In Flight Mag Won’t Pay For, Er, Articles

Via True/Slant, a story of a world where all words are created equal, but some are created more equal than others. Jeff Koyen was contacted by a magazine that wanted to reprint one of his travel articles; what follows is one side of a very bizarre e-mail exchange:

Dear Mr. Koyen,
That sounds great; we are very interested. Would you be amenable to our rate of US$0.15/word? With regards to copyright, we only purchase non-exclusive rights for articles and photos.
Please let me know of any questions or concerns.
Many thanks!

Dear Mr. Koyen,
My sincerest apologies, but I failed to mention that the words “a”, “and”, and “the” are not included in the rate. Would you still be interested in writing this piece for us?

Not a joke, sadly.

Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. The online event and workshop will feature speakers including The Onion‘s Baratunde Thurston (left), Facebook’s Morin Oluwole, and bitly’s Tim Devane. Register now.