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One Thousand Dollars A Word
It's not hard to figure out where "One Thousand Dollars a Word" came from. The situation it describes was authentic enough, although I never heard of anyone who found the protagonist's particular solution to this dilemma.
Back in the first half of the twentieth century, and even well into the 1950s, a prolific writer could make a respectable living writing short fiction for magazines. There was a great profusion of markets; the better ones paid generously, and even the markets of last resort would put food on a writer's table.
TV and paperback books changed everything. Magazines folded left and right, not to mention right and left. The ones that survived were hardly thriving. They had to hold the line, and they did so by making their payment to writers the world's sole hedge against inflation. Everything else went up in price; a writer's words stayed where they were, or drifted gently downward. Some writers crossed the street to write paperback novels, or crossed the country to write television shows. But there were others who were born to write short stories, and that left them high and dry, and even dry and high.
Thus this story. It was, as you might imagine, hugely popular among writers; Whenever our paths crossed, one colleague simply intoned, "One. Thousand. Dollars. A. Word," sighed, and walked off shaking his head. It's been anthologized from time to time over the years, and I included it in Sometimes They Bite as well as my omnibus collection, Enough Rope.
Its first appearance, ironically enough, was in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine in 1978, where it earned its creator the munificent sum of 5¢ a word.
Back in the first half of the twentieth century, and even well into the 1950s, a prolific writer could make a respectable living writing short fiction for magazines. There was a great profusion of markets; the better ones paid generously, and even the markets of last resort would put food on a writer's table.
TV and paperback books changed everything. Magazines folded left and right, not to mention right and left. The ones that survived were hardly thriving. They had to hold the line, and they did so by making their payment to writers the world's sole hedge against inflation. Everything else went up in price; a writer's words stayed where they were, or drifted gently downward. Some writers crossed the street to write paperback novels, or crossed the country to write television shows. But there were others who were born to write short stories, and that left them high and dry, and even dry and high.
Thus this story. It was, as you might imagine, hugely popular among writers; Whenever our paths crossed, one colleague simply intoned, "One. Thousand. Dollars. A. Word," sighed, and walked off shaking his head. It's been anthologized from time to time over the years, and I included it in Sometimes They Bite as well as my omnibus collection, Enough Rope.
Its first appearance, ironically enough, was in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine in 1978, where it earned its creator the munificent sum of 5¢ a word.
16 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 1, 2013
5 people are currently reading
49 people want to read
About the author
Lawrence Block
761 books2,997 followersLawrence Block has been writing crime, mystery, and suspense fiction for more than half a century. He has published in excess (oh, wretched excess!) of 100 books, and no end of short stories.
Born in Buffalo, N.Y., LB attended Antioch College, but left before completing his studies; school authorities advised him that they felt he’d be happier elsewhere, and he thought this was remarkably perceptive of them.
His earliest work, published pseudonymously in the late 1950s, was mostly in the field of midcentury erotica, an apprenticeship he shared with Donald E. Westlake and Robert Silverberg. The first time Lawrence Block’s name appeared in print was when his short story “You Can’t Lose” was published in the February 1958 issue of Manhunt. The first book published under his own name was Mona (1961); it was reissued several times over the years, once as Sweet Slow Death. In 2005 it became the first offering from Hard Case Crime, and bore for the first time LB’s original title, Grifter’s Game.
LB is best known for his series characters, including cop-turned-private investigator Matthew Scudder, gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr, globe-trotting insomniac Evan Tanner, and introspective assassin Keller.
Because one name is never enough, LB has also published under pseudonyms including Jill Emerson, John Warren Wells, Lesley Evans, and Anne Campbell Clarke.
LB’s magazine appearances include American Heritage, Redbook, Playboy, Linn’s Stamp News, Cosmopolitan, GQ, and The New York Times. His monthly instructional column ran in Writer’s Digest for 14 years, and led to a string of books for writers, including the classics Telling Lies for Fun & Profit and The Liar’s Bible. He has also written episodic television (Tilt!) and the Wong Kar-wai film, My Blueberry Nights.
Several of LB’s books have been filmed. The latest, A Walk Among the Tombstones, stars Liam Neeson as Matthew Scudder and is scheduled for release in September, 2014.
