> > We had some who dropped by the office of the Daily News Journal from time to time and on a few occasions, I remember seeing their by-line in the paper. I always wondered how much they got for that stuff.
>
> As far as I know, not so much, if any at all. I actually am a free-lance writer for a local newspaper in my area, but the few bucks (about 20$ now and then) I earn usually go to the local Red Cross office as a charity.
> The big deal comes from my self-employment as a computer programmer/analyst.

It also depends what you're writing (for a newspaper, a magazine etc). A lot of travel or tourism writers don't make a cent in cash payment but they get things heavily discounted, or free, as part of a contra deal to write a story about it. This is why Sam only seems to have been paid two magazines and a company ballpoint pen for permission to use his article about our cave tubing trip. When we did that trip, the caving company let me go for free and everybody else got a 20% discount, because they knew me from years ago when I worked for the magazine, and they knew there was a good chance they could hit up at least one person from our group for a publishable story later. They were right, too, although they picked the wrong person for the free ride.

I also got two overseas tropical dive holidays during my time with the magazine. The first would have been worth at least NZ $1500 if I'd been paying for it, and the second would have been worth a completely brain-melting amount which I don't even want to speculate about. All I had to do in payment was write a glowing magazine article which would entice readers to go there. Under those conditions, you tend to write incredibly embarrassing lines such as "The buried treasure of this island is not gold and jewels, but the hearts and smiles of its people, in a delightful country where the welcome is as warm as the water" and not mention how there were cockroaches the size of hamsters in the motel room.

Brunnen-"this is one reason why you should never entirely trust magazine articles"G