Will the Magazine Industry Ever Catch Up?All Freelance Writing

One of the biggest turnoffs of freelance magazine writing for new writers is the traditionally-long stretch between pitching the article and getting paid for your work. While it varies from one publication to the next, it’s not uncommon for pay-on-publication situations to take several months.

In commercial writing, you may wait until the client makes their typical bi-weekly or monthly payments, but even there you rarely wait months. In writing for the Web, even if you have to wait until publication, you don’t generally wait months before that happens. So as a freelance writer, with the ability to earn the same amount in any of those areas, magazine writing just isn’t terribly attractive.

Will the magazine industry ever catch up with other freelance markets? The publishing industry itself is definitely changing, but will that affect payment lead times? Will it happen quickly enough, or do you see an increasing number of writers lured away from the magazine markets in favor of the Web and commercial clients? Just curious about your thoughts.

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2 Responses to Will the Magazine Industry Ever Catch Up?

Natalia Maldonado says:

August 27, 2009 at 2:02 pm

I’ve found that of the few magazines that I’m still writing for, most pay upon acceptance, so after I’ve turned in the work I might wait a month at the most to get paid. That’s what I love about the non-magazine work I do, where I ask for 50% up front and 50% upon completion.

I don’t really see the magazine world changing their payment schedules, especially smaller publications. As long as their revenue comes from advertising they’re going to push payment back until they’ve generated all the ad revenue for a particular issue.

I think there are pros and cons to both. While magazines might take a while, most have flat rates, so there’s no tricky math when you’re trying to determine a rate, and a lot of the pubs I work with pay well enough that their per word rates translate to a good hourly rate for me. Negotiating rates with clients interested in copywriting services can be tough. For every proposal I send that gets accepted, there may also be one that causes a prospective client to run the other way because they had absolutely no idea how much good writing can cost.

Jennifer Mattern says:

August 27, 2009 at 2:35 pm

You just made a great case for query-free freelancing. It’s the best of both worlds — no waiting around on payments, and no sending proposals (you set your own rates and clients come to you). ;)

Natalia Maldonado says:

August 27, 2009 at 2:02 pm

I’ve found that of the few magazines that I’m still writing for, most pay upon acceptance, so after I’ve turned in the work I might wait a month at the most to get paid. That’s what I love about the non-magazine work I do, where I ask for 50% up front and 50% upon completion.

I don’t really see the magazine world changing their payment schedules, especially smaller publications. As long as their revenue comes from advertising they’re going to push payment back until they’ve generated all the ad revenue for a particular issue.

I think there are pros and cons to both. While magazines might take a while, most have flat rates, so there’s no tricky math when you’re trying to determine a rate, and a lot of the pubs I work with pay well enough that their per word rates translate to a good hourly rate for me. Negotiating rates with clients interested in copywriting services can be tough. For every proposal I send that gets accepted, there may also be one that causes a prospective client to run the other way because they had absolutely no idea how much good writing can cost.
Jennifer Mattern says:

August 27, 2009 at 2:35 pm

You just made a great case for query-free freelancing. It’s the best of both worlds — no waiting around on payments, and no sending proposals (you set your own rates and clients come to you). ;)