October 2009 Get out of a Price Rut Challenge - Who's In?

[Celeste Stewart]

Hey, you never know! Do-it-Yourself Pest Control: Dealing with Possums. Could be a popular series - rats, squirrels, raccoons, spiders, snakes. . .

Actually, I heard a story this morning about a lady who got mauled by raccoons when she was trying to shoo them off her porch so maybe an article along the lines of "Do's and Don'ts for Shooing Pests Away" might have its place somewhere?

Of course there's "How to Cook Possum Pie" and "How to Skin a Possum" LOL. Why on earth the word possum popped in my mind when trying out the search feature is beyond me but okay I'll roll with it.

[HayleyWriter]

People eat possums?

By the way, I hadn't even noticed the popular searches tab on the recently sold page until this forum mentioned the list and then I just had to go and find it! What a cool improvement. I'm impressed, but it's yet another page to spend my time looking at. I seem to be on CC constantly...

Hayley

[4rumid]

. . . if buyer sees that an article is also being offered for Unique or Full Rights licence, then they know that the article doesn't currently appear anywhere else. . . .This type of purchase would essentially give their website a "You saw it here first!" kind of article. . . .

When I see an article selling for "usage only" (whether or not CC shows any downloads) I come to the conclusion that this piece of writing has been published somewhere else before.

It hadn't occurred to me that offering usage only would give someone that impression. I have an article up that I'm currently offering for usage only -- but only because I got a bite (more of a tiny nibble) from a magazine, and given what they'd be willing to pay, I want to keep that option open. But as of now the article hasn't appeared anywhere else. I'm wondering, based on the comment in the first paragraph above, if it might be worth putting something in the summary saying "This article is currently unique to this site" or "has never appeared anywhere else" or something like that. (Obviously, the note would be deleted after a sale.)

I agree with everyone about pricing being difficult, especially for us new people. In fact . . . I'm wondering if someone might be willing to check out the article I'm talking about and offer an opinion on how I've priced it, based on length, content, etc. It's called "Heart Attacks: What Every Woman . . . ." Might someone interested in the article be turned off by the price? TIA!

[Celeste Stewart]

So, the magazine nibble - what exactly is the magazine interested in? First rights? Reprint rights? What's its expected turn around time? How serious do you it is about making an offer? Those are the questions. If the magazine is expecting first rights, then you don't want to sell the article for usage yet (if you think the magazine is serious etc). If it's cool with reprints, then okay, usage is probably fine but pay attention to what their terms are. THey may require first serial rights in which case they get to print it first before you can offer it to someone else.

Magazines are fairly slow in making commitments and publishing the article, often specifying that they won't pay until publication, so keep that in mind, too. An offer today may mean payment many months from now and getting that offer in the first place may take several months of wrangling. Fortunately, it sounds like you've already gotten to the point where an offer may be eminent.

As far as CC goes, taking the magazine out of the equation, I'd give the $39 price a shot. I do think that only offering usage does limit the article's potential range of buyers but if you're okay with that as you wait, then give it a try. I'd also consider the magazine's price as those vary wildly. It's possible that you can get a fair amount on CC, perhaps even comparable to the magazine's. Are they offering an astounding figure or a modest one? Is the magazine credit one you're craving? More questions, I know. If it's an awesome credit that you would love to have on your resume, then money doesn't mean as much. If it's not and the price is marginal, I'd consider offering additional licenses here at comparable prices. Lots of variables to be sure. The first thing right now that I'd be concerned with is what the magazine requires license-wise and then I'd consider how important it is to me for the article to go to that customer at the given price versus alternatives like CC. A print byline may be worth waiting for, especially if you're close and the magazine is important to you. Maybe give the publication a set amount of time to decide, such as one or two months, and then place it for sale here?

[4rumid]

Thanks so much for the input, Celeste. The magazine situation is extremely nebulous -- calling it a "tiny nibble" is probably a gross overstatement. What's happening is I've spoken to a couple of friends in mag. publishing and they think my article has a good chance of being picked up by a magazine. But there's another longer article they think I should write for which this Heart Attack article would be a sidebar. And I have yet to write that article. So given the nonexistence of an actual offer, why am I even contemplating it? Because they told me I could conceivably get $1/word. So that would be about $700 plus about $2000 for the other article, versus $39 here, or whatever I'd be able to ask for full rights. I'd really like to go for it.

I did ask about rights and was told the magazine wouldn't care if it was published elsewhere first. For now I'm going to assume that's true, since I'd like to try to get it sold here. And if necessary, I can write another article covering the same ideas later.

