How to handle contributions from writers???

No answers but you have a cool project

Have you checked out information on how anthologies are put together? There's a site called www.anthologiesonline.com and maybe you could find some links to info there.

I would've thought that the editor you're working with would know the answers to your questions or know where to get the answers to your questions. You might check out websites for freelance writers too to search on common terms and see what they say to writers about how much they should be paid for such work (and get an idea of a writer's expectations).

I'm sure others on this board will have better more experience-oriented advice. Good luck with the project!

MikeB said:

This is probably a very unique situation. Any advice would be greatly apprciated. I am a photographer who is working on a travel photography book. I have an editor who is recruiting writers to contribute original essays that will compliment my photography. We do not yet have a publisher but we do have an agent (The agent cannot submit our project to potential publishers until we can show some samples of the essays). To further complicate matters, most of the contributing writers live outside of the U.S.(in third-world countries). The contributing writers will be paid a one-time rate, their payment will not be based on a percentage of sales.

Should we create individual contracts for each writer?

Do we pay the writers out of our own pockets until we have a publisher?

Do we pay the writers only after they have submitted the final draft?

Do we pay the writers only if their work makes it into the book?

Do we wait and let the publisher decide how much the writers shall be paid?

This is my first visit to this board as I am not a writer. But I want to treat these writers fairly so that is why I seek your advice. If I have posted this question in the wrong area perhaps someone can guide me to the correct area.

Thank you all in advance for your help.

Mike

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Hi Mike,
I'm sorry but I don't know what the "official" answers are on this one--we haven't done anthologies before. If I were compiling these essays as an editor pitching to a publisher, though, I'd have a contract for each author, offering them a set amount of money or credit and free book or something. Speaking as a publisher, I would be contracting with you, not the people you've hired to write essays, so I wouldn't care how much you paid them. I would expect you to have rights to all the material you're submitting to me, and if I had questions or problems with any of the material, I'd send it back to you and hold you responsible for editing and/or revising. So you'll be the only point person the publisher will want to deal with. I don't know if there is a set formula for this kind of work, but I know the Chicken Soup people seem to have the whole system down to a science. Maybe it's worth researching that kind of book to see what they do.

Good luck!
Lauri

I'm doing an anthology at the moment, but from the 'inside' - I've got the green light to commission it. In my case, I've worked out how much the book will cost to make, how much we can afford to pay contributors, and researched to find out what is the going rate so I know what my price range is.
If you haven't got a firm offer to publish - actually, make that a contract - I would be wary of spending any of your own money, as you could find yourself out of pocket. It might make sense, if you are very confident of selling the book, to commission one essay which would be representative of the content and use it for submission to publishers.
I suppose if you were to go down the route of commissioning the whole or part of the book yourself, a flat fee is certainly the way to go. Work out what the market rate is - there may be authors' society guidelines or magazine rates you could look at. In individual cases you might be able to spend a bit more to get the author you want; see if it looks worthwhile on a case-by-case basis. You can always commission on the basis of 'half now, half on acceptance' or similar. In fact, there are many ways you could write the contracts, and I don't have much experience of the various different approaches; so seriously consider getting a sale to a publisher first, and then letting them, as the experts, do the rest.