Paying Sites

[Stew Shearer]

I've been throwing out my query nets left and right, and I've been making some catches as of late. A problem I'm still consistently finding however is that there are a lot of sites out there that look really professional and don't explicitly say they're looking for volunteers only.

I don't know about you guys but I just hate getting an interested email back from an editor and then only after having them offer you a position have them say, "Oh, we don't pay though."

As such, I propose we create a list of sites that we know pay. Even if it's barely anything, it might be nice to have a compilation of the venues that we know will give you something more tangible then "valuable experience." :)

I'll start:

TheGameReviews.com- Pay depends on the kind of article you're writing. I do mostly features and get 7 bucks a piece. Reviews pay 10. You also get bonuses depending on how many views your articles get, which can be nice if you manage to strike a popular topic. One article of mine last year raked in 40,000 views and I was subsequently paid about a 100 dollars for it.

StrategyInformer.com- I did hold a paid, non-writing, staff position with them at one point but unfortunately recession forced them to let me go. That said, they still pay me as a freelancer to write. They started me off writing editorials at about 20 dollars a piece, though after some time I was able to negotiate that up a bit. I would suggest submitting here. The owner and editor are really nice guys, the site is very nice and they could really use some good editorials. I am basically responsible for a good half of the opinion pieces they've published since that section opened up and as of late, I've been lacking any sort of opinions to write about.

GamesRadar- We all know this site and if you are able to come up with funny, succinct features they'll buy them off of you. Similarly, if you have a knack for reviewing games in under 600 words they'd like you. I was told they pay between 100-150 for reviews depending on the prominence of the game, and recently I sold them a feature for 250 dollars.

[Lewis Denby]

Escapist pay extremely handsomely, but as you can imagine they get bloody loads of pitches. Very freelance-friendly though, and certainly a good port of call if you're looking to pitch a particular feature for a thoroughly brilliant site.

[Jonathan Gronli]

I've been looking for more work as well. So these are some places I might want to look into were I to search?

[Lewis Denby]

Definitely The Escapist, Jonathan. They publish five freelance features a week, based on pitches submitted surrounding specific topics. Each week has its own theme, and they ask you to pitch a few months in advance so there's time to go over necessary discussion, editing, drafting etc. Pay is, off the top of my head, $0.25 per word, with features anywhere between 1500 and 3000 words.

[Jonathan Gronli]

Thanks for the heads up Lewis. It's very much appreciated.

[Brendon Lindsey]

Writers get paid on the MMOLife sites. (MMOHub, MMORPG2, MMOGames, etc.)

[Jared Newman]

Ooh, fun!

GamesAbyss is a fairly new site and they pay, but not handsomely. As far as I know, everyone's a regular writer, as in no freelance pitches.

I'd definitely like to know which other sites pay in the range that GamesRadar does. That's cool that you're getting yourself out there, Stew. I've got to start doing that myself. Hit me in the face if I don't get on top of that during and after E3.

Just got commissioned for another piece for The Escapist, though. Pretty stoked.

[Pat 'iTZKooPA' Mulhern]

Congrats Jared. I've only pitched there twice (neither was accepted), how often to you try and submit an idea? I find that I always forget to check their site because I am busy with my daily writing duties of editing and news submissions.

This is a great list, unfortunately I can't really add anything that isn't there unless you are a fan of World of Warcraft.

ProjectLore.com pays per post, 250 word minimum. Not handsome by any means though. You'd have to apply to be a staff writer for most gigs, but they do allow freelancing on spec for guides and such though.

[Nathan Meunier]

If it's helpful at all to get a sense on submission frequency, I had three out of four stories pitches accepted and run in the editorial calendar around the X-Mas holidays. For the Q1 editorial calender I had one pitch accepted (going up next week) out of about four sent in. And I may have another going in shortly. Prior to all those, I had three pieces run over the course of a year or so, but I didn't pitch as many during that time period.

Coming up with a solid pitch takes time, and it's a gamble. It's a bummer when you don't get picked, but if you keep at it and fire up some fresh ideas, you're bound to get a hit at some point. I believe sometimes certain themes don't draw as many pitches as others, so if there's less sent in, you've got a better likelihood of getting a good idea through the gates. That said, I think they get a dozen pitches for some issues, and possibly much more than that for others.

[Pat 'iTZKooPA' Mulhern]

Thanks for the insight Nathan. I need to get it in my mind to try and submit to them more often. I absolutely love the site (and your articles have been stellar, not to trump up your ego). I will consider it a mark on my belt when I get published there.

Yeap, I can be a bit cocky :P

[Nathan Meunier]

The trick is to keep checking for their editorial calendar, I try to get ideas for as many possible ideas on it and spend a good few solid days firing them off. The downside of that, or good side, depending on how you look at it, is when you wind up with several big stories accepted within a week of one another and have to do some crazying writing/interviewing to pull them off.

Personally, I like the site's editorial tone and feature/issue heavy stories. It's a nice break from the grind of reviews/previews.

[Mike Mason]

A bit of a bump I know, but how long does it typically take The Escapist to get back to people about pitches, and do they always wait until the deadlines of the topics before responding?

[Jared Newman]

It can take a long time. Expect to hear back 3-4 weeks from when the article is due, so yes, definitely after he pitch deadlines. From experience, I've had no more luck pitching early. In fact, most of my approved pitches were ideas I sent on deadline day.