Data report
The State of Paid Writing, 2026 edition.
What 142 real, currently-listed literary and journalism markets actually pay, what they accept, and what they do not tell you. Every figure on this page is computed from the BRYME opportunities database at build time — 142 publication records, each human-verified against its official guidelines page between 2026-08-19 to 2026-09-26. No figure is estimated, and "not stated" is reported as a finding.
The window right now
92 of 142 markets are open or rolling as of this build; 7 carry a fixed deadline, 21 open later, 14 are closed, and 8 could not be confirmed. Statuses flip record by record in today's list, which recomputes on every deploy.
What markets pay, where they say
Rates below are the stated minimums on official guidelines pages — the floor of what an accepted piece earns, in the currency the market itself quotes. We do not convert currencies and we do not average across them.
- US-dollar markets (50): stated minimums run $5 to $2,500, with a median of $100 per accepted piece.
- Nigerian-naira markets (5): stated minimums run ₦5,000 to ₦150,000, median ₦50,000.
- 87 records quote other currencies, pay per word, or do not publish a number at all.
The honest caveat: a stated rate is what the guidelines promise on the day we checked. The window above is the verification range — reopen the official page before you pitch.
The AI question, answered by the markets themselves
51 of 142 publications state an AI policy on their guidelines page, and 45 of those 51 prohibit AI-generated submissions outright; 4 require disclosure and 2 allow limited use. The largest single group — 91 — says nothing yet, which is itself the finding: most literary markets have not published an AI policy, and silence is not permission.
What the guidelines do not tell you
- Rights: only 7 of 142 records state clearly that copyright remains with the author. The other 135 are silent or vague — ask before you sign anything.
- Response times: 62 markets do not publicly state a response window. Where they do, it lives on each record.
What they are looking for
Across the 142 records, the most-requested forms are: fiction (69), essays (68), poetry (52), journalism (24), creative nonfiction (23), articles (20). Submissions run through 38 Submittable portals; the rest split between email pitches, online forms and other routes — each record shows its own method.
How to read this report
It describes the 142 publications BRYME tracks, not the whole market. It counts what official guidelines state, not what contributors anecdotally report. Where a market states a rate for one format only, that is what we counted. The full method — and every record behind every number here — is open: the database, opportunities by country, and the editorial policy that governs all of it.