WRONG! of the Week

Buying writing on the never-never

"We pay on publication." What if the piece gets pushed back an issue? What if you decide not to run it at all? By the way, a kill fee is no substitute for full payment if you kill the piece due to no fault of the writer (say, lack of space). Pay on pub usually means the writer waits more than 30 days—sometimes a lot more, months even. Smart as most writers are, they still use money for essentials like everyone else.