As for the credit, at this point it doesn't matter much to me. I've been an editor for many years, but this is the first time I'm trying to sell my writing, and at this point I don't even know where this is going to go. People mention they crank out multiple articles in a day, and so far I can't fathom that. But then I've only written three articles so far and they've been between 600 to 900 words, so maybe I should aim for shorter articles. But I still don't get what topic can be covered in 200 or 300 words, and unfortunately I can't search the archives by article length, so I don't know what those articles look like.

Anyway, I'll stick with $39, at least for now. Thanks again!

Ruth

[eek]

Eek,
From the CC FAQs:

What is a Unique Purchase?
A Unique Purchase is when you buy outright the information desired. The author and Constant Content will not sell this article to any other customers. However, you are restricted to reprinting the article in its original form, including the authors byline, if a byline is included.

I made the change to include a unique license, so thanks, Celeste.
Does anyone else here feel possessive about certain articles?

It should be pointed out in this thread what a full rights license involves. It allows the purchaser to modify the content, attach a different name to the byline or remove an author name, and publish it multiple times. That last part doesn't really hit home, even if you know it in your head, until you see one of your articles popping up in multiple online newsletters on the internet. For instance, some clients purchase real estate articles and use them to produce newsletters for multiple realtors or brokers with online websites.

I'm not knocking the fullrights license, but you should understand it when you set your prices. If you agreed to a $5 full rights offer, would you be happy if you knew the client intended to publish it in at least ten places, including a future ebook? Hopefully this perspective will help any of you who are not feeling confident about your work to place a higher value on it.

[Celeste Stewart]

I can't say I feel possessive over many of my articles here. I write them knowing that they'll likely go for full rights so my expectations are already set. Kind of like a surrogate mother knowing that the baby in her womb belongs to another woman. She still nurtures it and gives it life but understands that soon she must part with the baby.

[Debbi]

I think I feel more possessive over usage and unique rights articles than full rights articles. Usage and unique articles will have my name on them and be representative of my work, but full rights are somebody else's problem. If the buyer is going to change my article, I hope they put no name or their own name on it.

Similar to Celeste's surrogate mother example, it's like raising puppies you hope will go to good homes. If I'm going to claim the puppies as my own dogs, they better behave!

Debbi

[eek]

Hey, you never know! Do-it-Yourself Pest Control: Dealing with Possums. Could be a popular series - rats, squirrels, raccoons, spiders, snakes. . .

Actually, I heard a story this morning about a lady who got mauled by raccoons when she was trying to shoo them off her porch so maybe an article along the lines of "Do's and Don'ts for Shooing Pests Away" might have its place somewhere?

Of course there's "How to Cook Possum Pie" and "How to Skin a Possum" LOL. Why on earth the word possum popped in my mind when trying out the search feature is beyond me but okay I'll roll with it.

I could write an article along the lines of "Living with Brown Recluse Spiders," but always figured nobody would go for that!
How do you all decide whether a topic is worth spending the time? I know we can use google adsense, but some pretty quirky articles have shown up on the recently sold list on CC. I like to focus on articles I think will sell, but sometimes I think I'm clueless.

[Celeste Stewart]

If it interests me, I write it figuring that it will interest someone else as well. When I pick topics that I write on my own, I only pick topics that I want to write about and rarely check for popularity. It's like a luxury. . . I have enough people telling me what to write that I sometimes need to indulge myself. I suppose I consider potential saleability, but not always.

[ltweedie]

Tip: On writing speedily
A good walk always helps immeasurably

[Antonia]

Hi! I've been off the forums for the past couple of weeks...in transit from Nepal > India > USA....am now in Boulder, Colorado enjoying the snow. This is an interesting thread. I think I have gotten into a bit of a price rut too--I rarely price above a certain level. However, I try not to spend longer than an hour on one article. I guess I am one of those speedier writers although I wouldn't say that I "churn" out articles.

[Debbi]

Hi, Antonia!

Welcome back to the States

Do you have any tips for us tortoises? Does that hour include research, typing, and proofing? Gah, I can't imagine writing an article in an hour unless it was about something I knew really, really well, like My Five Favorite Chicken Dishes, heh.

[eek]

Happy to "see" you on the forums again, Antonia! Hope the settling in process goes well.

I'd like some advice from someone re. setting prices with a private requester, in particular concerning a glossary. In general, I tend to be more flexible in pricing for private requests, especially if the client provides consistent work. This client does, and I've done a glossary for him before, but found it took MUCH longer than anticipated. But then again - I'm not speedy! Does anyone here know what constitutes a fair price for glossaries? Better to set the price per word or per term? I'd appreciate words of wisdom - have to communicate with him asap. I'm inclined to just go with his price, because I'm afraid to offend him and lose a client who is easy to work with.

thanks!
emma

[Celeste Stewart]

Hi Emma,
Not sure as far as fair price for glossaries go but I've found most customers are flexible if you approach them about the work involved in a given assignment.