Science  Write  Now

Since our first edition in 2020, Science Write Now has been funded primarily through a series of one- to two-year government grants through Creative Australia, Engaging Science Queensland, and Arts South Australia. These grants have enabled us to produce individual online editions, commission graphic storytelling for our Disability and the Body edition, produce a series of online writing workshops, and mentor young writers. However, we don't qualify for "organizational" or not-for-profit funding -- grants that are both larger and longer-term -- because we are so small and remain independent, and developing either status requires time and funding we simply don't have.

Our magazine is unique in the world, and we want to continue our important work in bringing together the arts and sciences, finding common ground and new audiences. In this next phase of SWN, we want to make our magazine more sustainable for ourselves and our communities, particularly given the rampant closure of arts magazines and programs around Australia and overseas. Because we prioritise (a) paying writers and artists as fairly as we can and (b) keeping most of what we do free to the public, most of our editorial work has been on a volunteer basis. Ultimately, sustainability for us means paying our editors for the work they do in producing our magazine, podcast, and newsletter.

We have applied for more grants, but currently our only funding comes from the 12 sponsors who donate $8/month through our free Substack newsletter -- and thanks to those sponsors we will launch a largely volunteer-produced 'Quantum' edition next month (with funds used to license a cover image from Portuguese street photographer Fernando Coelho and pay poets for reprint work).

For the long-term, we need your help! Between now and National Giving Day to the Arts on October 23rd, we are running an Australian Cultural Fund campaign to raise funding for our 2026 edition, 'The Little Things', which will include print and online components.

In case you're interested, here's an approximation of our shoestring budget.

Podcast

• Buzzsprout, which we use to distribute our podcast, costs $150USD/year.

• Our podcasts are currently volunteer-produced, but do require a significant amount of preparatory (reading/questions/etc) and editing work. If we were to pay our podcasters fairly, assuming the work is similar to moderating a panel at a writers festival, we would pay our hosts at least $250AUD/episode or $3000AUD/year.

Newsletter

We want to share SciArts news and opportunities widely, which means that we haven't made our newsletter "subscription only" -- simply asked followers to subscribe if they'd like to help us out. Again, the work we do here is volunteer-based and takes at least a few hours every fortnight. We would like to be able to pay our team for this work, which at even $50/hr (a fair minimum wage, given we produce specialized, non-AI content), would cost at least $150AUD/newsletter or $3900AUD/year.

Socials

• We pay $240AUD/year for Canva design software and for the last two years, all social media work has been done by volunteers or interns.

• We would love to engage better on social media, including on BlueSky - but we just don't have the capacity on a volunteer basis. Proper engagement would probably take a few hours or at least $150AUD/week or $7800/year.

Ongoing

• Our Founding Editors, Amanda Niehaus (Editor in Chief) and Jessica White (Chair, Advisory Panel), spend an average of 10-15 hours/week managing the magazine, interns and volunteers, and Advisory Panel; writing and implementing grants; engaging with potential writer, artist or scientist collaborators; and mentoring young writers (when we have a Young Writers Program ongoing). This is the case even when others are running the podcast, newsletter, social media, and website maintenance because we still do admin, outreach, and mentorship.

• A minimum wage of $50/hr or $24,000-$39,000/year (exclusive of superannuation or workcover) would sustain basic operations for the magazine -- though, it should be noted, this is a lot lower than an editor in chief might expect to be paid for their specialized role. We have so far only ever paid ourselves <$1000/year for our work.

Online edition

• We typically budget around $2000-$3000AUD to pay writers and artists for their work in each online edition, which enables us to license an artwork for our cover and publish a handful of essays and short stories ($400 for new work; $50 for reprints) as well as up to a dozen poems ($75 or 3 for $180 for new work; $10 for reprints).

• As editors, we read all submissions, collate edition content based on quality and breadth, and typically provide editorial feedback on accepted stories and essays - working with authors over sometimes multiple iterations. We then format pieces into our website with images, alt-text and audio; identify relevant art for our cover and design a cover image; and produce social media. We spend more than 20 hours/week on these roles when we are in the thick of edition production so, based on the minimum wages above, each edition would likely add an additional $3000-$6000AUD/year.

• Submittable fees (to manage submissions) are around $500USD/year, including CLMP membership.

• In total, each online edition costs >$10,000AUD, not including on-costs.

Print edition

Beginning in 2026, we will produce a standard free-to-read online edition as well as limited edition print anthologies that consider the same theme through a combination of (a) commissioned short fiction, (b) commissioned artwork and (c) short essays by relevant scientists. We will charge for these anthologies to cover some costs, but the main point is to reach even bigger audiences with really beautiful and tangible product.

• We aim to pay anthology authors a minimum of $750/story, artists a minimum of $500/artwork, and scientists a minimum of $150/essay.

• We also intend to mentor 2x emerging writers in producing work for the print anthology, as a way of building the networks, reach and experience of people who may not otherwise have the opportunity to participate in "elite" products like this. Mentorship includes multiple meetings with Editor in Chief Amanda Niehaus to talk through story development and multiple rounds of feedback. Amanda is an established mentor so this is an exciting opportunity valued at $2000/mentorship.

• Finally, our outright print costs will run about $10/unit and do not including subsequent charges for distribution or bookseller fees.

We wanted to be open with you all about our passion for this project and the amount of time we contribute to it. Our editor in chief and most of our volunteers and interns are either full-time students or professional arts workers without a consistent salary, so time volunteered is time that cannot be spend on paid projects -- which is why we'd like to pay our team a little more fairly moving forward!

Please help us as we support the SciArts and emerging and established SciArts practitioners, grow our global audiences and engage people with scientific ideas through literature.

Thank you for reading all this! Now you might like to visit our ACF page here to make a donation, sign up for our newsletter here to keep on top of the latest, or check out one of our past editions!

Amanda Niehaus

Editor in Chief, SWN