Constant Content

I have several articles written for 'Call for Articles' requests which have been accepted but didn't sell. They also haven't been moved back to the catalog, even though the 7 day limit has been passed. Some articles go back to the 25th November and earlier. Any ideas?

Thanks

Gauderbock wrote:I have several articles written for 'Call for Articles' requests which have been accepted but didn't sell. They also haven't been moved back to the catalog, even though the 7 day limit has been passed. Some articles go back to the 25th November and earlier. Any ideas?

Thanks

I usually resubmit with a slightly different title and then delete the original. You can also tweak your price at this point.

The good thing about the open market is more money.
Downside is that it won't always sell.

I only write content for private requests. Those open requests are a gamble. I've never had great luck with them, and if the content is too specific it won't sell so you've wasted your time. I know that they ask for money upfront with private requests, but I don't know about the open requests.

I like doing the public requests if it's something general enough that it will still have a good chance of selling even if the requester passes. There's no real downside to those. What's slightly annoying is that there seem to be more casting call requests these days. That's another barrier you have to go through, and I think frequently the clients would be better off just having an open request, and then choosing whatever's the best article they get.

Of course private request are almost certainly always the best option, since you're almost guaranteed a sale, rather than the %50-%60 sales rate or whatever for articles that go into the general pool. But if you don't have clients who want you for private requests than the pool is the only way to go.

Thanks HG, I suppose I'll follow your lead. Do you include any sort of explanatory note to the editors? I'd hate an article to get caught up in some sort of dupe problem.

On the wider point, I find public requests fairly good if they're on a general topic or one that can be repurposed. Most sell for me, and I've had some private requests result, it's just these few non-sold ones that seem to be left behind that are the problem.

Gauderbock wrote:Thanks HG, I suppose I'll follow your lead. Do you include any sort of explanatory note to the editors? I'd hate an article to get caught up in some sort of dupe problem.

On the wider point, I find public requests fairly good if they're on a general topic or one that can be repurposed. Most sell for me, and I've had some private requests result, it's just these few non-sold ones that seem to be left behind that are the problem.

I sometimes leave a brief note atop the short summary section "Note to Editors: This is a previously accepted submission. The title has been changed and the original deleted". But some editors don't remove that note upon accepting an article so the piece goes live on CC, showing that note to prospective buyers. A number of my articles receive views immediately upon acceptance (subscribers to my feed, I think) so CC clients are seeing a note meant only for the editors. For the most part, I've stopped adding the note.

Pellucidean wrote:I like doing the public requests if it's something general enough that it will still have a good chance of selling even if the requester passes. There's no real downside to those. What's slightly annoying is that there seem to be more casting call requests these days. That's another barrier you have to go through, and I think frequently the clients would be better off just having an open request, and then choosing whatever's the best article they get.

Of course private request are almost certainly always the best option, since you're almost guaranteed a sale, rather than the %50-%60 sales rate or whatever for articles that go into the general pool. But if you don't have clients who want you for private requests than the pool is the only way to go.

Yeah, but the price point is so low. People want 600 words for $30 or whatever. That's $20 income. At 600 words, I'd charge something like $75. I estimate that 75% of my income that I write is guaranteed. So, if I sell at $75, that's around $50 after CC's cut. I know that $36 of that is guaranteed, so again, it makes more sense to write for the open market.

> But some editors don't remove that note upon accepting an article

Heh, I've just had most of my resubmitted articles approved. The kind editors removed the notes on all but one - but that one sold immediately, note intact, before I got a chance to edit