Syndication

Before you can get your stories or photographs syndicated, freelancers (and staff writers/photographers) need to be clear about what rights they retain in the content they create.

Most NZ publications pay only for 1st New Zealand Rights leaving your work free for resale outside NZ. If publications are claiming more teritorial rights than that, then they should not only be telling you, they should make clear what extra payment you will get for giving up more rights than normal.

Be especially careful about digital rights as online publication is so easy to plagiarise.

If you don`t know what rights you are giving away with your work, now is a good time to find out!

Why syndicate your work?
Why use NZstories.com?
What will you earn?
How does international media syndication work?
What are overseas publications looking for?
What does it cost?

Why syndicate your work?

Writers put a lot of work into writing features and are often paid a pittance in return. A great way to maximise your income is to `write once, sell many times` by selling reprints of the same article in different geographical territories. For instance an article on organic kiwifruit sold to Organic NZ magazine could easily interest the editors of the UK`s `Grow Your Own` magazine or Canada`s `Food for Thought` magazine.

Even regular contributors to the same magazine or newspaper will normally retain copyright to their work. Most (reasonable) publishers accept this and don`t worry as long as the work is not resold in the same territory. If minor rewriting is required we can advise you on the best ways to do this.

Many writers don't have the time to check out overseas markets and keep up-to-date with who`s who in which publication. Even if they had time, not all writers like to market themselves - they`d rather be researching and writing - the things they are good at.

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Why use NZstories.com?

We offer you 60% of the sale fee

We have an online shop window for your work

We will promote your skills and your availability for commissioned work

We will consider unpublished features if they are of a high quality

We are based in New Zealand

The big advantage you get from using an agency like NZstories.com is that we are constantly building relationships with publishers and editors. These people trust us to know their publications and not submit unsuitable material. We are also a great online resource for editors and publishers trawling the Internet looking for content in a hurry - or looking for a journalist with particular skills in a specialised subject area.

Remember, if we don`t make a sale, we don`t get paid and you lose nothing! The risk is all ours.

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What will you earn from reselling your work?

You will receive 60% of any fees received by NZstories.com for each sale of your work. You retain the copyright in your work at all times, all we ask is that you don't market your work simultananeously with another syndication company and us. After six months, if you wish, you can remove listings, as long as we are not still in negotiation with a publisher with regard to any particular item.

You receive 60% of any fees received for sale of your work. If we sell your story to a UK publication for say, £250, your income would be £150 which (at current exchange rates) is NZ$456.

Our 40% commission rate is lower than most syndication agencies charge and covers the cost of adding and formatting your work on to the NZstories.com website, pitching your work to appropriate publishers and editors and handling the negotiations for licensing and sale of your work.

How often do most pieces sell?

Those that sell usually sell one or two times. Since we started trading in 2005, our record to date is four times ? a piece on peak oil that sold to 2 magazines in New Zealand, one in Australia and one in the UK. (it was never pitched to North America) Total income so far $2200 ? producing $1320 to the writer.

Editors come and go ? a ?no? does not necessarily mean ?no forever?. Some publications have a short life ? a magazine that goes bust is not interested in what you do with your features any more!

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How does international media syndication work?

Some writers use overseas syndication agents. Most syndication agents are not interested in finding markets for unpublished works; they prefer to work with material that already has a track record of publication. Some agencies buy articles outright for a flat fee but the writer is not told how often a piece gets sold or where it is published.
So a popular piece of writing makes lots of money for the syndication agent but you still only get that one-off flat fee.

Some agencies adopt a shared basis - every time your article is sold, you get a share of the fee, usually 50 percent. Here the more the agency makes, the more you make and you retain all of the rights to your material.

If you want to consider syndicating (i.e. reselling) your work, the most important thing is to be clear about what rights in your work you own and wish to make available to each editor/publisher you work for. Most NZ magazines pay only for 1st NZ or Australasian Rights leaving your work free for resale elsewhere. If publications are claiming more rights than that, then they should be telling you.

Be especially careful about the digital rights you give away. If a publication is making the full text of your work available online, then anyone anywhere in the world will have access to it. The chances are you will never know if someone is plagiarising/ copying/ ripping off your work. Unscrupulous editors won?t buy your work if they can get it free online and re-jig it themselves.

Of course, when you are starting off as a writer, it?s great to be able to list URLs of your published work ? it makes you look professional. But once you are established as a freelance you should either be asking for extra payment for digital rights or ask for your features to be unavailable online.

If you don?t know what rights you are giving away with your work, now is a good time to find out. It doesn?t cost anything to ask!

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What are overseas publications looking for?

The answer has to be `everything`. You can never predict what an editor is looking for or what ideas may catch his or her imagination. There is a huge international trade in syndicated articles on health and nutrition, fitness, self-help, arts, humour, the supernatural, the elderly, women's or men's pieces, articles on relationships, lifestyle, leisure, extreme sports and of course travel.

But NZstories.com is of course promoting unique New Zealand stories as well. We are especially keen to source features that go deeper than the stereotypical worldview of New Zealand i.e. sheep, mountains, lakes, hobbits and rugby. We like arts and tourism stories, but we also want to encourage features on emerging New Zealand activities such as winegrowing, microbreweries, aquaculture, nutraceuticals and knowledge-based industries.

There is an extraordinary cache of goodwill towards New Zealand that opens doors when talking to editors - people who have often been here and have fond memories of this country. This opens doors to selling your work.

Will you find out who publishes your work?

No. We send you a cheque with information about the sale e.g. the country of the publication, but we don`t reveal the name of the publication. As we hope you will appreciate, NZstories.com spends many, many hours building relationships with editors and researching overseas markets. Much as we would like to be, we are not a charity or a virtual company - we eat real food and have real mortgages!

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What does it cost?

From March 1st 2007 our charges will be as follows:

Plan A - list no stories but be listed as a highlighted writer or photographer (with links to your website if desired) - $30 per annum.

Plan B - list up to 5 stories per year on our online content database. (If we sell a story in a particular territory, you can still list the same story for other territories or you can replace it with a new one. You can change your stories anytime as long as you don't go over a total of 5 stories altogether) - $80 per annum

Plan C - Plan A and Plan B combined - $99 per annum

To list more than 5 stories, additional stories are $10 per story.

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