Disaster-Proof Your Assignments by Barbara Florio Graham

Unfortunately, there are quite a few things that can arise unexpectedly to upset that scenario.

Here are four ways to avoid disaster.

1. When you query a magazine about a major article requiring interviews or other research, do not begin to work on the piece until it's actually assigned. If the editor who accepted your query changes before you have a written agreement outlining the specific length, slant, number of interviews, etc., the new editor may have very different ideas about the content and tone of the publication. He/she may not want that article at all, or decide that it should be approached differently from the way you and the initial editor had agreed.

If you don't have an agreement in writing, you have no recourse. I'm always dismayed when someone calls on me for help and has no paper trail to back up what was supposedly agreed upon over the phone.

2. Send a letter (by mail or e-mail) confirming the assignment, rather than waiting for the editor to send you the publication's contract. This letter should state clearly all the aspects of the assignment that may prove contentious later on.

Some experts suggest that a writer should ask the editor for more direction up-front and request a clearer assignment letter. But I suggest you write this letter instead of waiting for the editor to do this.

Spell out in detail the scope, slant, and length of the article, how much research is expected, the number of rewrites to be included for the specified fee, and the payment and terms (including rights being licensed) as well as the date of publication. With a new magazine, you might even want to include a statement saying that rights revert to you after a certain time if the article does not appear.

The Periodical Writers Association of Canada (PWAC) has an excellent sample of such a letter in the free Copyright Kit available from their website. Go to:
http://www.pwac.ca/pdf/copyright_kit.pdf

I suggest that you begin your letter with a positive statement showing your enthusiasm for the project. I usually start by writing something like this:

"Dear Beth,

I'm delighted that you've accepted my query to write an article on training your staff to handle the media, for the fall issue of xxx."

I then spell out all the terms, and end with:

"I'm ready to start working on this piece, and will assume that you agree with the above terms unless I hear from you by the end of the week."

This puts the onus on the editor to reply if he/she doesn't agree with any of the terms. This letter becomes a legal document once you've sent it, and these become the actual terms unless the editor can prove that modifications were made in writing, with the time limit you specified.

Then, if a new editor steps in after you've submitted your piece, you can demand additional payment if you're asked to rewrite beyond the scope of the original assignment.

Sometimes, unfortunately, an inexperienced editor may decide to change the focus of your article after he or she has time to think about it, or even if an advertiser appears on the scene who might prefer that the editorial content take a different slant.

A firm letter confirming the assignment will ensure that you're paid for additional copy beyond the specified length, or for a rewrite that expands the scope or changes the focus.

3. Bullet-proof your research by keeping a comprehensive list of everyone you contact, turning this in with the article to make fact-checking easier. Also keep tapes of all interviews, along with your original notes, and verify quotes with each source. You may even want to offer the editor a sidebar listing resources where the reader can obtain further information. If you've thought of this in advance, additional payment for sidebars can be included in your Letter Confirming Assignment.

4. You may want to consider avoiding magazines that pay on publication, unless you're able to write the article fairly quickly, without extensive research, and have other markets in mind where you can sell either one-time rights or second rights.

If a pay-on-publication magazine is suddenly killed by the publisher, you have little recourse to collect what they owe you, whether your article has already appeared in print, was scheduled for the next issue, or is in progress.

It's not just "start-ups" that fail. A few years ago, when I was writing regularly for a popular pet magazine, its parent company made a corporate decision to concentrate on their larger publications, and divest itself of the smaller ones, even those, like the one I was writing for, that were profitable. The demise of this excellent, award-winning publication shocked everyone, including the editor, who was given only a few weeks' notice and wasn't allowed to proceed with the next issue, which was all ready to go to the printer!

Advertisers, columnists, regular contributors and subscribers were left hanging for several months.

If those of us who hads written articles for the issue that never appeared had signed contracts for payment on publication, we would have been left out in the cold. Fortunately, this publication paid on acceptance. I had already received my check, and was able to send my article elsewhere and get paid again for First Rights.

About the author:

Barbara Florio Graham (www.SimonTeakettle.com), is an author, editorial consultant, and teacher who has won awards for fiction, non-fiction, humor and poetry in contests in the U.S. and Canada.
The author of Five Fast Steps to Better Writing, Five Fast Steps to
Low-Cost Publicity, and Mewsings/Musings, Barbara has also contributed to 21 anthologies in the U.S., Canada, Sweden and Norway, as well as to many magazines and newspapers. In demand as a public speaker and workshop leader, Barbara also teaches online courses. Barbara shares her office with her cat, Simon Teakettle, who has gained celebrity in Canada and the US through his commentaries on CBC radio and his byline in CATS Magazine. Quoted in The Bedside Book of Celebrity Gossip, Simon is featured in Great Cat Tales, due out in September from
Altitudes Press. He is the co-author of Mewsings/Musings, and the proud owner of the company Barbara works for.