Beware of Selling

Your Rights

Most creative writers are so eager to sell their work that they don't stop to consider what rights they are selling. "Rights" has nothing to do with what you are paid or copywriting your work; this term refers to how a publisher can use your work.

• First North American Serial Rights, or FNASR, are the most common rights purchased. The purchasing magazine has the right to publish your work one time in N. America  for X amount of dollars. If you are offering these rights to a magazine, you will want to place "Offering First North American Serial Rights" at the top of the document. 
• One Time Serial Rights – If you are simultaneously offering your story or article to several publications, you will want to place "One Time Serial Rights" at the top of the page. This grants the first magazine that snaps up your work the right to publish your story or article one time.
• Second Serial Rights – If you have previously sold the story or article, you will be offering Second Serial Rights to the next magazine. They will be able to publish your work once.
• All Rights – Unless someone is hiring you to develop a work for them, such as developing a course for a school, shudder at the sight of these rights. It means you are signing away "all rights" to whoever bought your work. You may never sell the work again, publish it, copy it, download it, or transfer it. You have no rights whatsoever left.
• Work for Hire – This is another "right" that you should shiver at. Work for Hire can only exist in two ways: Either you have created a document as an independent contractor and you are selling the rights to it, or you are being paid as an employee and your work was created during your work time – which gives your boss all rights.
• Non-Exclusive Rights – This one is not desirable either. Although the "rights" refer back to you after one year and you can sell it again, the original buyer may continue to use the work and reproduce it in syndication without sharing the profits with you.

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• Exclusive Rights – If you sign these rights, you have given away the farm. An example of this would be Associated Content and other like places that assume full rights when they buy your work. You will not be able to reproduce it or sell it again. It's gone. Ker-plunk! Down the toilet.
• One-time rights – You can sell one time rights simultaneously to as many people as you want. Columnists use this right to sell their articles to multiple markets.

As you can see, there is only the difference of a hair's breadth on some of these rights. Keep this article in your safe and don't sign anything without referring to it!

There are many more types of rights, but this covers the most prominent ones.

Learning to Deal

With Rejection

Creative writers have a hard time dealing with criticism, constructive or otherwise. After all, our written words are our babies, and how dare anyone criticize them or try to change them! Right? Wrong. That is a beginner’s point of view. You will be light years ahead when you can accept and actually use constructive criticism to your advantage.

One of the best ways to do this is to join a writing club. There are dozens of them, but the one I like the best is Writing.com. You have the opportunity to publish your stories on site and let other writers read and rate your article from one to five stars.

I will admit that there is a very small percentile of nasty people who take pleasure in jabbing newbies, and one such encounter is enough to cripple you for a long time, but I credit the site’s head master for taking proper steps in dealing with such riff-raff. 

As an example, I had one story that consistently drew a five star rating and one day a woman rated it one star and wrote this message: “If you really want to be a good writer, you need to read good authors so you’ll know what good writing is. I rated your story one star, and I would have rated it less if I could have, but I admit I only read the first paragraph.”

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Whoa! Talk about someone running over you with cleat shoes! I felt like a squished wooly worm. However, I learned two things. Firstly, you can’t pay attention to everyone. There are some real weirdos out there, and secondly, I learned to write snappy first paragraphs!

My defenses were up for a year, but I remember the day when I let them down and actually heeded a helpful critique. From that day on, I used 95% of all the critiques I received. At first I did it as an experiment, but when my ratings soared, I did it because I knew I was learning.

Dealing with rejection is a part of every writer’s life. Learn who you should share your work with. Don’t let family members or friends (who are not writers) read your work. They won’t know what they are talking about, but they will try to teach you how to write. It’s easier to learn from strangers.

When you try to sell your stories or articles, you are sure to receive rejection slips. I wish so much that I had kept mine so I could put them into the album that now holds all of my published clippings. Don't through yours away.

Rejection is a learning time in every writer’s life, but ultimately you must learn to grow a thick hide. And when you do, you will be the better for it.

Creative Writers

Murder Babies

When creative writers think of parenting, they normally think of someone biologically bearing a child, but there is more than one kind of parent. There is the unmarried parent, the divorced parent, the parent to be, and the adoptive parent, to name a few.

But still there is one more kind of parent - and that is the parent of the written word. Although it may not conjure up the same status as that of physical parenting, the labor is just as real.  

Every writer knows their words are their babies, and heaven help the critic who says we should strike a few words here or there. Not only is it unforgivable, it cuts to the very core of our being. This is one place that writer's groups provide an invaluable service.

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Darla's Advice Column

I want to write for children, but someone said it is harder than writing for adults. Is that true? Beth

Hi Beth

Yes, it is true. The first thing you need is the ability to think like a child. Pay close attention to how children talk when they play. Pick the age group you are interested in writing for and start listening to children that age.

If you are writing for little ones, remember that they believe in Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and the Easter Bunny. They are looking for excitement, and their imagi-nations are limitless. Offer them new, fascinating stories that will keep their attention.

Set the scene as though you are looking through their eyes.

Darla

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There is no better place to grow a thick skin than in a writer's group. After all, would you rather hear stinging criticism from another newb, or would you rather hear it from an editor who cares nothing about your pain?

There is a simple trick to avoiding this kind of literary suffering, and that is to murder your own babies. You will recognize them when a part of you cries out, "That doesn't really fit," and another part cries out, "But I like it!" You know in your heart it is time to pull out your scalpel and begin cutting. Although the wound will bleed, you will know you are maturing as a writer.

But don't throw that favorite phrase away. Copy it, and drop it in a jar. Some day you will find the perfect place for it.

The best time to murder your babies is when you edit for verbiage (wordiness). Trim away the fat and leave only the lean. That means edit scenes, edit dialog, and edit the plot in general. Say it with less. Say it better. Jazz your verbs.

So the next time you are editing, get the scalpel and bandages out and prepare to dissect. The parent will barely survive, but the baby will be perfect.