How to earn more than £1,500 in 45 minutes

To all those lured to into reading this opening sentence by the above title, I have two words for you - Radio Drama. And trust me, £1500 is an absolute minimum.

The BBC are always looking for new writers to produce radio drama for them. It's BBC policy to commission work on Radio 3 and 4 by at least 40 new writers a year, and this target is always exceeded.

So what you do is you write a 45 minute script to be performed on radio, send it off to The Writer's Room on the BBC website and, if you're lucky enough to get an interview (BBC are very open to new, exciting work by inexperienced writers), you could be paid for writing radio scripts before you know it.

Now you might need to agree to do the first one for free but, once your foot is in the door, paid work will come rolling in. For a beginner writer, the minimum pay for a one-performance script is £34.40 a minute and for multiple performances it is at least £57, plus extra for attending the recordings. And the more you write, the more you earn. You should have seen the way neon pound signs lit up in all the eyes in the room.

So thank you, Roger Wood, for making me aware of the writing (and financial) advantages of becoming a radio script writer.


Alex Thompson