Mar 06 2009
Should You Resell Your Work?
Reselling your work allows you to earn more from your efforts. Most writers don’t make enough from any one piece and reselling your articles allows you to capitalize on work you’ve already done.
If you are a writer who still submits your work to print markets, you should give consideration to reselling your articles. Some feel this isn’t a good idea and they rewrite their material so that it is original; others prefer to resell work they’ve completed because this saves them time and earns them more.
There are no hard and fast rules. Just as each writer has a different creative process, each writer will have to determine if reselling his articles is a good fit.
Reselling Your Work
I’ve had good success reselling my work and haven’t encountered any difficulties.
- Make sure the publication you want to resell to takes previously published material
- In your cover letter, provide details of when your work was published, where, and what publication it appeared in.
Some publishers appreciate a plug and you can simply add a sentence to the bottom of your article, such as: “Petting The Parrot” first appeared in the Dec. 2001 issue of Avian Adventures.
Mentioning that your piece has been previously published lets the publication you are submitting to know that another publishing outfit thought the work good enough to run with. This establishes your author credibility.
In an age of recycling, this concept can be put to good use with your articles. Reselling, for some authors, is a lucrative undertaking.
I agree, well written. Cheers.