The writer joins cool firm for salary (6)
I believe the answer is:
income
'salary' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'the writer joins cool firm' is the wordplay.
'the writer' becomes 'me' (the person who is writing these clues).
'joins' says to put letters next to each other.
'cool' becomes 'in' (I've seen this in other clues).
'firm' becomes 'co' (a firm is a company).
'in'+'co'='inco'
'me' put after 'inco' is 'INCOME'.
'for' is the link.
(Other definitions for income that I've seen before include "Money received for work or from investment" , "Earned or unearned revenue." , "Money received on which tax is payable" , "See 12" , "What do you make" .)