A features desk run from sent mail
The features editor commissioned eight pieces for the next issue: essays, a photo story, two illustrations and a review column. Each commission was an email: a brief, a word count, a fee, a deadline and a line about rights. Some contributors send an invoice when they file. Some send one when the issue comes out. Some never send one and assume the magazine will pay anyway.
The finance person receives invoices with no reference and asks the editor whether each was approved and at what fee. A photographer emails to say it has been three months. Nobody can quickly answer which pieces from the last issue are still unpaid, or which contributors are owed kill fees for pieces that were dropped.
Why contributor payments run late
The commission, the invoice and the payment are handled by different people who each hold part of the story. The editor knows the terms. Finance knows the invoice. Nobody holds both.
- Fees and terms are in email, not in a record finance can see.
- Some pieces are paid on acceptance, some on publication, by house custom.
- Pieces held over to a later issue confuse the payment timing.
- Dropped pieces may be due a kill fee under the commission, which is easily forgotten.
- Contributor bank and tax details are asked for again each time.
Photographers and illustrators add another layer, because their fees often cover specific uses: print only, print and online, or a fixed period. When the same image is later wanted for the website or a social post, nobody knows whether that use was agreed without finding the original email.
What late payment does to your contributors
| Problem | Effect |
|---|---|
| Payments late | Good contributors pitch to other titles first |
| Wrong fee paid | A correction and an awkward email |
| Kill fee forgotten | A contributor who feels badly treated |
| Invoice lost | Double-handling, or a payment made twice |
| No view of commissioned spend | The issue's editorial budget is overrun unnoticed |
Freelance writers and photographers talk to each other. A title that pays promptly and correctly is one they want to work for.
Our commissions log, brief to payment
- A commission record created from a short form: contributor, piece, issue, fee, word count or image count, deadline, payment trigger and rights terms.
- A commission confirmation sent to the contributor with those terms, so both sides hold the same record.
- Status updates as the piece is filed, edited, scheduled, published, held or dropped.
- Invoice collection by upload link against the commission, or a self-billing statement if your house works that way and your adviser agrees.
- Approved payments passed to Xero or QuickBooks as bills with the commission reference, on the trigger your house uses.
- An issue budget view showing commissioned, filed and paid amounts per issue.
Contributor bank details are held in your accounts package, not in the log. The rights terms in each commission come from your standard terms, which you or your adviser set.
After: commissions have a paper trail
The features editor commissions from the log, which sends the confirmation. When a piece is filed, the contributor's upload link invites an invoice, pre-filled with the agreed fee. When the issue is published, finance sees a list of approved bills ready to pay. A held-over piece shows as held, with its payment trigger moved accordingly, and a dropped piece prompts the editor to decide about a kill fee.
When a photographer asks about payment, anyone can see where it is: commissioned, filed, invoiced, approved, paid. And at the end of the year, you can see what each issue actually spent on contributors.
Reuse is another quiet benefit. When a piece is picked up for an anthology, the website or a partner title, the commission record shows the rights terms agreed at the time, so the editor knows whether a further fee or permission is needed before promising anything to the partner.
Your features desk may need this if
- Contributors chase you for payment more than occasionally.
- Finance asks the editor to confirm every contributor invoice.
- Kill fees are handled case by case, from memory.
- Nobody knows the contributor spend per issue until it is too late.
- Commission terms are only in the editor's sent mail.