penny-a-liner

American  

[pen-ee-uh-lahy-ner] / ˈpɛn i əˈlaɪ nər /

noun

Chiefly British Archaic.

1. a hack writer.

---

penny-a-liner British  

noun

1. rare a hack writer or journalist

---

Etymology

Origin of penny-a-liner

1825–35; penny-a-line (of writing) paid for at the rate of a penny per line + -er ¹

Example Sentences

MacDonald was an old penny-a-liner, with 50 or 60 paperback thunderations behind him, before he began the Travis McGee series more than a decade ago.

From Time Magazine Archive

After a few disastrous jobs in the Manhattan jungle, the apprentice author be came a penny-a-liner for the pulps; since then he has banged out 70 novels and some 600 short stories.

From Time Magazine Archive

"Clear enough, I think," said Van, when I raised my eyes from the protracted periods of the penny-a-liner.

From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 62, No. 384, October 1847 by Various

The land of a new culture! was the cry of every penny-a-liner at the time when she began to display her battleships, cannon, and her accomplished method of drilling her soldiers.

From Mother Earth, Vol. 1 No. 1, March 1906 by Goldman, Emma

There's no doubt it would be a dreadful shock to Meggy; and besides, the great thing is, it will choke off the suspicions of any nosing, ferreting little penny-a-liner.

From The Messenger by Robins, Elizabeth