Like the idea of getting paid to write about games? This list is for you! It includes a wide variety of publishers that pay freelance writers to write about games, including video games, tabletop games, board games, roleplaying games, and more.
If you’re not sure how to approach these publishers, I suggest participating in Day 2 of the free Writing Launch workshop.
Kabouter Games creates “adventures, game-master support products, and player-facing materials for all your OSR needs.” They are looking for tabletop role-playing games (TTRPG) writers to create locations for fantasy role-playing game (RPG) settings. They will pay $50 for 1,500 words. To learn more, refer to this Twitter thread and this page.
The Arkham Gazette is “a fan-produced magazine focused on Lovecraft Country, as invented by H.P. Lovecraft and organized by the late Keith Herber in the book series of that name by Chaosium for the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game.” They are looking for submissions (ranging from 150 to 15,000+ words) for a number of categories. They pay 4 cents per word. For details, refer to this page.
Savage Dawn is “a free system-neutral, and community-driven fantasy setting/expansion that is easy to adapt into any fantasy roleplaying game.” They welcome contributions from all (aspiring) writers and other enthusiasts. They pay $0.05 per word. To learn more, refer to this page.
Wireframe Magazine is a fortnightly print magazine about video game development. They are always looking for great writers for their magazine. According to one payment report, they paid £80 per page (300 words per page) for a feature. For details, refer to this page.
Digital Spy is the United Kingdom’s biggest TV and movies site. They offer news on TV, movies, soaps, showbiz, music, games, and tech. According to one payment report, they paid £60 for a TV review of 350 to 500 words. To contact them, visit this page.
Videodame features “writing and artwork about and inspired by videogames, produced by women and other marginalized groups in the gaming industry.” They invite pitches for “essays, fiction, poetry, comics, art, videos, and/or soundscapes (or anything else you can think up!) about or inspired by games and gaming culture.” They encourage everyone to pitch but give particular encouragement to “women, people of color, LGBTQ individuals, people with disabilities, and any members of other groups typically marginalized in the gaming industry.” They pay $50 per piece. To learn more, refer to this page.
Codex is a monthly RPG (role-playing game) magazine by The Gauntlet, a gaming community focused on tabletop RPGs. Each issue of the magazine features “original games, supplements for existing games, and hacks—all organized around a theme.” They need pitches for the following issues of their magazine: Hell 2, Colossus, and Hearthfire. They pay $0.06 per word. To learn more, refer to their Twitter post and website.
FanSided is “one of the fastest growing network of fandom-focused sports, entertainment and lifestyle sites on the internet.” They cover NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, CFB, CBB, MMA, golf, racing, fantasy, gaming, movies, TV, tech, food, and more. According to one payment report, they paid $0.05 per word. To contact them, refer to this page.
Rock, Paper, Shotgun is a website that offers PC gaming news, reviews, previews, and opinion. They are currently looking for community reports, interview-led features, reviews, lists, and “spawn point” articles. They pay a standard rate of £200 for articles of 1,000 to 1,500 words. They may pay £250 for reviews of particularly long games or interviews of multiple subjects. Details here.
Hardcore Gaming 101 is a video game overview website that covers cult classics and obscure games. They pay $30 for a 1,000-word article, $45 for a 1,500-word article, and $60 for a 2,000-word article. For details, read their submission guidelines.
Ars Technica is a website that specializes in news, reviews, and analysis of technology trends. They cover technology, policy, science, cars, gaming, gadgets, and more. Payment reports indicate that they pay up to $0.40 per word. They’re owned by Condé Nast, the biggest magazine publisher in the world. To contact them, refer to this page.
Culture Eater is an online, Australian indie zine that is looking for feature submissions across these categories: the arts (e.g. music, theatre, and photography), gaming (e.g. video games and tabletop), film and TV, literature, fashion, podcasts, and personal essays. They pay $25 to $100 per feature submission. To learn more, refer to this page.
Defiance Forum is a website for news and discussion on Defiance (an online game developed by Trion Worlds) and other games. They are looking for gamers and writers who want to share their favorite game’s strategies with other game enthusiasts. The games that they accept include “shooter games, survival games, RPG games, artillery games, RTS, RTT, tower defense, TBT, TBS, other action, adventure, and action-adventure games.” They pay their writers $0.03 per word. They seem to publish articles only very occasionally. For more information, visit this page.
Engadget is a source for technology news and reviews. They cover the intersection of gaming, technology, and entertainment. According to payment reports, they pay up to $0.25 per word. To contact them, refer to this page.
Exeunt is an online theatre and performance magazine for quality theatre essays, long-form writing, criticism, interviews, and podcasts. They are “open to everything from in-depth academic explorations of interesting topics, to visual responses to performances, to interviews, to rants, to games.” One payment report indicates that they pay $0.10 per word. To contact them, visit this page.
