In light of the spirited and educational discussion that has taken place over the past two weeks about the pay rates being offered to pulp authors by Black Matrix Publishing, I thought it would be interesting to see what each of four national professional writer associations paid its top employee in terms of compensation (salary/wages) over the past few years. Note that all data was taken from IRS Form 990 tax forms filed by the organizations themselves and housed in a public database maintained by the Foundation Center (easier than linking to PDFs in GuideStar).Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America Inc.
Tax Year 2004/2005 -- Executive Director paid $19,117
Tax Year 2005/2006 -- Executive Director paid $22,863
Tax Year 2006/2007 -- Executive Director paid $22,975
Tax Year 2007/2008 -- Executive Director paid $27,598
Horror Writers Association
Tax Year 2002/2003 -- No full-time paid employee
Tax Year 2003/2004 -- No full-time paid employee
Tax Year 2004/2005 -- No full-time paid employee
Tax Year 2005/2006 -- No full-time paid employee
Tax Year 2006/2007 -- No full-time paid employee
Tax Year 2007/2008 -- No full-time paid employee
Mystery Writers of America Inc.
Calendar Year 2004 -- Administrative Director paid $58,651
Calendar Year 2005 -- Office Manager paid $72,205
Calendar Year 2006 -- Not stated but presumably $74,880
Calendar Year 2007 -- Administrative Manager paid $78,110
Romance Writers of America Inc.
Tax Year 2003/2004 -- Executive Director paid $83,724
Tax Year 2004/2005 -- Executive Director paid $88,561
Tax Year 2005/2006 -- Executive Director paid $96,940
Tax Year 2006/2007 -- Executive Director paid $100,656
Tax Year 2007/2008 -- Executive Director paid $106,572
I encourage readers to check my math and draw their own conclusions. My conclusion: the ED of the RWA has a lovely gig!
67.JPG)
Posts
7 comments:
This is my first time reading your blog. A question: have you heard of the 1920s science fiction writer Homer Flint? He died (was murdered) in 1924 at 36. He wrote several short stories for the pulps, some about life on or flight to Mars.
I'm asking because he was my grandfather.
In all fairness, it should be noted that HWA has 426 members, SFWA has 1,500 members; MWA has 3,000 members and RWA has 10,000 members. Please note that even though RWA has three times as many members as MWA, the executive administrator does not three times the salary.
Vonna:
No, I have never heard of Homer Flint, but if I come across any of his stories, I'll let you know.
Thanks for the numbers, Donna!
A lovely gig, but I can confirm that the RWA-ED earns every penny of her salary.
Homer Flint has four stories on Project Gutenberg.
Thanks for the tip on Homer Flint! I'll take a look at Project Gutenberg.
Post a Comment