Okay, so you’ve sold an article to a magazine or newspaper. Now what? When do the rights revert back to you? If you did all that research and writing for a one-time payment, then you are squandering your time. Whatever made your article newsworthy is newsworthy to more than the readership of one publication. Who would be interested in this article and what publications appeal to this demographic?

Two months before the rights revert back to you on a published piece, send out a query to another magazine for this article [to publish as a reprint or a new piece to suit the magazine’s readership].

Two sources of information about magazines to consider: Writer’s Market (an annual publication that lists public and private magazines with contact information), and the listing at FreelanceWriters.com (www.freelancewriting.com/guidelines). Look for each magazine’s Writer’s Guidelines or Submissions.

Editors will notify you of their policy regarding reprints. Generally, the larger the magazine, the less likely they are to buy reprints. You can tell the size of the magazine by the number of subscribers they have. However, once you have done the research on an article and topic, you can rewrite the article with a new angle or slant or perspective to suit the next publication.

EXAMINE YOUR TARGET PUBLICATIONS

What topics do they cover? Review a year’s worth of back issues if the publication is a monthly magazine. List the topics they publish and how they were handled. You don’t want to pitch an idea they have recently published unless you offer a remarkably different approach. Get familiar with the tone and length and style of the magazine’s features. You won’t find the same writers in Rolling Stone and the Christian Science Monitor though both publications debate the language used in song lyrics.

Who are their advertisers? Review the advertisements to see which businesses and products appeal to the readership. If your topic or story impacts these particular businesses, then interview an expert from one of the advertisers. If you go to the publication’s website, look for an Advertiser’s Index. Also pay attention to the ads in the publication.

Who are their readers? Magazines often give demographics on their readers in their writer’s guidelines and in their advertising section. They will also describe the magazine’s purpose and targeted readership in their “About Us” section of their website.

A CASE STUDY

Jack Brown’s Seaplane Base celebrated its 40th Anniversary in business in 2003. While this fact might not rock your wings, it was cool news to pilots all over the world. Brown’s has taught more people to fly seaplanes than any other seaplane base or school in the world. Astronauts, celebrities, missionaries, adventurers, and about 500 general aviation pilots per year have learned how to splash and go, earned their Seawings, and told tall tales at Brown’s.

As a writer/pilot, I was asked one December to write up an article on Brown’s anniversary for WaterFlying magazine, the magazine for the Seaplane Pilots Association. While it is a limited readership, it is devout, and worldwide. My article and my photographs appeared in the March issue. You can read it on my website through this link: https://jonimfisher.com/jack-browns-seaplane-base/.

So this news is newsworthy for the whole year. Who else might want to read about it? By the end of January I knew my article would appear in the March issue of WaterFlying and the rights would revert back to me by June.

Well, Brown’s uses Piper aircraft, so I queried Pipers magazine in January to see if they were interested. I also queried AOPA magazine, which is the membership publication of 500,000 Airplane Owners and Pilots Association.

Pipers wanted my photographs and my article for its cover story. And wow, they added their own stunning photos of yellow J-3 Cubs on floats landing on sparkling water, which gave my article more appeal. They published it in November. So there is some overlapping readership between WaterFlying and Pipers, but not all seaplanes are Piper aircraft. For the Pipers article, I beefed up the information about the aircraft’s 40 years of reliability and safety at Brown’s Seaplane Base. To read that article, click on this link: https://jonimfisher.com/jack-browns-seaplane-base-celebrates-40-years/.

I also published an article on Brown’s as a long-standing business for the local newspaper. Many locals were not aware that they had a seaplane training base in the county, so they were surprised to know it was famous in aviation. While the local newspaper article paid peanuts, it put me in good stead with Brown’s. The positive publicity helped offset the occasional complaint about the noise of the aircraft from lakeside homeowners. The locals tend to whine less about the noise when they consider Jimmy Buffett or Alan Jackson might be in those little yellow planes landing on their lake.

In June, AOPA said they were interested. Alas, Pipers was publishing it in November and contracted for 30 days of rights after publication, so the year would run out before I got my rights back. I had published with AOPA before, so I explained my situation to the editor and gave him the contact information for Brown’s Seaplane Base so one of his staff writers could cover it. The editor was happy he could write about it without fear of poaching my idea and gave me another assignment a month later. Win win.

The income earned from the first three publications paid for the week it took to research, write and take photographs for the article.

Once you become known for a topic, you can become an editor’s go-to person for future stories. As a freelance writer, I could write aviation articles for my local paper as a stringer, or on-call writer. But I would not give them exclusive rights to my work because I want to continue to write for magazines. When writing an article for both local and national publication, the topic can be the same, but the focus changes to suit the readership. For example—What is the impact to the local readers, local laws, local economy? I would interview local sources for local stories; national experts for national stories.

I am also known to various editors as an aviation writer in central Florida, so I get called to cover stories nearby. Every April the second largest general aviation gathering in the US happens in Lakeland, Florida. SUN ‘n FUN is big news in general aviation so for the last two years I have been a stringer for General Aviation News in April.

Having read about this case study, which of these magazines would you choose to publish in?

• Plane and Pilot Magazine is designed for private pilots and owners of light aircraft. This monthly magazine features articles on new and used aircraft, pilot proficiency, avionics, weather and more. Circulation: 110,140. Buys all rights.
• AOPA Magazine is a membership publication of The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to general aviation. AOPA has fought to protect the freedom to fly while keeping general aviation safe, fun, and affordable. Circulation: 500,000. Pays on contract, in advance. Buys First North American Serial Rights.

If you publish an article as a reprint, contact the first publisher for wording of the endnote—such as: This article [or portions of this article] previously appeared in the November, 2012 edition of Field & Stream magazine.

This is also known as attribution, when you give credit to the first publisher of your article. If the article is available online in the publication’s archives, then you could also provide a link to the original for the editor of the second publication.

Look back through your personal collection of writings. If you own the rights to them, why not update them and resell them? What was it in the original article that was newsworthy? You can’t make money from the stuff while it sits in your files. Can you put your archives to work? What about follow-up stories? Anniversaries of an event? Change of leadership news?

To read or to receive similar articles delivered to your email inbox go to: www.jonimfisher.com.