LB is a Grand Master of Mystery Writers of America, and a past president of MWA and the Private Eye Writers of America. He has won the Edgar and Shamus awards four times each, and the Japanese Maltese Falcon award twice, as well as the Nero Wolfe and Philip Marlowe awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Private Eye Writers of America, and the Diamond Dagger for Life Achievement from the Crime Writers Association (UK). He’s also been honored with the Gumshoe Lifetime Achievement Award from Mystery Ink magazine and the Edward D. Hoch Memorial Golden Derringer for Lifetime Achievement in the short story. In France, he has been proclaimed a Grand Maitre du Roman Noir and has twice been awarded the Societe 813 trophy. He has been a guest of honor at Bouchercon and at book fairs and mystery festivals in France, Germany, Australia, Italy, New Zealand, Spain and Taiwan. As if that were not enough, he was also presented with the key to the city of Muncie, Indiana. (But as soon as he left, they changed the locks.)
LB and his wife Lynne are enthusiastic New Yorkers and relentless world travelers; the two are members of the Travelers Century Club, and have visited around 160 countries.
He is a modest and humble fellow, although you would never guess as much from this biographical note.
Born in Buffalo, N.Y., LB attended Antioch College, but left before completing his studies; school authorities advised him that they felt he’d be happier elsewhere, and he thought this was remarkably perceptive of them.
His earliest work, published pseudonymously in the late 1950s, was mostly in the field of midcentury erotica, an apprenticeship he shared with Donald E. Westlake and Robert Silverberg. The first time Lawrence Block’s name appeared in print was when his short story “You Can’t Lose” was published in the February 1958 issue of Manhunt. The first book published under his own name was Mona (1961); it was reissued several times over the years, once as Sweet Slow Death. In 2005 it became the first offering from Hard Case Crime, and bore for the first time LB’s original title, Grifter’s Game.
LB is best known for his series characters, including cop-turned-private investigator Matthew Scudder, gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr, globe-trotting insomniac Evan Tanner, and introspective assassin Keller.
Because one name is never enough, LB has also published under pseudonyms including Jill Emerson, John Warren Wells, Lesley Evans, and Anne Campbell Clarke.
LB’s magazine appearances include American Heritage, Redbook, Playboy, Linn’s Stamp News, Cosmopolitan, GQ, and The New York Times. His monthly instructional column ran in Writer’s Digest for 14 years, and led to a string of books for writers, including the classics Telling Lies for Fun & Profit and The Liar’s Bible. He has also written episodic television (Tilt!) and the Wong Kar-wai film, My Blueberry Nights.
Several of LB’s books have been filmed. The latest, A Walk Among the Tombstones, stars Liam Neeson as Matthew Scudder and is scheduled for release in September, 2014.
LB is a Grand Master of Mystery Writers of America, and a past president of MWA and the Private Eye Writers of America. He has won the Edgar and Shamus awards four times each, and the Japanese Maltese Falcon award twice, as well as the Nero Wolfe and Philip Marlowe awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Private Eye Writers of America, and the Diamond Dagger for Life Achievement from the Crime Writers Association (UK). He’s also been honored with the Gumshoe Lifetime Achievement Award from Mystery Ink magazine and the Edward D. Hoch Memorial Golden Derringer for Lifetime Achievement in the short story. In France, he has been proclaimed a Grand Maitre du Roman Noir and has twice been awarded the Societe 813 trophy. He has been a guest of honor at Bouchercon and at book fairs and mystery festivals in France, Germany, Australia, Italy, New Zealand, Spain and Taiwan. As if that were not enough, he was also presented with the key to the city of Muncie, Indiana. (But as soon as he left, they changed the locks.)
LB and his wife Lynne are enthusiastic New Yorkers and relentless world travelers; the two are members of the Travelers Century Club, and have visited around 160 countries.
He is a modest and humble fellow, although you would never guess as much from this biographical note.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
February 1, 2014
"Trevathan sat at his battered Underwood and stared at a blank sheet of paper. The paper had gone up a dollar a ream in the past year, and he could swear they'd cheapened the quality in the process. Everything cost more, he thought, except his own well-chosen words. They were still trading steadily at a nickel a piece."
James Trevathan just earned a nickel a word for the detective story he sold to the magazine.
He's been earning a nickel a word for the last twenty years.
Now he sits nervously in front of his well-groomed editor asking for a raise. After the editor lists all the reasons that the magazine cannot afford to pay its writers more money, he suggests that Trevathan might want to "branch out in a new direction."
And that, my friends, is exactly what Trevathan does...
Block has crafted a fun and witty short story. It is sparse and lean, but it gets the job done.
Currently $2.99 for Kindle, you do the math to figure out how much YOU'LL be paying per word.
James Trevathan just earned a nickel a word for the detective story he sold to the magazine.
He's been earning a nickel a word for the last twenty years.
Now he sits nervously in front of his well-groomed editor asking for a raise. After the editor lists all the reasons that the magazine cannot afford to pay its writers more money, he suggests that Trevathan might want to "branch out in a new direction."
