Magazine

Today I got my copies of the spring issue of Spiritual Life magazine with my article: "'A Clear and Certain Plan': Reflections on a Text of Jerome Gratian of the Mother of God." I know, I know. Most of you will wait until it comes out in video.

I also got my check, for which I am grateful. I did notice that now I only get two copies, whereas I used to get five, and I am paid significantly less than I once was. I happened to pick up a book this afternoon at the library on writing for magazines, and it pointed out the following sad realities:

In the glory days of the mid-1990s, a survey found that full-time writers who worked at it at least forty hours a week averaged only $12,500 a year in income... In 2002, according to the National Writers' Union, American freelance rates had declined by more than 50 percent since the 1960s.

Yeah, that sounds about right. My first article for Spiritual Life appeared in 1978 and was about half as long as the one they just published. I was paid more in 1978 dollars than in 2008 dollars.

On the brighter side, though, the editor did send a note along saying, "I hope that you will keep Spiritual Life in mind when you are doing your writing." This is obviously a form letter, but he wrote in the margin, "Please do."

So I guess I'm not going to make a living as a writer. But maybe it will provide "walking around money."