When starting out as a freelance writer, there are many aspects of the business which are crucial to your long-term success. Two major considerations we will look at today concern how magazines pay for your work and how they accept submissions. When you write articles, there are three methods which magazines use to pay for work, which are by word, by page and by assignment.
I have encountered all of these payment methods over the years. If you write an article at 10 cents/word and the article is 1,000 words in length, you just earned $100.00. If the magazine pays by the page ($50.00/page) and you write 5 pages, you just earned $250.00. The last option is for magazines that pay you by the assignment and they will tell you how many words they want.
The second thing you need to know is when the magazine will pay you. Like the section above, there are 3 main methods: On submission, on acceptance and on publication. The first method is self-explanatory and is one of my favorite methods of getting paid. The second method indicates that while the publication has received your submission, they still have to review it, edit it, make corrections, ask for clarification from you, etc., before they accept it. Once they do, you’ll get paid.
The third method, my least favorite, is on publication. This is when the magazine has a spot in their editorial calendar for your article and will publish it at that time. If you work for publications that do this, be prepared for a long wait. One magazine I worked for made me wait 9 months and they still hadn’t published my work. I finally pushed them to pay me, otherwise who only knows how long it would have been before they actually did so. I never wrote for them again.
The last thing to realize is that even when you work is accepted, it still takes time to get paid and you could be waiting for up to 120 days, although that is extreme. Generally, you will receive a check within 30-60 days from the time of the invoice.
[youtube:XDOCySYhX6k?fs=1;[link:how magazines pay for writing];http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDOCySYhX6k?fs=1&feature=related]
Want to make a great living from Freelance Writing? An important first step is to find out how publications pay for your writing.
