“For each person it can be a different financial arrangement. For a long time [at the New Yorker] I did what many writers do, which is agree in the beginning of the year to do a certain number of pieces, and then that amount was paid out to me over the year -- the aggregate of all of that. So I would say, okay, I'm going to do five five-thousand-word pieces, and we'd agree to this chunk of money, and then it would be paid in twelve monthly installments over a year.”