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Topic: Reselling a Story?
| Author | Message |
| urgent! | Posted – 8/6/2007 7:57:16 AM | show profile I wrote a story for a small mag / website that was much more work than I expected. I was not asked to sign a contract. How do you go about trying to resell the story to other outlets? Do you need the first mag's permission? Permission from the people interviewed in the article? Have never resold - any advice would be appreciated. Thanks! |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 8/6/2007 11:31:38 AM | show profile Well, the amount of work you put into the story doesn't necessarily affect how much resale value it has. But, to answer your question, if you have no contracts with anyone, the publication only bought the rights to print the story once and you can resell it to anyone you want without telling tell. You also don't need to tell the people you interview if you resell the story. |
| UrbanMuse | Posted – 8/6/2007 11:47:12 AM | show profile Here's what I've always wondered about this topic... with so many publications now online, what's the incentive for another pub to buy a reprint if their readers can already find your article online (on a different site of course)? ------ www.UrbanMuseWriter.com |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 8/6/2007 12:46:52 PM | show profile The incentive is it provides the reprinter with good content. And the reality is it's unlikely most of their readers will ever see the original article. --Here's what I've always wondered about this topic... with so many publications now online, what's the incentive for another pub to buy a reprint if their readers can already find your article online (on a different site of course)?-- |
| MDiskin | Posted – 8/6/2007 1:05:50 PM | show profile check out the territory It's very important not to resell in the original publisher's territory (such as a competing mag, or to a newspaper whose circulation overlaps the first). I resell pieces but make sure that I don't sell to more than one pub in a city (even if the readership isn't a certain overlap). |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 8/6/2007 1:48:32 PM | show profile Actually, this depends on the rights the original magazine has bought. Let's say, a magazine buys first North American rights from you. After the magazine has printed the piece, the magazine has no say on what you do with the piece. If a competing magazine wants to buy and run the piece, you are free to sell it to them. --check out the territory It's very important not to resell in the original publisher's territory (such as a competing mag, or to a newspaper whose circulation overlaps the first). I resell pieces but make sure that I don't sell to more than one pub in a city (even if the readership isn't a certain overlap).-- |
| Mag Girl | Posted – 8/6/2007 1:59:09 PM | show profile Yeah, dribble, of course you're free to sell to a competitor- but would you want to ruin a relationship if/when the original outlet found out? |
| Mr Media | Posted – 8/6/2007 2:57:59 PM | show profile If everything is in order you should be able to resell a story again. I have done that a few times and found it to be very lucurative. |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 8/6/2007 3:44:41 PM | show profile Well, that's a good question and the answer is -- it depends. If the first outlet is giving me a lot of assignments and paying well, I might check in with them and tell them a competitor asked about reprint rights and would they mind as a courtesy. Let's say, however, I sold an opt-ed piece to a 1,000-circulation local newspaper. If the editor at the Los Angeles Times wanted to reprint it, I would yes without hesitation. So it all depends. But the key in all this is you as the writer own the piece, so you are deciding to do based entirely on your self-interest. --Yeah, dribble, of course you're free to sell to a competitor- but would you want to ruin a relationship if/when the original outlet found out?-- |
| maphop | Posted – 8/6/2007 9:38:07 PM | show profile Online Question Regarding the question of reselling to an additional party when the original buyer has it already online...do they? If the piece was originally written for a print publication and you've no contract with ownership stipulations - or, just as important, didn't sell electronic rights - it's a non-issue. What few people realize these days is that unless a piece is a work-for-hire or you've signed a contract giving electronic rights, any posting to the web of the story without your permission is copyright infringement and you can either demand new (additional) payment or that they remove it from their site. This is why understanding contracts and/or your rights is so important whether it's regading resale or simple income. |
| womaninbooks | Posted – 8/7/2007 5:19:23 AM | show profile Rewrite it. I've not resold any pieces but have rewritten using the same information with a slightly different angle for two very different mags. It went much much faster with each new angle and I'm not worried about stepping on the toes of the original mag. This rewriting may not work with every story, but can it work with yours? |
| urgent! | Posted – 8/7/2007 8:29:48 AM | show profile Thanks everybody - Question dribbledrive - I had mentioned to one of the people I interviewed that I might use the story for another outlet, and they said they did not want to be in any other magazines... I def. can't cut them out. Also - when I query another publication, do I mention the article is complete, or even from another publication? I would think not, but please advise. Thanks! |
| urgent! | Posted – 8/7/2007 8:29:53 AM | show profile Thanks everybody - Question dribbledrive - I had mentioned to one of the people I interviewed that I might use the story for another outlet, and they said they did not want to be in any other magazines... I def. can't cut them out. Also - when I query another publication, do I mention the article is complete, or even from another publication? I would think not, but please advise. Thanks! |
| JimmyG | Posted – 8/7/2007 10:58:32 AM | show profile It is fast becomeing rare when I DON'T write an article that I leverage somewhere else in one form or another for a few extra bucks. Now this almost never means reselling a written article word for word, mind you, but taking elements of one story and morphing it into another. If you're calling an expert on, say, toys for a story you're doing on popular collectibles, ask a few more questions so you can easily turn the content into a second article elsewhere on collectible toys. Newspapers and controlled-circ magazines are prime resale/revamp markets, as are web sites. You may only get an extra couple hundred dollars to recycle content, but it might only take an hour or two to recraft it. If you have a well-defined content specialty you will, by nature, recycle some topics virtually every year, and if you're not recycling prose at least you're recycling knowldge and research. And, for those who complain about clients heavily rewriting their work, there's the added bonus of not having to recraft your content to resell it. |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 8/7/2007 12:02:28 PM | show profile --Question dribbledrive - I had mentioned to one of the people I interviewed that I might use the story for another outlet, and they said they did not want to be in any other magazines... I def. can't cut them out. -- Well, in this case, I'd say you shouldn't quote them in another magazine without their permission, because they said they were giving you permission to use them in this article for this pub only and not for others. That's one reason I wouldn't tell people my plans in advance. Legally, you might be able to, but I'd consider than an ethical lapse. --Also - when I query another publication, do I mention the article is complete, or even from another publication? I would think not, but please advise.-- If you want to sell the article as is, it's a reprint and you should tell them. But you can tweak it a little and sell it as new. |
