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Getting a Zero Placeholder Wrong

What a ditz I am! What a dope!

I could blame it on my  progressive lenses that give me trouble finding the  sweet spot in which to read my computer screen. Yeah, I can blame my glasses. No personal responsibility here for reading $.045 as 45 cents instead of 4 1/2 cents. What a big difference that is!

Last month, I contracted to write three articles for a reputable publisher based on $.045 per word, which I read as 45 cents a word. I would've been none the wiser if I hadn't received an e-mail yesterday from the editor seeking writers to complete a few  rush articles. He wrote that the pay would be the usual "4 1/2 cents per word." What? I quickly looked up the initial query I received and my contract. The wording was "$.045 per word." Such a dumbo, I am. Sigh.

Now I could turn my frown upside down by saying that 4 1/2 cents per word is better than the zero cents per word I give myself for blog posts. Four and a half cents is better than nothing, right? Sometimes, not. What really maddens and bugs me is that this established publisher is so frigging cheap. I take that back. Forty-five cents a word is cheap. Four-and-a-half cents is just . . . wrong.

The worst bit about this is that I've written and edited basic math books, including lessons on fractions and decimals. OK, I'm laughing now. Kinda. It's time to deal with these dang glasses.

Comments

  1. you know, $.045 per word is confusing.
    how about something simple, like the way you wrote it: 4.5 cents.
    it's clumsy they advertised it.a real cynic might say it's shady who they advertised it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. you know, $.045 per word is confusing.
    how about something simple, like the way you wrote it: 4.5 cents.
    it's clumsy they advertised it.a real cynic might say it's shady who they advertised it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you, Ed. Thank you. Now when it's all said and done, I understand why I didn't have to jump through the usual bunch of hoops to get the gig. I live and learn.

    ReplyDelete

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Thanks for the good cheer. :-)

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