Sold My First Article - Can I Write it Again?
Moderators: Celeste Stewart, Ed, Constant
Sold My First Article - Can I Write it Again?
I have submitted three articles to CC, and just sold my first one with full rights. I am working on other articles around different topics. I am wondering, however, can I write another article dealing with the same subject matter as my sold article to fill the void left by that one?
Re: Sold My First Article - Can I Write it Again?
Covering the same topic is fine, but it's usually better to find a slightly different angle, as customers buying for full rights want unique content and so it's slightly unethical to try and duplicate. Also, you risk plagiarising yourself accidentally if trying to discuss the same topic in the same way again. That is likely to lead to permanent suspension.
Re: Sold My First Article - Can I Write it Again?
Hi Kaytee,
I think if you've bothered to do the research on a particular topic for an article and you have sold it, you should definitely rewrite it and fill the void so you can get another sale. It also means your research isn't going to waste, and your second article will probably be written more quickly and efficiently so you can build up your stock of articles more quickly. Rewording and restructuring your article, or coming from a different viewpoint are both good ways to use the material you've already gathered. Good luck.
I think if you've bothered to do the research on a particular topic for an article and you have sold it, you should definitely rewrite it and fill the void so you can get another sale. It also means your research isn't going to waste, and your second article will probably be written more quickly and efficiently so you can build up your stock of articles more quickly. Rewording and restructuring your article, or coming from a different viewpoint are both good ways to use the material you've already gathered. Good luck.
Re: Sold My First Article - Can I Write it Again?
I agree with Kaytee. Rewriting an article, especially one that has sold for full rights, could be considered plagiarism even if none of the words are the same. The entire idea behind Constant Content is unique content, which is more than just rephrasing things.
You can re-use the research and attack it from a different angle. Let's say your first article is a piece describing how trees are tapped for the maple syrup industry. Your next article might look at it from the consumer's view - is it more ethical to buy maple syrup made in X manner rather than Y manner? You can reuse most of the research from the first article, but you're creating unique content that the original buyer would probably be interested in. For a third article, you can explore how making maple syrup has changed over the years. Again, re-using much of the same research and you may be able to cite yourself as a source.
However, if you just write the same article about how maple syrup is made three times and just change the words or the structure, you're not creating unique content (the ultimate goal of CC) any more than giving a car a paint job makes it a new car. You don't need to change a whole lot to make it unique. When writing a second or third article on a topic, I approach it by targeting a new reader. The first reader just wanted to know how something is done. The second article reader wants to know about the controversies. The third article reader wants to know the history. The fourth article reader wants to know cool facts about the subject. Ad infinitum. You'll find the research time spent on subsequent articles remains minimal while your risk of plagiarizing yourself (just as big a no-no as plagiarizing someone else) decreases and you're less likely to become bored with the subject. And as a writer, the more articles you can write that may interest a single buyer the more likely you are to have greater sales than hoping for several buyers interested in what is essentially the same article.
You can re-use the research and attack it from a different angle. Let's say your first article is a piece describing how trees are tapped for the maple syrup industry. Your next article might look at it from the consumer's view - is it more ethical to buy maple syrup made in X manner rather than Y manner? You can reuse most of the research from the first article, but you're creating unique content that the original buyer would probably be interested in. For a third article, you can explore how making maple syrup has changed over the years. Again, re-using much of the same research and you may be able to cite yourself as a source.
However, if you just write the same article about how maple syrup is made three times and just change the words or the structure, you're not creating unique content (the ultimate goal of CC) any more than giving a car a paint job makes it a new car. You don't need to change a whole lot to make it unique. When writing a second or third article on a topic, I approach it by targeting a new reader. The first reader just wanted to know how something is done. The second article reader wants to know about the controversies. The third article reader wants to know the history. The fourth article reader wants to know cool facts about the subject. Ad infinitum. You'll find the research time spent on subsequent articles remains minimal while your risk of plagiarizing yourself (just as big a no-no as plagiarizing someone else) decreases and you're less likely to become bored with the subject. And as a writer, the more articles you can write that may interest a single buyer the more likely you are to have greater sales than hoping for several buyers interested in what is essentially the same article.
Re: Sold My First Article - Can I Write it Again?
I agree that we shouldn't waste our research abbamay, but as SJHillman says the way to do it (I think) is by writing around a topic from all sorts of perspectives, not "rewriting" the same piece. I suppose it's down to the individual writer's personal ethics, but I think that C-C might take issue with an author simply rewording pieces should it be picked up on.Abbamay wrote:Hi Kaytee,
I think if you've bothered to do the research on a particular topic for an article and you have sold it, you should definitely rewrite it and fill the void so you can get another sale. It also means your research isn't going to waste, and your second article will probably be written more quickly and efficiently so you can build up your stock of articles more quickly. Rewording and restructuring your article, or coming from a different viewpoint are both good ways to use the material you've already gathered. Good luck.
I think we make the site much more valuable to the customers by creating content which fully explores the topics we research, so that they have a range of choices and we develop a range of skills, writing for different audiences and purposes.