And that, my friends, is exactly what Trevathan does...
Block has crafted a fun and witty short story. It is sparse and lean, but it gets the job done.
Currently $2.99 for Kindle, you do the math to figure out how much YOU'LL be paying per word.
January 5, 2026
bro lol
November 7, 2013
Trevathan is a mystery story writer known in the genre, his stories always sold, and he managed to get by.
Barely.
He'd begun at a nickel a word and twenty years later, he was still getting a nickel a word. Approaching the editor to which he sold his stories, he asks for more money and gets a litany of all the expenses that have gone up over the years. The magazine barely hung on, there was never a surfeit of material to buy. At a nickel a word.
Go do something different.
So he did.
A nice little crime story.
Barely.
He'd begun at a nickel a word and twenty years later, he was still getting a nickel a word. Approaching the editor to which he sold his stories, he asks for more money and gets a litany of all the expenses that have gone up over the years. The magazine barely hung on, there was never a surfeit of material to buy. At a nickel a word.
Go do something different.
So he did.
A nice little crime story.
November 16, 2013
It is a very familiar plight for just about any writer. James “Jim” Trevathan wants a raise and after twenty years he doesn't think it is unwarranted. He is a writer for a magazine edited by Warren Jukes. Jim has been placing stories nearly every month for over twenty years and still gets only 5 cents a word. He wants and deserves more.
Editor Warren Jukes isn't prepared to pay more. In his mind there is no need. If Jim wants more money he better produce more stories each month. Or, he can just hit the road as Warren isn't about to pay more no matter how much he likes the guy.
What Jim will do to get his raise is what drives the second half of this simple, and yet complicated at the same time, story. Sure to touch a nerve with any writer, One Thousand Dollars A Word” is way too real. It is also a very good crime story that first was published in 1978 in AHMM.
The book also contains chapter one from Lawrence Block's latest book The Burglar Who Counted the Spoons.
One Thousand Dollars A Word
Lawrence Block
http://www.lawrenceblock.com
Self Published
November 2013
ASIN: B00GEFYB5U
E-Book
Estimated 16 pages
$2.99
Material was picked up during the author’s free read promotion for my use in an objective review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2013
Editor Warren Jukes isn't prepared to pay more. In his mind there is no need. If Jim wants more money he better produce more stories each month. Or, he can just hit the road as Warren isn't about to pay more no matter how much he likes the guy.
What Jim will do to get his raise is what drives the second half of this simple, and yet complicated at the same time, story. Sure to touch a nerve with any writer, One Thousand Dollars A Word” is way too real. It is also a very good crime story that first was published in 1978 in AHMM.
The book also contains chapter one from Lawrence Block's latest book The Burglar Who Counted the Spoons.
One Thousand Dollars A Word
Lawrence Block
http://www.lawrenceblock.com
Self Published
November 2013
ASIN: B00GEFYB5U
E-Book
Estimated 16 pages
$2.99
Material was picked up during the author’s free read promotion for my use in an objective review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2013
January 10, 2026
Quite short and not that interesting. I like much of Lawrence Block's work, though.
July 22, 2016
Maybe it's because I'm a writer, too, but I love the premise of this story: Writer told they can't pay him anymore money than he was making years ago, so he comes up with a creative solution that will pay him a thousand dollars a word.
Worth noting (as is noted in the product listing, as well) that this story is included in his omnibus collection "Enough Rope" Do yourself a favor and buy the whole thing -- it'll keep you reading for a long time and is filled with great stories by this master.
Worth noting (as is noted in the product listing, as well) that this story is included in his omnibus collection "Enough Rope" Do yourself a favor and buy the whole thing -- it'll keep you reading for a long time and is filled with great stories by this master.
November 16, 2013
I'd read the back of a fag packet if it was written by LB. Time spent in his company is always good time. You'll not spend much time if you pick this story though, so don't dip into your hard earned money to get it. It's an amusing enough tale though and you can read it in the time it takes to wait for a kettle to boil.
December 13, 2013
You can just feel the palpable frustration of Lawrence Block, fiction writer in this short story about a short story writer. Well done.
August 15, 2014
A fun little piece that I'm sure the author enjoyed writing. I like the point of the story, but found it a little too easy to predict the ending.
January 4, 2014
An entertaining tale of a struggling writer--yup--and his efforts to keep making money. Clever ending that put a smile on my face.
April 2, 2017
A short story and a teaser chapter from The Burglar who Counted the Spoons that served as a quick reminder of why I like this author. It's been a while, too long. Long enough that the ones I've read aren't even on my list, here. Guess I need to start over from the beginning.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews