Someday, I'd like to be able to submit an article with more substance to magazines like Arizona Highways but they rarely do many unsolicited articles unless the author has previous experience and has been published. My wife's aunt was a travel writer out west for a number of years and I am following her advice as to "breaking into the industry."
I guess if the absolute truth was told, they are likely only paying me for the sizing, etc I do for this local group of magazines but upon request to my primary publisher, I needed this particular article to have a separate check for tax purposes. They don't like putting out any money, only getting all they can and that I understand completely.