Thursday, November 8, 2007

Writing and Selling: Constantly

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Ever thought, What are all these articles doing sitting in my folder/flash drive/floppy disc? It's like dead words, words that are "hushed", so to speak. We wait for the Editors to send us a "good news email", and we wait to hear a reply from our queries. We wait... and wait... and wait. Us writers are very patient creatures, I believe. The poor Editors are overwhelmed with submissions and all their daily tasks, but sometimes I wonder how I keep from pulling my hair out. Still,I wait respectfully. Don't you?

Here's the thing. While we're waiting why not have a few of those articles "parked" someplace where someone just might happen across a description of our article and think Aha! I have to buy this! And that can happen--at Constant-Content.

I've thought about this for awhile now and received confirmation about it yesterday, so I've taken the plunge and signed up. What will it hurt to try it out? It's a user-friendly service and people are having success with it, right? RIGHT!

You can choose to write about topics that interest you and submit those, or you can write for a request.
Simple enough. You can take an author tutorial, read their submission guidelines, study their FAQs, and much more. If you still have questions, zip an email to them with any of your concerns.

Once you sign up, you'll begin to submit your articles. Just follow their submission guidelines as you would for any market you're submitting to. Use the font, spacing format they ask you to use--very easy.

You'll also choose how you're going to sell your article, known as various licenses. There are three ways to do this.

Here's the basics on rights/licenses:

  • You can sell your article as a Usage, meaning reprint. It can stay on Constant-Content to be sold over and over. This means more money! (I'm leaning towards this one.)
  • You can sell your article as a Unique, which is basically "all rights." This kind of sale means you're agreeing NOT to sell this particular piece anywhere else, print or online. It cannot be changed in any way, and you can ask more for this type of license.
  • The third option is Full Rights. This license allows the buyer of your article to alter the content, take credit for the writing, and sell/use it multiple times. In essence, this is "ghost writing." You can hike your asking price up even more on this one, if you choose to go this route.
There are other opportunities as well:
  • Photography
  • Illustrations
  • Videos
Just go to the website and check out the specific guidelines for these categories.

So, there you have it. It's pretty simple and easy to understand. Currently, Constant-Content (as an aid in selling your writing) gets a percentage of your sale. You come out with 65% of that sale, though, and considering the articles you'll be selling would have probably been gathering dust (not earning you anything at all), that's not too shabby! Just take the percentages into consideration when pricing your articles.

It gets even better! As a bonus, you'll receive additional income by earning a generous 5% on sales made by the folks that sign up through your affiliate link. Nice, huh?

With Thanksgiving, Christmas, AND the New Year coming (maybe there's even some birthdays in the mix),
I do hope you'll consider this awesome opportunity for generating steadily growing cash for your pocket and increased sales for your freelance writing ego. What? Who doesn't love another sale?

Don't forget to click the pull down menu when you're filling out your author form and select yes to receive emails notifying you of your sales and upcoming article requests. There are three there. Just choose yes for each of them.

I've already submitted my first article. It's a very simple, straightforward process. I'm awaiting approval and then it can be sold (again and again because I chose the Usage license.)

Also, there is a price list to consider when using the submission form. That will help you choose a sale price, but it's just estimates. You can ask less or more. You'll be asked to write a short description for the buyer to see and also include approximately one third of your content so the buyer gets a good idea of what he/she is paying for. Lastly, you'll upload your file attachment and that's it. Wait for approval and you're in business.

Best wishes on your successful sales at Constant-Content while writing the cyber highway!