Reprints And Why You Should Sell Them

Reprints . . . harnessing the power of reprint rights

Would you like to get paid for your work over and over again? If you sell reprints, you can get paid a number of times for the same article.

I've made hundreds of dollars on reprints. For example, I sold one article to a Christian publication and was paid 80.00; then I resold it to another religious magazine and will be paid 120.00. I will continue to market this piece and will be compensated for my work.

A word of caution: you must own reprint rights in order to resell your work. Read your publishing contracts carefully and make sure that you follow publishing criteria. You may have to wait a couple of months before resubmitting or you may not be able to resubmit to competing publications.

When offering article for reprint, a good rule of thumb is to relinquish as few rights as possible.

Reprint Rights
Once you've sold an article, you've sold first rights

• Any subsequent sale would be "second" or "reprint" rights.
  

• You sell the same material to different publications, simultaneously or sequentially, by offering "one-time nonexclusive" rights. Every publication that buys your work has the right to use it once (not the right to use it "first" and not the right to use it solely and to be the only publication to use it).
• Once you have sold first rights and your piece has appeared in the original publication, you are free to offer reprint or "second" rights to other publications that may be interested in publishing magazine reprints.
• If you sell "all rights" or produce an article as "work for hire," you then cannot sell reprint rights, because you no longer own those rights.

I always keep a mental note of pieces I've had published and keep on the lookout for other publications that I can submit them to in the future. Writer's Market has listings of publications that buy reprints. Keep an eye out for smaller circulation publications, magazines, and newspapers because these may be interested in previously published material. Check guidelines to see if they purchase reprinted stories.

Websites may also be interested in purchasing content, wanting electronic rights to stories that have appeared in print publications and may be willing to pay for your reprints; conversely, articles that have appeared in electronic format may be accepted as reprint articles by print publications.

If you are submitting a previously published piece and offering reprint rights, always include its publishing history in your cover letter, stating where and when it was published.

Reprints can be a lucrative way to earn more for your articles, just one of the untapped markets writers can utilize to generate greater income. When you think outside the box, you'll discover a number of methods to earn far more from your writing.

Learn more: Quick Cash Writing: Fillers, Greeting Cards and Niche Markets.