Pro or Not Pro, That Is the Question

Recently, I outlined my writing goals for 2025, which you can see here. One of those goals is to make at least 12 pro sales, but that leads me to the following question. What exactly IS a pro sale? It’s not as cut and dry as you might think, so, in this post, I’m going to go over some of the ways folks determine if a sale is pro or not. I’m also going to cover some of the gray areas, and then give you my thoughts on how I’m personally going to determine pro or not pro for my own story sales.

First, a few caveats. I’m a genre writer who writes primarily sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and crime, so the definitions of professional payment I’ll be using pertain only to works sold to markets that publish those genres. I have neither the knowledge nor experience necessary to make that determination for lit-fic. Also, I write short fiction and flash fiction, so I won’t be covering pro sales for poetry or drabbles because, again, it’s just not what I do.

To kick things off, let’s cover what I consider no-brainers when it comes to determining a professional sale.

1. SFWA qualifying markets. The SFWA has compiled a list of markets that offer professional payment. Though the SFWA has recently removed the list from their website while they make improvements to it, their monthly market report operates in much the same way. So, if you receive an acceptance for an original piece o a reprint (more on that later) from one of these markets, I think it is unequivocally a pro sale.
2. SFWA and HWA minimum pro payments. Both the SFWA and HWA have minimum qualifying per-word rate for a market to be considered professional. For the SFWA, that’s 8 cents per word (USD), and for the HWA, it’s 5 cents per word (USD). So, if you’re paid 8 cents for a SFF story or 5 cents for a horror story, I think it’s fair to call it a pro sale.

Now, let’s get into the less obvious stuff, the gray areas that some folks might consider a pro sale and some might not. Below, I’ll briefly describe a situation where pro or not pro is not entirety clear and then tell you how I’m going to treat each one.

1. Flat rate. Some markets don’t pay a per-word rate and instead pay a flat dollar amount for stories. So how do you determine if such a payment is a pro payment? The easiest thing to do is to divide that dollar amount by the number of words in your story, and see if your per-word rate matches up with the SFWA or HWA qualifying rates. For example, Uncharted Magazine pays $200.00 (USD) for all stories between 1,000 and 5,000 words. So, if I sell them a 3,000 words sci-fi story, that 200 bucks works out to about 6.5 cents per word, which technically isn’t a pro rate for SFF, but since they’re on the SFWA list of qualifying markets, I’d say it is. Confused yet? Here’s how I’m gonna treat flat rates. If the market is on the SFWA qualifying market list, then I’m treating it as a pro sale no matter what. For stories not on that list, both SFF and horror, I’ll consider the sale pro if the per word rate works out to 8 cents or 5 cents respectively.
2. Reprints sold to pro markets. Reprints are almost always paid at a lesser rate than original stories. For example, PodCastle, a market that both pays 8 cents per word for original fiction AND is on the SFWA list of qualifying markets pays a $100.00 flat rate for reprints. Now, no matter how long your story is, 100 bucks is not likely to work out to a pro payment when you calculate the per word rate. My verdict on this is pretty simple. If you sell a reprint to an obviously pro market, it’s a pro sale even if you’re paid less than the SFWA or HWA qualifying rate.
3. Foreign currencies. I submit to markets all over the world, and I’ve been paid per word rates in Canadian dollars (CAD), Australian dollars (AUD), British pounds (GBP), and a few others. Well, if you know your exchange rates, then this can make determining a pro sale kind of tricky. Here’s a good example. I’ve been published by a couple of Canadian markets, one of which pays 5 cents (CAD) per word. Now, if I sell them a horror story, I’m technically getting 5 cents per word and that technically means it’s a pro sale. Of course, when you look at exchange rates, that 5 cents CAD equates to about 3.5 cents per word (USD), which would be a semi-pro sale. It can go the other way, too. If I sell a horror story to a market that pays 4 cents a word (GBP), I’m actually making 5 cents per word (USD). My verdict? For SFF markets, I’m gonna go by the SFWA qualifying markets list. The Canadian market I mentioned above is not on that list, so I’d consider them a semi-pro sale (though one I am quite happy to have). For a horror or crime story, I think if the payment works out to 5 cents a word (USD), I might consider it a pro sale, but I’m still kinda iffy on it.
4. Cross-genre works. I tend to mash up genres a lot, most often mixing sci-fi/horror, sci-fi/crime, and horror/crime. This can present an interesting conundrum when I’m trying to determine a pro sale. If I sell my sci-fi/horror piece to a horror market and receive 5 cents per word, I’ve made a pro sale, right? But if I sell that same story to a sci-fi market and receive the same 5 cents per word, I have not made a pro sale (unless the market is on the SFWA qualifying list). It’s weird and uneven, but I do think it’s pretty straightforward, and in this case you have to go by the market and not the story. So, in my above example, the sale to a horror story is pro, the sale to the sci-fi market is semi-pro.
5. Mystery/Crime stories. Unlike the SFWA and the HWA, the Mystery Writers of America (MWA) has not set a minimum per word rate for a pro sale. They have a list of approved publishers and markets and have stated that a minimum payment of at least $25.00 is required for a sale to be considered toward active membership, but no clearly defined pro rate. From what I’ve gathered from talking with folks who are far more accomplished in the genre than I am, this is because the short mystery/crime market is quite a bit smaller than the SFF/horror markets, so the distinction between pro and semi/pro is not as useful. That said, there are a couple mystery/crime publishers that I think anyone would consider professional markets by any definition of the word. These are Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, and they both pay 5 cents per word or more. My gut instinct is to set the pro bar for my own purposes at 5 cents per word for crime/mystery markets. Still, truth be told, I’m not entirely sure how I’m gonna judge my crime story sales that aren’t to no-brainer markets. I’m just gonna have to take it on a case-by-case basis.

Okay, so there you have it, most of the ways you might judge a story as pro or not. There are some scenarios and corner cases I likely haven’t considered, but what I’ve got here should cover a good 95% of the scenarios a writer might find themselves in. To recap, for my own personal goals, here’s how I’m going to determine pro sales. A sale is pro if . . .

• The market  is on the SFWA qualifying market list.
• If the market pays at least 8 cents per word for SFF and 5 cents per word for horror.
• If the market Pays a flat rates that works out to a per word rate of 8 cents or 5 cents.
• If the story is a reprints sold to obviously pro market.

Please remember that all of my opinions above are simply how I’m going to determine pro sales for MY work. This is not a guide for how you should determine pro sales for YOUR work. I like to define and codify things, and this is just an attempt to do that so I can feel good about a silly little goal I’ve set for myself. 🙂

Thoughts on what makes a sale pro or not pro? Any scenarios I missed you’d like to talk about? I’d love to here from you in the comments.