<prompt> Human: In January, an editor at a tech startup in SF a relatively large one too, which just received tens of millions in Series B funding reached out to me to solicit some freelance copywriting for their blog I live in DC. Over email, the editor commissioned two articles for a rate of 1k per article. Over the next two months, I spent about 50 hours writing, editing, and shaping these articles into two distinct pieces, going through many rounds of back-and-forth edits with this editor to get them just right, and they finally seemed done by April.I then dont hear from the editor until May, when I got an email from him and another employee at the firm cc-ed. My editor explains hes been laid off and that the new guy cc-ed will take care of things. In this email, the old editor clearly explains to the new editor that he had commissioned these two articles from me for 1k per article.I then only sporadically hear from this new editor over the summer, who explains that things are in the air at the company. He says once they hire a new editorial director, that my stories will be published and assures me that Ill be paid, though this is only over the phone.I never get any follow-up from this new editor, though. I email him multiple times over the next three months and never get a response. Finally, I get an email today asking if I can talk by phone. I answer, and he says that they want to merge the articles I wrote nearly a year ago at this point into one article and only pay me for one article.I tell him that this is unacceptable and that I spent hours crafting these into two distinct articles as commissioned by the original editor. The new editor says hell talk to some higher-ups but that it seems unlikely Ill get paid for two articles. He claims that they dont have to pay me anything until my articles are published.Theres no formal contract I signed, but the 1karticle x 2 articles is pretty clearly documented in email. What should I do?My initial ideas are:1. Messaging the CEO of the firm, who seems responsive on Twitter2. Publicly shaming this firm on Twitter3. what Id like to avoid if possible... legal actiontl;dr: Blog commissioned me to write two articles. Did so. Now they want to condense them into one and only pay me for one.  <response>: small claims court. done. 