I wrote an article for a well-known trade magazine and the editor said it would be in the fall 2003 issue. Then I sent more ideas and the editor said he was stressed running two magazines. I kept emailing him until I told him I was upset and I wanted payment. I sent him an invoice this week for a hundred dollars. He said he might be able to get my article published this fall. What should I do?

Since they haven’t yet published it, they may not owe you money yet. If they pay on publication, they can legally hold it and pay whenever (and if ever) they decide to publish it.

You should check your contract. And, in the future, change your contracts to specify the pub only has xx amount of months to publish or they need to pay at that time rather than making you wait for publication.