Boosting Your Freelance Income With Reprints

If you want to boost your freelance writing income, a good approach is to sell reprints.

By selling reprints of your articles, you can get paid two or three times or more for the same piece. The beauty of this approach is that you do the work once but get paid over and over again.

And let's face it, most writers don't make enough on any one piece to make it worth all the time it takes to craft and polish it.

If you plan on selling reprint rights to your article, you must first own the rights to it. If you sign work-for-hire or all-rights agreements, you are waiving your rights to resell the piece at a later date. Read publishing contracts carefully before signing them.

I'll always remember one publication I submitted an story to. I was informed that they liked the piece and wanted to publish it in the near future. This sounded great. A prompt response on any submission always generates excitement. The contract, however, was a different matter. I would have signed away all rights to my story. I amended the contract and sent it back, then spent months waiting for my story to be published. I contacted the editor and explained that I usually resold my work so wasn't comfortable signing away all rights. The editor seemingly agreed and I received vague promises. The merry-go-round continued until we mutually agreed to cancel publication of the piece. In the aftermath, I sold it--repeatedly. As you can probably winkle out, I will not waste my time targeting that particular publication again.

When you are reading through a contract, check for time limits. Some magazines require 90-day or 6-month exclusivity, which precludes you reselling until the time has expired.

Most magazines will send a courtesy copy in which your work appears. Make a note on the outside of your copy, so that you know when you can resell that piece. Keep a Hard Copy record of all published work (with the possible exception of Internet-based material that can be readily accessed and sent electronically)and mark in red when it is available for resale.

It's a good idea to keep track of where and when you publish each piece and to mention these details in your cover letter, when sending it out for the second, third, or fourth time.

It's worthwhile to protect your rights so that you can resell your work. The rewards pay off in the end.

AdSense Income with PrintNPost
Writing for Suite 101
Make Money with HubPages: Earn Income 4 different Ways
Writing for Triond
Turn Your Writing Skills into Cash