Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters How much do gunwriters make?

Everyone forgot to mention all of the hot babes that chase gunwriters. Think NBA groupies on a larger scale.

Yeah, we get some nice perks, but just about every writer I know also spends some money too, whether on hunting trips or firearms. For several years during the last decade I spent an average of $10,000 a year on hunting and travel expenses.

Even a "free" hunt with an outfitter usually means the writer pays for his own transportation/lodging to and from the hunt, plus licenses and tips. These can still be great bargains in terms of the hunt itself, but if you buy a plane ticket, a couple of nights at a motel and tip the guide reasonably, you're still at least $1000 in the hole before you ever write one article.

And I don't know anybody that gets free cameras, lenses, etc. Those cost quite a bit. So there are indeed expenses.

I do know a few writers who apparently let the articles write themselves. I can tell when they do. And many would-be gun writers won't spend the money or the time to do better-than-average photography, an essential ingredient to making more money per article.

One advantage if you really DO make your entire living by writing, you aren't tied down to living in any one place. I live in a relatively cheap part of Montana, and spend at least half of my hunting time here, where licenses and travel are much cheaper than when traveling out of state--or the country. Plus I never have to buy any meat.

I think being a gun writer pays a little more than breeding mules and a little less than being an investment banker- roughly...

I'm betting alot of those "expenses" are write off's too, are they not. Maybe I'll try writing off donuts and coffee next year.

I'm not sure why, but this discussion reminds me of the time I worked for a catalog company and brought in a guy, an expert in advertising copywriting, to conduct an all-day seminar to the tune of $10,000 for the day, plus expenses. It's probably hard for most of you to think of a more boring subject.

I picked him up at the airport on a Sunday evening, and took him to dinner before dropping him off at his hotel. He had just published his 25th book on copywriting. I asked him if he made money on his books. He said, "No, but they put me into a position to make money. They make me an 'expert,' so that companies will pay me well to do seminars."

He had a PhD in literature, had spent time in the movie business, and ended up pulling down good money just to talk. I don't suppose any gun writers make that kind of cash, even for being on stage at the big sportsman's shows. There are, however, celebrity "outdoorsmen" (plus more every year who wear pink) in the hunting world.

For what it's worth,
Steve

The politics associated with any corporate business is also alive and well in the writing industry. Every editor wants a group of staff writers that can maintain consistency and therefor make him look good. This often shuts the door to new writers or even seasoned writers that are not known to that editor.

At one point, I was freelancing for a magazine with about 10 years history with them and another 5 or 6 years with another magazine when the later offered me a regular paycheck to write and editorial and a feature article for each edition, plus answer the technical correspondence. For me it was a simple task and they paid $1,500 per issue.

The other magazine owned by a major in the industry, approached me through one of their cronies, to request I change the title given to me in the other magazine. (not my place to request it or do it) They also insisted I sign over copyright of all my work.

Well Aussies are not very PC, infact, if you attempt to use it there, you are conisdered deceiptful and untrustworthy, so I responded accordingly.

The gain for most writers there was the tax deductability of all consumables and costs associated with generating the articles. This extends to gun purchases, all handloading equipment and consumables, a nice 4x4 vehicle, petrol costs to and from each hunting trip, as well as the other costs associated with the trip.

This means you could sell one article for $350 - $500 and get $2-3,000+ per year in tax deductables from your regular job, as there are no, and never have been any, full time writers in Oz with such a small population and distribution.

In the US, I have provided services for ziltch, and been paid up to $1000 for an article. I agree with JB, good pic's are very helpful in having an article accepted but you need to stick to the point and stay with the facts. If you handle the truth carelessly, you "WILL" be found out and discraced behind your back, which is all it takes to stop a career cold.

Teach people what you know, express what you learn and stay away from assumptions and guesswork. However....and there is always a however, You can extrapolate on your learning in some places where you know relevence exists.

If your loads work great on mule deer, you know they will work on whitetail etc.

