I was talking to a friend today, and he was asking how my writing was coming along. The discussion then moved to how much a comedy writer would earn;
A) Say for getting his own series commissioned (6 part series for example)
B) Writing for an existing show
Any ideas? I literally had no idea, which I suppose is maybe a good thing?
Have a look at the writers' guild website...you'll get a pretty good idea there.
The writers guild does indeed publish standard rates
But getting comissioned is the tricky bit...
Cheers guys. Of course, getting the thing commissioned is difficult, it was just something I'd never even thought about until questioned.
Not an easy question to answer. Take Sitcom as an example. You may be offered an option fee of a couple of hundred pounds while a producer hawkes your idea round the broadcasters. If they can get one interested, they'll commission a pilot script, for which the fee might be £7k. This will likely be paid in stages and the final 25% could depend on the show being commissioned off the back of the script. If not, you won't get all the fee.
If the show is commissioned, the £7k will be about the fee for each of 6 episodes. Then if it's repeated you get a certain percentage of the fee again, depending if it's a 1st or subsequent repeat, prime time, and which channel etc. If it gets released on DVD or the show is sold abroad then there should be small percentages in the contract for you as well in those instances.
If the producer/broadcaster pulls in more writers your cut reduces.
All of this assumes you get a good contract in the first place.
7k for each episode? It looked to be around £4k on Writers Guild?
So if say, me and my partner were to get ours commissioned, that'd be halved I assume? Then say we have a writer 'attached' to us so to speak, it'll further be diluted?
Seems fair enough, now I need to get one commissioned!
Quote: Richadam @ December 16 2011, 5:36 PM GMT7k for each episode? It looked to be around £4k on Writers Guild?
That's special k...
Quote: Richadam @ December 16 2011, 5:36 PM GMT7k for each episode? It looked to be around £4k on Writers Guild?
So if say, me and my partner were to get ours commissioned, that'd be halved I assume? Then say we have a writer 'attached' to us so to speak, it'll further be diluted?
Seems fair enough, now I need to get one commissioned!
I'm not sure what the WG minimum is and it will vary between broadcasters and channels. I was just giving you an example from my own experience.
And yes, if there's two of you you'll probably split the fees. From memory, if the show I wrote got commissioned, which it didn't, the least I would have got per episode was 12.5% of the script fee. Even if I'd not contributed at all.
I have launched a new website for writers and the pay levels for 'General' content are specified up front (once your register) It is free to join and post content.
You can also post 'authored content' here you set your own price.
The thread is: https://www.comedy.co.uk/forums/thread/31199#P1100646
If you're pimping your services, then stick it in the one thread.
Quote: Contented Registrar @ 11th December 2014, 2:15 PM GMTI have launched a new website for writers and the pay levels for 'General' content are specified up front (once your register) It is free to join and post content.
You can also post 'authored content' here you set your own price.
The thread is: https://www.comedy.co.uk/forums/thread/31199#P1100646
You'd have to go some to earn £7k on your site.
Not really the appropriate thread, I would say.
And for God's sake, don't be doing this for the money.
No-one does this for the money.
When I started writing sitcoms, I'd read that someone got £125,000 per episode, which served as an incentive. I was soon disabused(don't you love that word?) of that notion.