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The "American Girl" franchise has house writers that produce their books. (I know, because I wrote to them asking for writing guidelines at one point.) I don't know if they're paid a salary or by project, however.
Regarding books published through a publisher, the common procedure is for the author to be paid an "advance" or a flat amount toward the potential royalties a book might earn. I've heard the amount for fiction is US$3000-5000 per book. If the amount of royalties generated by book sales ever exceeds the amount of the advance, the author gets more payments, but this isn't especially common. However, book sales drive future contracts, so by buying an author's books we can at least make it more likely that the author will be contracted for another book.
For my non-fiction book, I was paid an advance of $500, and I doubt I'll ever see another payment.
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