Wow! There's a bunch of posts out there in the ether about writers and payment, all spawned from John Scalzi's posts that I linked to the other day. These links, though, take a look at the other end of the pay scale where most of us are living. In the posts and the comments there's a lot of food for thought.
From Catherine M. Valente "Short Fiction and You" http://yuki-onna.livejournal.com/548772.html This is coming from a short story writer who's making a fairly decent living from her shorts.
From the Clarkes World blog http://clarkesworld.livejournal.com/147945.html there's a look at pay scales from the zine side of things with the comments having some of the best information.
From Sarah Monette "Where We Are" http://truepenny.livejournal.com/697323.html This one is a good look at the place where many of are in the short story world.
From Clint Harris "What the Rest of Us Get Paid" http://wendigomountain.livejournal.com/161414.html This is a look at where the newbie's are hanging out and working their way up the ladder.
And with all the talk about pay aside here are a couple of links about actually putting words on the page and learning the craft. Both are excellent essays
Rachael Caine takes a look at some writing advice that was given to her early in her career http://rachelcaine.livejournal.com/154328.html
And from Damien G. Walter "Show Me the Risk Taking Writers" http://damiengwalter.com/2009/12/06/show-me-the-risk-taking-writers/ This one's about letting your writing "fly".
2 comments:
It appears that the writers revealing their pay for short stories--at least, the ones you've identified for us--are all science fiction, fantasy, and horror writers. And the most productive of them has only sold a few dozen short stories.
What do short story pay rates look like in other genres? And what do they look like for short story writers with a significant number of sales to report?
I was wondering that myself, Michael. The mystery genre doesn't seem to generate the same figures that are popping up for the sci-fi writers.
There are so few pro markets in the mystery genre that if you only want to write crime and mystery stories you pretty much expect little or nothing for your work. Even when EQ and AHMM pay 5cents a word, a two thousand word story still only brings in $100, and that's nowhere near the scale the big glossies are paying and most of them are invitation only these days.
From what I'm seeing only the erotica and romance markets seem to be paying a livable fee if you can crank out a lot of stories.
I wonder if the thinking on the editorial side is that it doesn't take as long to write a short so why pay more.
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