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article submission rates
updated 7 months, 3 weeks ago
8Members
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20
Posts
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Hi.
What rates can I expect to be paid for accepted pieces to magazines and newspapers?
Thank you so much!
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Hi,
Standard rate for most mags is 10 cents per word.
Some columns have a set rate – like FF’s Lifetakes.
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Thank you, Leiba for your response. I greatly appreciate your advice. Do you have examples of publications that pay this rate? Also, what is FF Lifetakes?
Thanks again! -
Family First (FF) – Lifetakes is their last page column – it’s personal essays
Ami Living
and Binah
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Ok gotcha. Do you have experience doing this? If so, what are your suggestions for getting pieces published? There are so many women submitting articles and so few open slots available. Is it just exposure that a writer needs in order to be published in these big name magazines and newspapers?
Thanks
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Most of my experience is with Family First. I find reading the magazine and seeing the structure and content of each section is very helpful. Like you may have written a beautiful poem – but Family First rarely if ever publishes poetry – try Binah, and the like.
Knowing that Lifetakes are capped at 800 words, but Musing and Windows can go a little over 1000 is helpful. etc.
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Thank you again!
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Thank you!
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Great question, Zahava! And Leiba, thanks for taking the time to respond.
One thing I would advise any writer who wants to begin publishing in the frum magazines is this: buy yourself a few of the prominent magazines or borrow them from a friend. Read them cover to cover. See what sections they feature–some are weekly columns, others are one-time articles or features. Get a feel for the style and “culture” of the magazine. See if there is a certain overall “flavor” in a specific magazine that you think might be a good fit for your own work.
If you’re trying to break into a magazine, a great place to start is often in their back pages. As @Leiba Mozes noted, Family First, Mishpacha’s women’s supplement, has a Lifetakes at the back where they offer women an opportunity to publish more of a reflective non-fiction or point-of-view piece. Many women have gotten a foot in the door by submitting for this section. Ami offers “Our Days”, memoir-style pieces that usually involve family, daily life, or remembrance; many pieces are nostalgic and have depth to them.
The only way to pitch to a magazine is to know what that magazine is looking for. And the only way to know THAT is to read the magazine religiously, over the course of several weeks.
Go for it, my dear Zahava! 🙂
And let us know when you get published!!
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Gonna chime in here and request, if possible, a chart with all frum publications, submission guidelines, rates, and contact info. Is that a possibility? Anyone here a published veteran? *eyes on you, Riva* 🙂 I humbly offer to assist in synthesizing the information in a google sheet.
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I felt that eye, Fangirl! 🙂 So this is a very good question and a great idea for someone to put together. It could be very helpful to have an at-a-glance view of all the submission guidelines and contact info, and actually I will try to put that together for you ladies, because it could be a really awesome resource! Putting that on my to-do list be”H and I’ll make it available to you as soon as possible.
Regarding rates, though, there’s a serious a caveat, and here I’m going to do something a little sneaky. I’m going to leave you all with a really loaded question and only give you my answer when I see some good guesses! 🙂 (Where is that evil-face emoji anyways?!!!)
Okay, here goes: The magazines are often a bit cagey about their rates and they also can strike different deals with different writers, depending on A SINGLE VERY IMPORTANT FACTOR.
What is it, my wonderful writers?
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Mishpacha and Family First Submission Guidelines in the attached link.
https://mishpacha.com/help-center/
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Perhaps if a few magazines are pining for the article, then the rate goes up for the piece?
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Experience getting published
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EXPERIENCE! i double that!
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Bribery? Ransom? Charisma? Having won previous writing awards?
Spill the beans Riva!
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Okay, I am going to answer this question now, and the answer is a really important one.
Ready? Here goes!
THE BEST-PAID WRITERS ARE THE ONES WHO ADVOCATE FOR THEMSELVES!
Yes, experience is necessary. Yes, talent is necessary. Yes, consistency is necessary. But you can have all the talent and grit in the world and submit the most wonderful articles and STILL not make the highest payscale if you cannot stand up, straight and tall, and say, “I know my worth. I would like to paid X.”
I do not say this lightly. I say it because I walk the talk. And I am going to always encourage you wonderful women: when you get to a point in your writing where you KNOW that you are delivering high-quality work, then you must respectfully demand to be paid commensurate with the value you are offering the magazine. I will be speaking about this much more because it is one of my favorite themes, but please put this in your back pocket and may it accompany you through your writing journey, if publishing is your goal.
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Whoops–just realized that I posted under my “rivawrites” screen name instead of as Riva Pomerantz, but it really IS me :-). (Will the real Riva please stand up?! :-))
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How do I advocate for myself if I don’t have experience getting published (and they know that!)? How do I say “I know my worth. I would like to be paid X” if I don’t know my worth and have no clue if this piece is really worth ‘X'(and they know that I don’t know)? Isn’t experience a prerequisite to advocating?
Guess I’m moving into ‘Confidence’….
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Of course, Anagrammer! As I mentioned, ONCE you get to a place where your writing has reached a high caliber, that’s when my answer kicks in. You must work up to asking to be paid properly; it doesn’t happen overnight. It takes years of experience, hard work, plenty of rejection and pushing yourself to the limit. But when you get there, you must advocate to be paid what you deserve.
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