The Writer

Money matters

“When I started doing the ‘I don’t get out of bed for less than $4 a word’ thing, people started paying me $4 a word.”

This is all Taffy Brodesser-Akner, the New York Times Magazine staff writer and freshly minted best-selling novelist, told Cosmopolitan’s Jen Ortiz. In mid-June, when the comments hit the social media terrain, it didn’t take long for writers to bitch before realizing Brodesser-Akner is an aspirational figure, not a nemesis.

Citing a brutal workload and publicity schedule, Brodesser-Akner declined to comment, though in an email she attributed the flak coming from “just a couple of people” and expressed no regret for what she said. “Honesty is

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