How hard is it to make money writing for magazines?
ER: Writing for small publications, you are lucky if you get a dollar a word. Once you’re established you can get at least a dollar or two a word. A place like Harper’s pays far less than the going rate, but it’s a great clip, a good magazine, and it can lead to other assignments. Mc: How competitive is your field? ER: I’m glad I’m not starting out today because there are fewer good places to get published. And for economic reasons, there are fewer editorial pages in those magazines and they’re less willing to take chances on new writers. Mc: What advice would you give would-be writers? ER: It’s not enough to write a letter introducing yourself and sending your clips. You need great ideas and you need to show how you’ll do the story and why you are the only one who can do it. You get your clips by starting small. Smaller publications will pay you less but you’ll develop your writing. Mc: How did you end up in Rwanda writing about rape victims? ER: I went to the Human Rights Film Festiv
