Dear Film Daze readers,
In light of feedback from our writers, we have realized that we can, and will, do better when it comes to compensating our authors for their labor in a fair and timely fashion. We realize that our current policy of payment being issued 40 days after a piece’s publication is not acceptable for our writers.
Effective for all pitches accepted and pieces published after October 1, payment for authors will be issued 14 days after publication for all essays and reviews. Festival coverage totaling or exceeding $150 will be paid together on or within 30 days of publishing. Editors will be paid on the same day as the writer for the piece they worked on.
Pitches accepted and published before then are still under the 40 day pay policy writers agreed to as we adjust our payment system, but we will make an effort to get payments out sooner.
Most of our staff and writers are either full-time students or work full time, and while we cannot pay salaries in line with other larger publications, we aim to compensate our writers fairly in accordance with our policies and, starting now, according to a faster timeline. Film Daze is a not-for-profit venture and prides itself on not running ads, and our publication relies on Patreon and Substack support and donations, which all goes back into our budget for commissioning pieces and paying our writers and editors.
We aim to be as transparent as possible about our pay rates for staff writers/guest writers and our process, and are always here to answer any questions or respond to concerns, whether through our email or on Twitter.