St. Mary’s Messenger is a quarterly Catholic magazine for kids aged 7 to 12. The magazine features stories, poems, crafts, games, puzzles, feast day celebration ideas, and more. Though they are a Catholic magazine, they don’t want every piece to be explicitly religious. They pay $25 to $100 for articles or stories that appear in their print magazine. They don’t pay for work that appears online. For details, refer to their submission guidelines.
Raging Swan Press is a UK-based roleplaying game publisher that “specialises in producing products for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.” They want articles of 500 words. They pay 11 cents per word, up to a maximum of $55. For details, visit this page.
EN World offers news coverage of tabletop roleplaying games. They are looking for articles for their three publications named TRAILseeker, EN5ider, and EONS. According to an old writer’s guidelines page, the starting rate for their new writers is $0.03 per word, which comes out to be “$60 for a 2,000 word article, $150 for a 5,000 word adventure, and $210 for a 7,000 word adventure.” It is not clear if they still pay these rates. To learn more, contact them here.
Deorbital is a “videogame-aligned journal for insightful articles on games, culture, and society.” They prioritize writing from marginalized voices and young writers. They want articles of 1,000 to 1,500 words. They pay $200 per article. For details, read their pitch guidelines.
Geek Native is a blog for gamers that covers role-playing games (RPGs), computer games, comics, tech, sci-fi, anime, books, movies, and shiny gadgets. According to their website, “as an experiment a small monthly budget is being set aside to pay for written content.” They will pay for news, tips and tricks, and industry commentary. The rate is $0.08 per word for articles of 750 to 1,000 words. For details, refer to this page.
Ogrezine is a PDF magazine that is published by Steve Jackson Games (a game company) in Austin, Texas, United States. The magazine is “devoted to the game of Ogre in its many forms.” They are looking for anything related to Ogre that their readers might find interesting. They pay 6 cents per word. To learn more, read their writer’s guidelines.
Boys’ Quest is a magazine created for boys from 6 to 13 years, with youngsters 8, 9, and 10 the specific target age. They publish articles, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry that deal with timeless topics, such as pets, nature, hobbies, science, games, sports, careers, simple cooking, and anything else likely to interest a 10-year-old boy. Each issue revolves around a theme. The ideal length of a nonfiction piece is 350-375 words for a one-page magazine article or 700-750 words for a two-page magazine article. They will pay a minimum of five cents a word for both fiction and nonfiction, with additional payment given if appropriate photos or art accompany the piece. Read their submission guidelines here: http://funforkidzmagazines.com/bq_guidelines
Pyramid Magazine Pyramid Magazine is a PDF magazine published by Steve Jackson Games in Austin, TX. According to the guidelines, this publication is focused on “tabletop role-playing games (RPGs) with most articles devoted to either generic (systemless) gaming or GURPS.” Pyramid buys all rights to any original article editors publish. Payment is $0.04 per word for features (2,000-5,000 words). To learn more, read writers’ guidelines: http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/writing.html.
Choice of Games is another unique publisher. They create interactive text-based games that allow the reader to choose their own path throughout the narrative arc. Authors can either host a game or publish under the Choice of Games label. Authors who host receive 25% of royalties, while authors who publish under the CoG have two payment options to choose from. To learn more, read our write-up on Choice of Games as well as their submission guidelines.
Worlds Without Master is an adventure fiction and gaming magazine, harking back to genre magazines of yore. They feature fiction, tabletop role-playing games, and non-fiction articles that may be of interest to sword and sorcery gamers. They pay $100 for non-fiction, $200 for stories. To learn more, read their submission guidelines.
Polygon publishes engaging stories based on video game artists, fans, and culture. They previously listed pay as $0.25 per word, but now state that they pay both on effort and word count. They now say “Our rates are competitive and designed to allow freelancers leeway to sink their teeth into stories, sometimes spending months pursuing particular interviews or background information. ” They imply that they’ll be willing to pay a significant sum for the right kind of article. To learn more, read their submission guidelines.
Playopolis is a UK based blog that publishes reviews of classic boardgames, as well as articles “about board games, card games or the wider industry.” (Not RPGs.) They pay £50 to £200 for articles, and £25 to £40 for reviews of older titles. To learn more, read their submission guidelines.
Paste Magazine publishes articles about music, tv, video games, and comedy. They seem to have have a broad focus on popular culture. They pay $50 for articles. To learn more, read their submission guidelines.
ZEAL is a blog that publishes writing on comics, games, and pop culture. They also publish original comics. They are “interested in writing on games that are not generally the target of serious criticism; games that are too weird, too bad, too forgotten, and too anime. ” They even publish “revisionist fan-fiction.” They pay up to $100 per article, and up to $200 per comic. To learn more, read their submission guidelines.
Modern Rogue covers computer gaming, lifestyle, and pop culture. They pay $50+ per article. To learn more, read their submission guidelines.