Tuesday, December 23, 2014

A QUESTION OF RIGHTS


Q - I have an article that I would like to send to two magazines at the same time. It is the same story, but one version is 800 words and the other is about 1,200 words. Since they are two different lengths, can I offer first rights on both of them?

A - Sorry, but since it sounds like this is essentially the same article, you can’t offer first rights to both. The length is not as much at issue here as is the actual content. For this piece to be different enough to be considered a different article it would need a different lead, a different ending, different anecdotes, etc. Submit these pieces one at a time and after one buys it, offer the other one reprint rights, explaining the difference in length in your cover letter.

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