What's A Kill Fee?

When it comes to TV shows, I'm slow but sure. Translation: I don't have cable so I wait until my favorite shows go on sale at Amazon, then I park my behind on the couch and watch the whole season in a sitting, something like this (yes, you should watch this, it's short and freaking hilarious):

Recently I just finished up season 6 of Burn Notice, one of my all-time favorite shows that's about a spy who gets burned (revealed as a spy). What in the world does any of this have to do with writing? Stay with me...it's Monday and I haven't had any coffee yet.

Sometimes writers are paid a Kill Fee. Does that not sound like some kind of spy and/or hit man terminology? Did you know writers are that deviously skilled?

Well, they're not. Oh, I suppose some are, but here's what a Kill Fee really is...a fee paid to a writer who's worked on an assignment that, for whatever reason, isn't published. Example: Mr. Happy Writer is contracted (contracts always make writers happy) to write an article for a magazine. HW turns it in and the editor is pleased. But then the editor calls you back a few days later and says they're changing the focus of the upcoming magazine issue. Sorry, HW, we can no longer use your article. But HW is still happy because the editor is going to pay him some money anyway and all the rights will revert back to HW, who can then sell the article to someone else. That, my friends, is what is called a Kill Fee.

Now get outta here. I've only got 3 episodes left on season 6!