiastic amateurs. And amateurs, by the very nature of their inexperience (or lack of talent), will produce amateurish writing. Either your publication is okay with sounding a little amateur or you/your editor is going to spend a lot of time cleaning up after them.

It's not unheard of for newspaper stringers to get $25 for a 125-word short; $.10/word has been an old-school industry rule of thumb for more years than is sensible. (Back in the day when you could make nickel phone calls.) Top-of-the-game writers can expect, and get, $1.00/word minimums. What shouldn't matter is where your publication/your writers are based: cost-of-living is irrelevant to quality.

As for 'how': you/your editor sets the price for the piece based on length, complexity, and the amount of research required to deliver what you want to publish. Estimating how much you can afford is a matter of looking at all your immutable costs (print, distribution, salaries for yourself and other staff, etc) against the expected revenue (subscriptions, advertising). The gap between the two points allows for your profits and your ability to pay your writers. Writers will either go with your commission rate or will (rather rarely) counter-propose a rate they feel is more in line with what you're asking them to do. If the rate doesn't work for them, they'll either decline politely and not bother you again, or decline leaving the door open for future commissions.

I think the only exception to the peanuts/amateurs equation is a poetry or experimental writing publication, where the market for similar material is so thin that writers really do publish just for the exposure rather than to make a living. (The exposure eventually gets them in line for publishing collections of their own work or appearing in anthologies.)

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Permalink Reply by Kaolin Fire on March 26, 2010 at 12:11pm

I think this may also depend on what sort of publication you're running, what sort of content you're looking for. With fiction, 5c/w is the beginning of "professional" (at least for the Science Fiction/Fantasy Writer's Association); 1-4c/w is a relatively thriving semi-pro range (that's where GUD falls at the moment); and below 1c/w is "token" pay. All the above may or may not include copies of the magazine in addition.

As a rule, higher pay does get you better pickings.

Courting big names will, as I understand it, often result in negotiating pay above your standard rates.

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