You ask, we answer: Getting the dough
Cheryl writes: “I’ve been reviewing your chapter about getting the green. My situation is I wrote for a magazine that pays on publication but I can’t find out whether or not my 2 articles have actually been published yet. My question is if payment is on publication and the writer is unable to get their hands on a magazine or otherwise verify if its been published, what is the best way to proceed at getting payment? I have not said anything in my invoice or emails or fax to indicate I don’t know if the articles have been published or not. I don’t want them to call my bluff and say they’re not published yet because they know I can’t verify the information.”
You mentioned later in your letter that you think the magazine is going under, and that you haven’t gotten any responses to your calls, e-mails, and faxes. Is there any other way you can find out if your article ran? Are there any discussion forums you belong to that are related to the topic of the magazine where readers of this mag might congregate? If so, you can ask there for someone to check for your article. Or ask on a writers’ forum or two…maybe you’ll get lucky and someone there will be a regular reader or writer for this magazine.
Is this magazine published by a larger publishing company (rather than being an independent publication)? If so, skip the editor and work your way up the corporate ladder (starting with the accounts payable department) to find out what the deal is.
If those tactics fail, I’d throw caution to the wind and send an invoice to the publishing company by certified mail. In the future, try to add a clause to any pay-on-pub contracts that your article will run within X months from when you turn it in.
Have a question for the Renegades? Send it to questions [at] therenegadewriter [dot] com. [lf]
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