After contributing a horror short story to an anthology last Fall, I’ve been researching what the current markets are like and came across this piece by longtime writer (and longtime writer of the business of writing) Kristine Kathryn Rusch.
Now, referencing the Stanford Marshmallow Experiments might make this interesting alone, but the real reward is staying with the piece as she goes through plenty of historical numbers of what writers have been paid and, well, prices have been remarkably fixed since the Great Depression… meaning that writers during the Great Depression likely made more per word and per work, on average, than many a writer today (and by giving away less rights).
So, yeah, it’s from 2012, but from what I’ve read from current authors, it’s not like there’s been a big course correction in terms of payment or rights, so for those of you considering how to value your writing work, here you go.