John

Is it just me, or does anybody else get the slightest hint that RDFinn of New Jersey doesn't much care for writers?

Writing it off doesn't make it less of an expense. It just means you don't pay taxes on that money. So instead of being out $1,000, you're out that much minus the taxes, say 20% for easy math. So now you're only out $800. Yay!!! At the end of the day it's still an expense and you have to finance it until the article is paid for. Same as any other business owner, which is what a writer is essentially. He doesn't get a paycheck every week. He works all the time then collects sometime well after the article is published, I'm guessing.

Everybody seems to think a "write-off" is like free money. It's not, trust me. 11 years of running my own show and there is NO free money. You earn every dollar, regardless of your profession.

You can already write off all your donuts and coffee - and all your guns and ammo as well. It only matters when the IRS decides to audit you, and most of us who run our own small business's eventually learn a lot about taxes, write-offs and audits.
i know a lot of writers and monetarily none of them are rich and most live pretty frugally.

One thing I don't ever see mentioned about gun writers is the self reliance and self starting needed to be successful.
No one tells a gun writer that he has to be at work at 7 AM tomorrow, and that he gets a half hour lunch , two coffee breaks and Christmas off. An independent writer has to find most of his own story ideas, work until there is a good story about that idea, and then sell that idea. It's not like working for the phone company where if the road is too muddy to get to the customers house, you still get paid your hourly rate for trying to get there. If you are doing a story on a 45/70 Ackley Improved and you didn't get the dies from the Crooked Neck die Company in time for the deadline, shame on you. No money that month.
Also, how many people are mature enough to set aside money for their own health insurance/care, retirement, vacation pay?
Just to be clear, the point that I am making is that being a gun writer requires more incentive than it takes to be employed in a job where you are lead around by the hand. Gun writers didn't get a government bail out! I am not attempting to say that being a gun writer doesn't have some great perks. It does. But, as the cliche goes, if it was easy, everybody would be doing it.

Fred

I would bet writers are like custom gunmakers for the most part. Some make more than others, but how many of each trade are well off. I'll bet it is a hell of a lot easier to make money in the private sector.
I am an avid reader and would really hope the good writers make a butt load of money.
Butch

Most of them I don't as many seem to be advertising vehicles. Many struggle to write something remotely negative about a product or service and if they do muster the strength, they appear to apologize for doing so. So, yes, Roy Daniel Finn doesn't really care for the vast majority of them, but in fairness I realize they walk a tightrope between morals and gainful employment.

If you don't mind my asking John...which month and year did your National Geographic article come out? I'd enjoy re-reading it - knowing you wrote it.

Well, the discussion has brought up some interesting points since I last posted.

Yeah, we can write off expenses for hunting and guns, but that doesn't mean that's free money. If I made, say, $50,000 a year writing and spent $50,000 on hunting and guns, then the tax write-off wouldn't help a hell of a lot. I'd be living in a cardboard box.

If somebody really IS a full-time writer, with no other job, then we have to pay a lot more for health insurance. Which is exactly why a lot of gun writers either have full-time jobs that provide reasonably affordable medical insurance, or are married to somebody with a job with afforadable health insurance.

In our case, both Eileen and I are full-time freelance writers, and from what I can tell, our health insurance premiums are 2-3 times as much as those for most people who get insurance through their job. In fact, our monthly health insurance premium is by far our biggest expense, at least twice as large as anything else. It basically eats up an article check from the top-paying markets I write for--and no, that is not $500.

I failed to point out in my previous posts that there are essentially three levels in payment per article. The lowest is for freelancers that sell just a few articles per year, and not all that regularly to the same magazine. Articles from these writers tend to vary considerably in quality and photo support, but if they do make the grade, the magazines saves some money in the editorial budget. These writers get go-aheads on "speculation," meaning the editor will willingly read the suggested piece, but won't guarantee it will be bought.

