Who doesn’t want to get paid to write about games? The following is a list of 10 publishers open to writing about a variety of games. Some of them focus on video games; others on tabletop gaming. All of these publishers pay writers.
Keep in mind that you may need to negotiate payment with each of these publishers. We’ve done our best to research payment rates; but they may have changed, or be incorrect.
Here’s the list:
1. Dorkly publishes articles about pop culture, covering topics such as anime, video games, movies, and television. They pay $75 per published article. Their aesthetic seems to be a bit “click-baity.” To learn more, read their submission guidelines.
2. Worlds Without Master is an adventure fiction and gaming magazine, harking back to genre magazines of yore. They feature fiction, tabletop role-playing games, and non-fiction articles that may be of interest to sword and sorcery gamers. They pay $100 for non-fiction, $200 for stories. To learn more, read their submission guidelines.
3. Modern Rogue covers computer gaming, lifestyle, and pop culture. They pay $50+ per article. To learn more, read their submission guidelines.
4. ZEAL is a blog that publishes writing on comics, games, and pop culture. They also publish original comics. They are “interested in writing on games that are not generally the target of serious criticism; games that are too weird, too bad, too forgotten, and too anime. ” They pay up to $100 per article, and up to $200 per comic. To learn more, read their submission guidelines.
5. Paste Magazine publishes articles about music, tv, video games, and comedy. They seem to have have a broad focus on popular culture. They pay $50 for articles. To learn more, read their submission guidelines.
6. The Verge is a very popular website founded to “examine how technology will change life in the future.” According to reports, they pay around 30 cents per word. Most articles are longform features around 1,500 to 3,000 words. Their submission guidelines page is worth reading. They offer a format for querying that would be excellent to use for any publication. To learn more, read their submission guidelines here.
7. Two Plus Two is an online website about poker. They publish technical articles about playing poker, as well as interviews and biographies of poker personalities. They pay $200 per published article. To learn more, read their submission guidelines.
8. Playopolis is a UK based blog that publishes reviews of classic boardgames, as well as articles “about board games, card games or the wider industry.” (Not RPGs.) They pay £50 to £200 for articles, and £25 to £40 for reviews of older titles. To learn more, read their submission guidelines.
9. Extra Crispy is a lifestyle blog owned by Time Inc. They publish “opinion pieces, reported stories, personal essays, works of humor, illustrated narratives, breakfast-y profiles, original recipes, how-tos and unusual points of view on the beloved morning meal are all welcome. ” Payment reports indicate a rate of 50 cents per word, but will need to be negotiated. To learn more, read their submission guidelines.
10. Polygon publishes engaging stories based on video game artists, fans, and culture. They previously listed pay as $0.25 per word, but now state that they pay both on effort and word count. They now say “Our rates are competitive and designed to allow freelancers leeway to sink their teeth into stories, sometimes spending months pursuing particular interviews or background information. ” They imply that they’ll be willing to pay a significant sum for the right kind of article. To learn more, read their submission guidelines.
11. Mask Magazine is a monthly “online repository of youth and internet culture packed with interviews, editorials, news, and style in the age of unrest.” Editors look for “expressive, evocative prose”: personal essays, documentation of a singular event, studies of movements or phenomena from history, how-to guides or tutorials. Note: Editors decide whether submissions are featured as free content or content to be paid for. Payment is $40-200. To learn more, read the writers’ guidelines: http://www.maskmagazine.com/docs/writers.