“I approached one of my favourite magazines to sell my story. It says in the magazine they pay £2000 for a story but they’ve offered £200. Is this a good fee or not and should I accept it?”
Alison says: Many real-life magazines offer the fee of £2000. But look closer and often in smaller print you will see ‘up to’ written before the fee amount. So that is the top fee that magazine will pay for a story – and in fact they might have only paid that much money once or twice in the past!
Unfortunately a fee of £2000 is not the norm for a story in a magazine – and raises interviewee’s expectations. They are then, like you, disappointed with their offer.
Fees for stories in magazines average from £300 to £500 for a story that goes over one to two pages. For a very sought after story your fee might go up to £1000 – or indeed ‘up to £2000’ as they advertise if the editor believes your story is sensational.
Payments for health stories, one page stories and much smaller stories – known as ‘shorts’ – can be much less from £50 to £200. So as you’ve been offered £200 it might be your story falls into one of those categories, so it could be a fair price.
The problem with going directly to your favourite magazine is you don’t know what another magazine might have offered for your story. So you can’t possibly know if that is the best price.
If you would like to contact me with more details about your story, I can give you some idea of price. I can then see what other editors might pay for your story and let you know. At Featureworld stories are sent to all magazines. Sometimes only one offer comes in and that might be lower than the interviewee hopes for – but it is the only offer. And as it’s the only offer it is the best price.
Other times a number of magazines express interest and put in offers. In this case Featureworld holds a story auction where magazines bid against one another. The interviewee usually goes with the magazine that offers the most money. Or if two magazines bid the same price, the interviewee can choose which one to go with.
I am also able to sell stories to another magazine or more and to newspapers and sell your story to TV. Sometimes I also sell stories to magazines abroad. This way your fees really add up.
And there is no fee to you because I am paid for writing your story!
You can find out more: I sold my story for £4000!
How much money can you sell your story for to a magazine? Find out by filling in the form to the right of this page and I can tell you >>>