The next level is for professional freelancers who sell quite a few articles. They're familiar to the editor, and are more reliable about producing a useable article. These get firm assignments, meaning the editor basically guarantees he'll use it--or, more rarely, if he can't, the writer will still get a partial payment, known as a "kill fee." This level pays 2-3 times the rate of occasional freelancers.

Staff writers get paid for anything the editor assigns them, because they always hit at least a solid single, if not a home run. This level pays even more, partly because it sometimes requires not writing for competing magazines.

As for writing manufacturer-friendly articles, that's about a 50/50 deal between the magazine and writer. Some magazines are very manufacturer friendly, to the point where they'll edit out any negative criticism of a product. Others prefer to run such criticism.

But no magazine I know of consistently runs articles that rip a product--because if it's that bad, readers don't want to know about it. Believe me, that's true. On the rare occasions magazines have run totally negative product reviews, READERS complain because the magazine "wasted" their time.

Glamour jobs of every sort aways have another side that the public seldom sees. Either very low pay for the vast majority, or very difficult working conditions. One relative with a degree in Broadcast Journalism was paid minimum wage by a television station until she took a sales-clerk job that paid considerably better. Too many eager, qualified applicants for most glamour jobs. The best money seems to be in sales and doesn't require a college degree. One friend makes a consistent 6-figure income selling industrial packing materials. One niece who barely made it out of high school has made about $150,000 each year for the last ten years selling ads in the yellow pages in a large metropolitan area. A friend just told me that he saw his 21-yr old daughter's W-2 form for last year. She works as a stripper and her employer reported $160,000 as her wages for 2010. I don't know if that included tips. It would be interesting to see what she claimed for deductions (donuts?). I don't know if she made all that money as a dancer. That is all she would admit to doing to her dad, but the company she works for also makes porno movies, or at least distributes them.

If I have any point to make it is that I honor and respect all those who are honest and work hard at whatever they do, and I especially enjoy and respect the good gunwriters. It is a shame that our society "values" people and the jobs they do according to the money they get paid. Life isn't fair; never has been and never will be.

One nice thing about books and articles: I can enjoy them over and over again through the years, and I only paid for them once. To the good writers I say thank you, over and over.

A good writer can make more than the teacher that teaches their kids.

Interesting thread and not much surprised that the "usual suspects" were forthcoming with the goods. ;O)



I have two friends who are essentially full time wildlife artists.

One does anything from ink drawings, to water colors, but mostly acrylics and oils. He makes a fair living from originals and a better living from prints of originals, commissioned works and stamps.

While he always "gets around to it", he is notorious for being easily distracted and having to near kill hisself at times, to meet deadlines. He is always heaps of fun to be around.

The other one is slightly more organized and diligent, although just as talented. When he starts a project, he follows it through to the end, with few exceptions. He can do anything from scrimshaw and ink drawings, to primitive native American arts, like wingbone calls, knapped flint heads, arrows, bows and similar efforts. They are true works of art in their own right.

He ain't near as much fun to be around, most of the time. Except when he's away from his work.

As with most talented writers, artists are either self starters and have enough discipline to get things done, or they ain't and suffer for it.

Hot cartridge! Can I make it work in an AR?
;<)

dubePA,

You made some excellent observations.

One of the most talented hunting/gun writers I know has almost no self-discipline. He doesn't hunt or shoot all that much, and when he does it's for obscure game, with obscure guns. Then he waits until he's really inspired to write. When he does write it's very good stuff--but few editors can rely on ever receiving anything on time.

He is also heaps of fun to be around--except when he bitches about not being able to make a living, at what he supposedly does for a living.

One thing I have always been good at is getting up early the morning and writing. This is because I like to get up early, and I love to write. I also like the rest of the average day, where Eileen and I cook some of our game, and we handload, photograph or shoot, or just go hunting for a couple of hours.

But unless the writing gets done, the bills don't get paid.

JB...did you tell them about the Maserati...?