What was the first piece of writing you sold?

Sublime.

Soon.

A game review for DailyRadar.com. I think it paid about $100, but it also opened the door for reviews from one of the head corporation's print magazines, Next Gen. Capsule review of the same game. I think it paid about the same.

I guess it didn't "sell," persay, as it wasn't published anywhere yet, but I did win a $1,500 scholarship for one of my short stories.

Still working on the novels...

What do you mean, "sold"? Never heard such a word.

I've never 'sold' anything, but waaay back I won third prize in a short story competition and won $10. That was pretty exciting.

I think is was Space and Time magazine for around $25. Bless you, Gordon. Now I'm under the illusion that I can really write.

Tri

Technically not a sale, but I won second place in a contest last week and I got $10 for 50 words.

I sold a "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" story to Pocket's Strange New Worlds 8 anthology. It sold for $250.

I haven't sold anything, but a short story won first place in my college's literature competition my senior year. No money involved, but it felt pretty darn good.

My first story sold in 1986 or so to a horror magazine called, "The Horror Show" for about $6. I still have a blown up copy of the check that I've been meaning to frame.

Sale

A story called "The Ordeal" to Far West Magazine for $450, which was a month's wages at the time.

Didn't sell anything until I sold my novel to a small literary press in 2005. The money is still coming in so I don't have a figure to give you although my first cheque was for $3,650 or thereabouts.
Linnea

2005 - "Barbie Pill" sold to Peeks & Valleys magazine for $5.00. Hey was psyched even though it was only $5.00. It had already recieved 15 rejections.

A short essay to a lit mag for $5 plus copy. It was a start.

I'd won writing competitions and a writing fellowship in grad school and those kinds of things, but my first sale for a particular work was the novel that's coming out in February.

A short essay in a magazine for $50 plus copies of the mag.

I recently won a small writing competition. No publication, but it made me smile. At least someone enjoyed reading my writing.

$275.00 for a story sold to Algis Budrys’ old TomorrowSF magazine. He also threw in a lifetime subscription to the magazine. Then it immediately went from a print magazine to an electronic one on the www, then it crashed and burned out of existence, which merely bode ill for the existence of the next many rags to which I sold stories, almost all of which also went promptly out of business.

The sale, by the way, was in 1994. The story didn’t finally appear until 1997. As far as I know, no one except Algis read it, and it vanished without a trace.

I also promptly lost the secret info he sent along with the check, info I needed to log onto the magazine’s electronic site, and never saw that one in all it’s electro-printed gloy.

I am a beadwork artist, and I wrote up some directions for how to do a particular stitch. I sent it into a beading magazine, thinking they would take my idea and rewrite it "professionally". I didn't even think of them taking my writing at all. Not only did they take it, they printed it pretty much "as is" and even paid me $225 for it!! I was thrilled!

I sold a poem to the now-defunct Cedar Rock Magazine when I was 12 or 13. Got paid $4 for it, which back then (early 80s) was a tidy little sum for a kid.

My first "real" sale--that is, my first sale as an adult--was an article about marketing wool to Sheep! Magazine in 1998 (or 1999, can't remember now). $80 was a very welcome addition to my budget that month!

My first was a short story, first person, present tense, and the narrator dies at the end. Got $100 for it.

I never sold my work. I never tried. I most likely never will either; try or sale.