Our Writers

Dear Reader —

In our past giving campaigns, we have offered our readers a grand vision of the purpose of The New Atlantis and what more we could do with a big overall funding boost.

This year we’d like to do something different.

First, we want to give you a peek behind the curtain and show you how a magazine works — the buzz of activities that come together to produce a year of our publishing.

Second, we’d like to show you specifically how your investment in one key part of the magazine could allow us to operate at a new level.

Today I’ll offer you the inside scoop on what it means to write for a living. In future installments I’ll talk about the work of producing our articles, illustrating and designing the magazine, and more.

Think of The New Atlantis like a big house, but with people and rooms spread out all across America. The house is more than the sum of its parts. But your choice to repaint a dining room, refinish a deck — or bring in new guests, host new parties, or add on a whole new wing — could be transformative.

I’m going to let you in on some trade secrets. Conventional wisdom in the ideas world says that there are two kinds of writers: those who write to live, and those who live to write.

If you want to make serious money as a solo writer, you can do it. For example, you can launch a Substack that addresses a single issue and churn out articles optimized for virality. Some writers make tens of thousands of dollars a month this way.

If you want elite cachet, you can do that too — but often for terrible pay. I have written virally successful articles for big-name legacy outlets for which I got paid $100 or $200. Sometimes writing for high-status outlets means getting paid nothing.

The New Atlantis prides itself on bucking this either/or choice. Most of our writers come to us because they value our reputation and want to be a part of it. But compensation is also a crucial factor for writers. “And they pay real money, too,” I recently heard one of our writers say to another prospective writer about us.

We hope that’s right. When you read an ambitiously researched feature essay in The New Atlantis, the writer has typically been paid $1,500 to $2,500 for that work. That’s real money as far as these things go.

But it’s still limiting. I’m talking here about articles that can be the product of months of focused research, writing, and editing. The amount we offer is enough to let authors justify time spent on passion projects — but not to treat writing for us as a real source of income. That puts hard limits on which authors are able to write for us, at what level of work, and how often.

Here are some specifics for you to think about:

• Major national magazines that offer $5,000 or more for deeply reported feature articles let writers truly prioritize those articles as an important part of their employment.
• Think about “No Other Options,” “Rational Magic,” “Did Exxon Make It Rain Today?,” and “If You Build It, Will They Come?” — all New Atlantis articles that took their authors weeks or months of focused work.
• If The New Atlantis were able to compete at a higher pay level, it would dramatically boost our competitiveness in the writing marketplace, allowing us to attract more top-tier writing talent and publish many more deeply reported articles like these.
• Our author budget for next year is currently only 2/3 funded. We need to close that gap soon.
• And that budget only keeps author pay the same. Our real aim is to raise author pay — especially for features but also for all articles.
• We can achieve these goals if we can raise $35,000 toward this part of our budget this fall.

Here is what I’m asking you: Look at what The New Atlantis is already able to do with real-but-limited pay to its authors, and imagine what we could do if we could truly compete with the big boys.

Help us attract more top-tier writing talent by donating online or via check. Although we’re looking for a boost in our overall funding, if you’d like to give specifically to this budget item, write “Authors” on the memo line of your check or payment and every single dollar you give will be spent on paying our authors.

Thank you in advance.

Yours,
Ari

p.s. In our next installment, we’ll give you a window into the editors’ side of this equation.

How to Give

Donations are tax-deductible.

By Check
Payable to “The New Atlantis” and mailed to:
1730 M Street NW, Suite 910
Washington, D.C. 20036

By Credit Card or PayPal
Online here.

By Donor-Advised Fund
501(c)(3) name: The Center for the Study of Technology and Society
EIN: 51‑0399261
Phone: (202) 715-3488
Contact: Brady Lee, blee@thenewatlantis.com

Pledges
Please email Brady Lee, Director of Development, at blee@thenewatlantis.com.