Artist Payment Policy

The Stinging Fly’s mission is to seek out, nurture, publish and promote the very best new writers and new writing. 

Through our programme of activities, we are committed to creating an environment that encourages and supports new and emerging writing talent, and that responds to the needs of writers at later stages of their careers.

As part of this commitment, we align ourselves with The Arts Council’s Paying the Artist policy and its vision of ‘an environment in which artists can make work of ambition and quality and be remunerated appropriately’. 

In keeping with this policy, we value the work that artists create, and the way in which they represent and contribute to the cultural life of the nation. We want to help build a more robust and vibrant literature sector and we want to ensure that more people have access to the benefits that this brings. 

We agree that the underpaid or unpaid contributions of artists represent a hidden subsidy to the cultural life of Ireland; we recognise that this is unfair and unsustainable. Accordingly, we strive to implement best practice governance, welfare, equality and sustainable policies that ensure we are a fair and responsible organisation.

  • We aim to ensure our payment policy and approach—agreed by board and management—is available to artists and published on our website.
  • We aim to be open, transparent and upfront in communications with artists, to ensure clarity from both perspectives, on the ask and the offer.
  • We aim to comply with rates, terms, practices and standards recommended by representative and resource organisations, and to utilise available toolkits and resources to support the contracting process. 
  • We aspire to the position that best practice, not minimum standards, should apply to remuneration.
  • We aim to ensure that remuneration and contracts fully reflect what an artist is expected and required to deliver and that artists (and, where applicable, their representatives) have a voice in negotiating terms and conditions. 
  • We aim to be clear about the nature and status of an engagement.
  • We aim to ensure that payments reflect and/or differentiate between fees and expenses, including per diems or other relevant payments. We will pay any requisite taxes that arise.
  • We aim to make payment within 14 days on receipt of an invoice sent on completion of commissioned or requested work.
  • We aim to ensure that artists’ fees are ring-fenced within project budgets so as to ensure they are protected against budget overruns in other areas.  
  • We aim to ensure that artists’ copyright is respected, in terms of both moral and economic rights.
  • We aim to support artists to share in the economic life of what they create by ensuring that any contractual arrangements for artists to benefit from the future use of their work are appropriate and proportional and reflect the value of what the artist has created.
  • We aim to review this policy annually, in February of each year. We welcome feedback on the policy and suggestions for how it might be improved. Contact declan [at] stingingfly [dot] org

What we pay
(March 2024)

Publication:

We pay the following fees for first serial rights. Work published in the magazine is also published on our website. Copyright remains in all cases with the author.

Magazine rates
Fiction and nonfiction: €45 per magazine page, but with a minimum/maximum payment of €325/€1200.
Flash Fiction/shorter essays (1 – 2 pages): €150
Poetry: €45 per magazine page, but with a minimum payment of €70 per poem.
Featured Poet: €425
Cover artwork image: €425

Website rates (for original online content)
Monthly Fiction Series: €425
Book review: €275
Non-fiction: €200 – €500 (depending on word count)
Podcast guest: €250

Writer Development & Events:

Mentoring session: €350
Masterclass/seminar: €350 – €500 (depending on context and duration)
Panel event: €200 – €300 (depending on context and duration)
Reading: €200 – €300 (depending on context and duration)

For in-person workshops and events we seek to cover writers’ travel expenses and accommodation costs whenever necessary. For online workshops and seminars, we will cover digital costs, eg Zoom fees.

For publication launch events, we will cover travel and accommodation expenses where necessary. For charity events where we ask artists to forego reader/speaker fees (such as, for example, The Stinging Fly 2022 Summer Party in aid of The Irish Red Cross Ukraine Crisis Appeal) we will make this request clear from the outset.