STOCKHAUSEN INK
Articles Don’t Have to Die Once They’re Published
By Sharron Stockhausen
You sent your query letter and you got the assignment. The problem is that the editor wants to buy all rights to your article. Should you sell?
Try to negotiate away from selling all rights. You have to decide if the compensation you're offered is worth not being able to quote yourself again because that's what happens when you sell all rights.
Assuming you were successful and the rights to your article return to you (usually thirty days after the periodical is off the newsstands), there are many ways you can breathe additional life into your article.
Since all good writers know better than to throw away anything they've written, take your saved information and work with it to create another article, a series of articles, and/or a book.
Something peaked your interest in the article. Remind yourself of what that was and take it to a deeper level. Perhaps you were interested in alternatives to taking your pet to the kennel when you went on vacation and your article offered three of the seven ideas you discovered.
Here are some options to consider trying to breathe some life into your article when it comes back to you.
1. Dig out the rest of the research you did and combine it with the article's information.
2. Offer a series of three or more articles to another publisher who is focused on the topic area. (In the kennel/pet example, you could try veterinarian publications, travel news, local papers, and even try self-syndicating to non-competing major newspapers).
3. Self-publish a booklet and market it to specialty shops or target groups.
4. Continue your research until you have enough to write a book. All you really have to do is over-research, over-interview, collect everything you can on the topic, keep everything you collect, and edit carefully.
5. Spend time at the newsstands finding new markets for your work. With the thousands of periodicals published every year, you should be able to get at least three articles out of every topic you research.
6. Use the Writer's Market to find new and exciting
sales opportunities. This publication
comes out every fall and with the turnover and
transient nature of the editing profession, you should invest in the new book issued every
year.
7. Every month, read "The Markets" section in Writer's Digest magazine. It updates the markets listed in the Writer's Market. Almost every public library has a copy of this magazine, so you don't necessarily have to subscribe, but you may find you want to.
Try some of these ideas to increase your income by building on your success. It pays.
Sharron Stockhausen, MMA, is an award-winning author, speaker, trainer, coach, and consultant. She owns Stockhausen Ink and is CEO of Expert Publishing, Inc. Visit her and her companies at www.stockink.com and www.expertpublishinginc.com.
