A Step in the Write Direction
April 8, 2013
Update:
Remember to pray for Pastor Rick Warren and his wife
Beverly who lost their 27-year-old son to suicide this past week. For those of
us who have experienced this in our own families, we know the pain and the
“what-ifs” this can bring….My book manuscript I mentioned in last week’s blog
SOLD to Harvest House. It’s titled “A-Joke-a-Day” and will make a good gift for
pastors and speakers and anyone who likes a good story….Speaking of gifts,
Mother’s Day is coming up and I’m sure your mom or grandma would enjoy Grandmother, Mother and Me—250 pages of
stories, poetry, and delicious recipes. Regular price $23.95 plus s&h;
SALE
Thought for the
Day:
"The stone was
rolled away from the door, not to permit Christ to come out, but to enable the
disciples to go in." (Peter Marshall)
Laugh for the Day:
A lady walked into a party, saw an interesting man
across the room and went over. She said, "You look just like my fifth husband"
He smiled and asked, "How many times have you been married" She sat down beside
him and replied "Four!"
Writer’s
Hints:
Today
we’re sharing some hints on selling reprints:
- Unless
Christian writers have written one or more books, they will receive more checks
from selling reprints of previously published manuscripts. One writer who has
sold more than 2,000 short stories to Sunday school take-home papers actually
makes a living now selling reprints.
- You
have to be as careful in your marketing of reprints as you do when selling First
Rights. For example, I received a copy of a Sunday school paper with one of my
stories. In that issue they printed a story from a teenager who quit a job
because of his convictions, and the editor asked if any reader had a similar
story to share. Immediately I thought of a personal experience article I had
sold several times before in which I turned down a job because I would have had
to work Sundays. I hurriedly printed it off, addressed the envelope, and stuck
it in the mailbox. But something kept nagging at me. Suddenly I realized the
publisher of that particular Sunday school paper was Seventh-day Adventist.
Working on Sunday would be no problem for their readers. I went out and
retrieved the envelope, changed Sunday to Sabbath, wrote a short note to the
editor, and sent it off. The editor bought it!
- Be
careful when sending out a previously published article with the same query
letter. Make sure you have changed the name of the editor and the rest of the address. Just
this past week I sent out a book manuscript using the same query letter I had
used in the past. I did remember to change the publisher’s information, but when
I read the letter again (always a good idea!) I realized it still had a July
2007 date!
- The
biggest thing to remember is that you do not send reprints to the same
denomination that published the original article. In other words, if the first
publisher was Southern Baptist, you could send reprints to an American Baptist
publication, but not to another Southern Baptist magazine. The only time I was
successful at this was when I sold an article to a preacher’s magazine, then
later sold a reprint to the denomination’s general magazine. Later I changed the
title and anecdotes and sold it to the same denomination’s teen
magazine.
Have a good week spreading
the gospel
through the printed
page!
Donna Clark Goodrich
"A Step in the Write Direction--the Complete
How-to Guide for Christian Writers"
"The
Freedom of Letting Go"
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