For freelancers, knowing the basic terminology "before" start can be a valuable lesson in earning a few dollars more at this early stage. When I started my freelance career, I knew nothing of rights, simultaneous contributions, querying or varying payment rates. All I knew was - I could write. Everything else I learned at work. You can too. But just to make your stay a little 'less frustrating and more fun, I've listed some concepts that will help immensely as you contact editors and try to make them pay for your words.
Copyright
You just have your words on paper. It is not necessary to register copyright say that even if you're writing a novel or a book, is a wise investment. Registered copyright is proof enough for the courts, and is extremely valuable in cases of dispute. However, for materials, like articles or essays, copyright is not required to be registered. You can however, club a number of essays and record together.
Reprints
Reprints are articles, essays or pieces that have already been published. If you own the copyright (more on that later), and wants to sell the piece again to another publication, which will be defined as a reprint. Most publications pay much less for reprints and some do not accept them at all. However, a freelancer, sometimes reprints bring more income to do original articles.
Rights
Previously, magazines asked for all rights to articles. Even today, in many countries, including mine (India), most magazines want to keep all rights to ensure that the articles in their magazine remain unique to them. However, this trend no longer exists in America, Canada and England, and is making inroads in other nations. Now, almost all magazines in these nations refrain from asking for all rights to work. Others have opened their doors for the reprints, which is a boon for writers. Let's look at some of the different types of rights.
• All rights: this means that the article must not have been published before, and can not be reused after it is published in this particular publication. Never give up all rights for a measly sum of money. If you sell all rights, be sure to be paid what you deserve.
• First Serial Rights: These usually refer to some country. For example, the first North American serial rights, or rights of first British series. While the article has not been published in the country before that, you are free to submit elsewhere after publication.
• Electronic Rights: the publications archive their articles online, asking for electronic rights. This means you can carry your article online. Usually a specified time period. Also, electronic rights are usually non-exclusive, meaning that you can sell this article elsewhere although it will continue to appear on the site of this publication.
• CD-ROM Rights: A fairly new addition to the list of rights, this means that the publication is free to use your work on a Compact Disk.
• Anthology Rights: Some publications publish yearly anthologies (collection of articles or stories). In these cases, seek these rights for possible inclusion in their anthology of your work.
• First-time Rights: Your article must not appear anywhere in the world. You are however free to sell your work elsewhere after publication.
• one-off Rights: Your work may have appeared elsewhere. Publications asking for one time rights require that you let them use your work once. It may or may not have been published before and you are free to use it after publication.
Payment upon payment of publication
You wrote an article and the editor has approved them. Now comes time to pay. Well not really. Many publications prefer to pay their writers on publication, which means when the article appeared in print. In established magazines, the time between acceptance and publication can be months, so you can write an article in January, and be paid in June. Always try to get paid for acceptance.
Clip
When you write a query, the publisher wants to see more than just a good idea. She wants to know if you can do justice, if you will be able to finish it or not. For this, she needs to see samples of your writing. Published samples are termed as clips. In short, you photocopy pages about three magazines in which your articles have appeared and sent to the editor.
If you have not been published, you will still need to send samples of your writing. For this, write an article or two related to the issue of the magazine and send them away with the query.
Lead Time
A magazine usually asks writers to submit their work well in advance so that there are no last minute goof-ups. Magazines, especially those of reputation, can not risk delaying an issue of a single writer. This period is usually defined as lead-time. Although most magazines have a delivery time of about three months, many have periods longer than six months.
Kill fees
Editors are always "killing" articles you've assigned them. For the writer, this could mean loss of time as money. To reimburse the author for his research and hours put in, magazines usually have a cost 20-50% kill. In short, if the query has been accepted, but your article is not published for some reason, you will be given assistance to kill your work.
Expense
For your article, you may have to interview a subject. In some cases, you can make long distance calls or spend a few dollars on travel, meals and other expenses. All costs incurred for the assignment are usually paid by the publication. You should be very clear on this before getting on the assignment. Usually, editors will agree to reasonable reimbursement of costs.
Bios and photos
Have not you noticed how sometimes portrait of the author or contact information appears alongside the article? Yours might too. Although this does not always happen, sometimes publishers can decide to put up a photo or a brief bio next to your article. It never hurts to ask.
Topics simultaneous
Although this is something magazines advise against, is not always possible to wait three months for your idea to find a warm note with the editor submitted to him. This is where simultaneous observations come too if you really caution against submitting the same article to more than one publisher (I did, and I regret), I advocate the concurrent queries.
Now that you're armed with the knowledge base, it's all ready to go out in the big bad world of publishing, and show them what you have. Good luck!
No comments:
Post a Comment