At the beginning of the summer, I wrote an article for a certain inflight magazine. I’ve written for that magazine several times, and know without needing to ask that the standard word count for features is 1,200. Experience has taught me that a decent editor can find at least 5% flab in anything I write, so I delivered a bit over 1,300.

When the article appeared, I was a bit surprised to notice just how much had been cut out. When the payment paperwork arrived, I saw I was to be paid for 986 words, so I immediately emailed the editor: “Is the target word count still 1,200? I ask because my last article was cut down to under 1,000…”

To his great credit, he quickly replied: “I think I cut the article because there wasn’t enough space to fit all the text in the layout I was given. But you are right, you should be paid according to the 1,200 target. A new payment form is attached. Please disregard the old form.”

I like writing for that particular magazine and hope to write for them many more times, so this wasn’t an issue I would’ve burned bridges over. But if I hadn’t asked, I would now be US$68 poorer. Not a fortune, but where I live that buys a very decent dinner for two people. And hopefully this has set or reinforced the notion in that particular office that writers should get paid for the work that was commissioned, even if not all of it was used.

In the two decades I’ve been freelancing, in only a handful of instances have publications not used work they asked me to do; perhaps half of those have paid me “kill fees.” Reading reports like this one, it seems I’ve been very lucky when it comes to getting what I’m owed, likely because a lot of the work I do is directly or indirectly for government agencies. Slow payment is often a problem the first time I write for an organization. It isn’t unusual to wait three months before the money arrives. But once they’ve got your details in their system, things are far quicker. Usually, that is…