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Topic: Getting paid twice for the same article
| Author | Message |
| Tell Well | Posted – 5/4/2008 3:55:08 PM | show profile | email poster I recently wrote a 1200-word essay just with the hopes of getting credentials for my plans to do freelance editing. However, it turned into a great feature reflective essay, 2600-word, which will be published in a small, free local family magazine. I'm only getting $150 for it. I've scoured so many sources, but I haven't been able to find the real answer to how or if I can pitch this essay as it stands to another publication, like a national magazine. The editor says I have full rights for a reprint, but I do think that I could get a second publication on it. I just don't know how to approach this in a query letter. What do I say/not say? Which rights do I offer? The piece is reflective essay on what it was like to teach high school (my tenth year), but it weaves in a whole range of social and personal issues (cancer, economy, gangs, girl bullies, etc). Thanks for any advice or resources that would help me get a handle on what to do next. |
| reporterwriter | Posted – 5/4/2008 5:16:46 PM | show profile You gave the first magazine first North American serial rights, the right to publish the essay first, and once, in North America. Your next sale would be second serial rights. You can say you're selling second rights, but wherever you pitch the essay will know it as soon as you mention that the essay was previously published. What you're selling is a reprint, and the way to do it is with a cover letter and the completed essay, not with a query. |
| Tell Well | Posted – 5/4/2008 6:30:53 PM | show profile | email poster Getting paid twice for the same article Thanks so much. That's exactly what I needed to know. It's not that comforting that I stand to make a whopping $37 for the reprint, as most magazines say they pay 50% of amount paid for original article. I wonder if there is any way around that. On the other hand, exposure in a national will eventually pay off. Thanks again. |
| JimmyG | Posted – 5/5/2008 11:46:27 AM | show profile With a minimal amount of work you can make this a fresh article, maybe half the length, with a slightly different slant, and so forth, and then resell it as "new." It would be rare for the article length and tone of one publication to be so much the same as another, that the chances are good you'd have to rework it anyway for another outlet. Plus, (and I could be mistaken on this) there's little chance the editor of a national magazine will ever know, or frankly care, whether your original essay was ever published in a "free local family magazine." While this may not apply as much to personal essays, astute freelancers always look to maximize their efforts through multiple sales, though these are rarely reprints. A story on "personal rewards" that includes a couple of paragraphs on collectible vintage automobiles can easily be the basis for a separate article for another outlet on the latter topic. |
| snappiness | Posted – 5/5/2008 12:02:04 PM | show profile JimmyG is right, you totally want to repackage it and sell it as new. Tighten it up (it's too long for a national magazine essay) and pitch it to some publications that carry pieces like that. Don't even mention that you published a similar essay in a local free publication, editors won't really care about that. I'm assuming if you're pitching a national you have clips from better regionals or other nationals. Even if you're pitching a regional or trade, you wouldn't use that published essay as a clip since it will be so similar to what you're pitching. |
| Tell Well | Posted – 5/5/2008 7:59:23 PM | show profile getting paid twice for the same article Thanks for the ideas; I have thought about that route, rewriting it with a different slant. My only problem is that this is my only "clip", so if an editor should ask to see a clip, I'll only have that to show and they might see the similarities. I'm thinking that I'll try to get it reprinted in a national that accepts previously published articles just so I can say I've been published in a national magazine and not a free local. And yes, I have ideas on reworking it. |
