Woman's World

I had a short story published in "Woman's World" a couple of years ago.
Once I received my acceptance (which itself took four months), it was
another month or so before I received payment. But I did get it, and I
was pleased with how much they pay.

P.S. I received payment before the story appeared in print--it sounds like your
friend's story has already been published? Was it a romance or a mystery?
Mine was a romance.

I have had several children's anecdotes in Woman's World and always had to go after them for payment. They eventually do pay if you keep at them. Why that has to be with such a well-known and I'm sure rich publication is beyond me. They never called me back either, but when I called Accounts Payable, I got the checks shortly after.

Pay

sherri234 said:

I have had several children's anecdotes in Woman's World and always had to go after them for payment. They eventually do pay if you keep at them. Why that has to be with such a well-known and I'm sure rich publication is beyond me. They never called me back either, but when I called Accounts Payable, I got the checks shortly after.

Click to expand...

I've never known anyone to have trouble collecting payment from Woman's World, but are you aware than many magazines expect the writer to contact Accounts Payable? And many expect the writer to submit an invoice when they do so.

At some magazines, all this is handled by the editor. At many other magazines the editor has nothing to do with payment, and the writer is supposed to contact Accounts Payable, submit an invoice, and then be paid.

Hi, James & all,

In the last year or so, I had a lot of trouble getting paid by Woman's World. They have never asked me to submit an invoice, and almost all publications request an invoice first before the writer sends it in. Even on a bigger story I had with Woman's World several years ago, I wasn't asked for an invoice.

Also, some magazine get annoyed if you call their Accounting Dept. directly. I know, it's happened to me once or twice when I wasn't aware that that could happen. There is at least one other writer here at AW that had trouble with getting paid by Woman's World. There is a thread about it.

I'm just going by my experience and what helped me get paid might hopefully help others. Sure appreciate your information, though.

sherri234 said:

Hi, James & all,

In the last year or so, I had a lot of trouble getting paid by Woman's World. They have never asked me to submit an invoice, and almost all publications request an invoice first before the writer sends it in. Even on a bigger story I had with Woman's World several years ago, I wasn't asked for an invoice.

Also, some magazine get annoyed if you call their Accounting Dept. directly. I know, it's happened to me once or twice when I wasn't aware that that could happen. There is at least one other writer here at AW that had trouble with getting paid by Woman's World. There is a thread about it.

I'm just going by my experience and what helped me get paid might hopefully help others. Sure appreciate your information, though.

Click to expand...

I've written for at least a couple of dozen magazines over the years that expected an invoice, but never asked for one.

You shouldn't call anyone. You simply send a detailed invoice to Accounts Payable, just as you do for multitudes of businesses outside the writing world.

Even with magazines that are just late or slow or sloppy in paying, this is still the right way to handle it.

At many businesses, an invoice to Accounts Payable is what they expect, even when they don't say so. It just depends on who is running the show. Quite often, editors don't know anything about payment procedure.

Many magazines also have a different payment system for different types of material. Pay on acceptance for one type, pay before publication on another, and pay after publication on a third.

But even pay on acceptance can mean a two month wait at some of the top magazines. Sometimes three months. Many magazines issue checks only one day per month, and anything that comes in after a certain date won't have a check cut until the right day in the following month. Some few magazines issue checks quarterly, which can mean a four month wait, if everything falls just right.

Whatever the reason for non-payment, a call is usually the last resort, not the first. The first step, depending on the magazine, is either a e-mail or letter to the editor, or an invoice directly to accounts payable. If you don't send a bill, some places don't know to pay you. And to save money, some places simply don't pay until you bill them.

Okay, here's my experience with Woman's World. I have only dealt with one editor there. First I had a first-person true story published. The editor had told me when the piece would appear (which issue), how much money I would receive and approximately when I would receive it. (She had estimated about 6 weeks AFTER the story appeared.) She said I did not have to do anything (no invoice); the check would be sent out. All of that worked out fine.

However, some of my short poems and quotes have also appeared in Woman's World. Most of the time I got paid pretty promptly. It was the same system--the poem would appear, then about 6 to 8 weeks later I got paid. But the last time around, one of my poems appeared in the Sept. 19th issue and the money did not show up on time. So I emailed the editor I always work with. I gave her all the info and she emailed back and said I should have been paid by that point. She said I should try calling the woman in accounting. I tried, left a message, never got a call back. So I emailed the editor again. She intervened this time, called the woman in accounting. The long and the short of it is I finally got paid 3 months after my poem was published in that issue.

So I agree with Susie that sometimes you do have to put a lot of effort into getting paid by Woman's World. But for me anyway, that doesn't always happen.