Sixty.

I decided to google my last column for the Patriot Ledger, just to see how many other GateHouse papers ran it over the past week and a half. The links on the first few pages were nearly all for the column, and I effortlessly counted thirty. I kept going. Forty. Would I see fifty?

Once I decided I'd had enough, on the 18th page of the Google search, I had reached sixty. Sixty papers across the country ran my last column. Whoa.

I was pretty excited to see thirty, but strangely, as the numbers kept rising, my heart kept sinking.

I don't receive a penny for any of the other places my column runs. I get my little fee from the Ledger, and, because of the way my contract with GateHouse is, I don't own the column any more, and any GateHouse editor can run it wherever and whenever he or she pleases.

Make no mistake: I'm thrilled for the exposure. I imagine folks in Delaware, Louisiana, Minnesota, Colorado, California and many other places getting a chuckle out of my writing, and that makes me very, very happy. Plus, it shows me that what I write has a much broader audience than the circulation of my local paper. That's good.

I do think, however, that if the material has such broad appeal, there ought to be a way to be compensated more appropriately for it.

I've half-heartedly attempted in the past to open up a discussion with the regional editor for GateHouse, who really wasn't interested in talking to me. To be fair, I wasn't exactly over-assertive, and it was a few years ago, too. I do not believe, however, regardless of my assertiveness level, that there is any flexibility on the part of GateHouse where compensation for widespread distribution is concerned.

If anyone from a syndicate is reading this, let's talk. Anyone else, if you've got ideas to help me earn a living wage from this writing I do, I'd love to hear from you.