By Sarah Smiley

Save Your Clips

As soon as you are published anywhere, start saving your clips. I always photo-copy mine because newsprint begins to yellow over time. Make sure the publication date is noted on the clip, then place it in a protective binder. Hopefully you’ll be making more copies of these clips soon when you write your syndication proposal… or your book proposal!

Watch Your Contracts

Writers are artists at heart, but unfortunately, in the world of publishing, there’s a lot of business-minded tasks to take care of. In particular, it’s important to learn about contracts…or find someone to learn about it for you.

My husband is my personal “business advisor” who helps me to think with my “career” mind rather than my “artsy” mind when it comes time to sign on the dotted line.

Here’s one very important thing I’ve learned (by error) about contracts: be cautious of a “Work for Hire” deal. If you sign a “Work for Hire” contract, you are basically signing away all the rights to your writing. In effect, the publication, not you, owns the article/column you produce. If you should ever want to reprint that piece (in a book, etc.) you then have to ask permission from the original publication.

A much better way is to sign a “Freelancer Contract”. This type of arrangement assures you the rights to your work. You are actually only lending your work to the publication, and you still retain all rights to reprint or publish however else you choose (except that most papers will ask that you not publish in another competing local paper).

A good book to educate yourself about contracts is Understanding Publishers’ Contracts by Michael Legat.
 

If You Have the Choice, Go With Self-Syndication

There are two ways to syndicate: through an agency, or on your own. Below are the pros and cons of both (as I see it).

Going through an Agency

• The experts do all the business work for you (marketing, writing proposals, etc.)
• Your mind is freed up to be artistic and write, write, write.
• Agencies have contacts and networks you do not.
• Selling a syndicated column can be a full-time job; if you want to write full-time, leave the business of promotion and sales to an agency.
• However, an agency will take a hefty chunk of your profits.
• An agency creates a middle-man through which you have to work.
• An agency takes “control” of your career.

Self-Syndicating Your Column

• You retain control and direction of your own career.
• You don’t have to share profits with an agency.
• You don’t have to work through a middle-man.
• BUT, you do have to work really hard to market yourself and your column.

Self-syndicating is like taking on another job. (You will be solely responsible for sales, promotion, understanding contracts, creating invoices, etc.)

For me, however, the biggest benefit of going the self-syndication route has been the satisfaction I get from knowing I am in control of my own career and that I’ve gotten here through my own talents and hard work.

A good book for understanding the differences between self-syndication and syndication through an agency is Successful Syndication: A Guide for Writers and Cartoonists by Michael H. Sedge.

If you work hard enough, have patience and collect lots and lots of clips, you are well on your way to being a columnist.

I wish you luck, no writer’s block, and many days of writing success!

Sarah Smiley’s syndicated column Shore Duty appears weekly in newspapers across the country. Visit Sarah’s website.

SOURCE: Teachmarket.com — The Extra Bucks for Teachers Resource!

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