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Re: Re: How Much To Bill an Editor

I can tell you about my experience not in terms of gardening magazines, but with mainstream women's magazines. If an editor keeps asking more and more questions and your story starts getting much longer than contracted for--you're kind of in bad luck; you're stuck with the original deal. Odds are that when faced with putting type on the page, the editor will cut out most of the additional information she asked for. To insist on more money is to sever the relationship, in my experience. Your time is of no concern to this person. On the other hand, if the editor asks for a new sidebar, or basically a second story, then you can ask for more money and will probably get 1/3rd of what's fair without engendering any hard feelings.
Nancy Stedman


rAt 10:25 AM 12/2/2002 -0700, you wrote:
Having been on both sides of the desk (as a writer with several hundred thousand published articles, columns, and short stories and as an editor of magazines, newspapers, and books--I'm easily bored!), I think it's important to iron out all the details of a publishing transaction from the start. 
 
Usually, an editor who requests 1,000 words or whatever has that much money in his budget.  If the piece runs long, the question that immediately comes to mind is why.  If the answer is that the piece works better at the longer length and you absolutely can't in good conscience cut it back, call or e-mail the editor with an explanation and inquire if you can get paid more.  With some advance notice, the editor might be able to go to his publisher or editorial board for the additional funds, IF he can sell them on the necessity of doing so.  If not, accept the fact that your agreement was for the editor to pay you for a thousand-word article (no more), and live with it.
 
Don't get me wrong.  As a member of the Author's Guild and as president of the American Society of Authors and Writers (http://amsaw.org), I'm also an advocate for authors' rights.  But when an author fails to protect himself or herself going into a publishing deal, it's unfair to blame the editor.
 
As for the issue of what rights to sell, I agree that you should always sell only NAS rights (or secondary reprint rights, or whatever the publication normally buys) and possibly Web site rights while withholding other rights for future negotiation.  Selling all rights for all time is not only foolish but also self-defeating for you and for every other writer who comes along and has dealings with that particular editor.
 
D. J. Herda
AmSAW
 
 

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