There’s a great question. At this
time, I publish YA short stories, mostly with Cricket Magazine. The good thing
is that Cricket buys first rights and then, after the 60 day exclusivity period,
the rights revert back to the writer—me. This allows me to publish the stories
again in any format I like so long as I give first publication credit to
Cricket.
I believe this is standard practice in publishing. Please advise if you know
differently.
Selling first rights to a market
allows for top dollar in that market. Second rights allows for more money being
made on the same story. I had published a non-fiction essay in Listen Magazine and
received my rights back. Then I sold the same piece to a school board up north for
a reading test they were putting together. And again, the rights revert to me.
Of course, I need to take advantage
of having these publishing rights. I should try and publish my short stories as
an anthology or as e-book singles. I need my own artwork for any books I publish.
Do any of you have some
suggestions for graphic art or how I can make my own photos or artwork look
good on covers or pages? These are YA stories, remember.
Also, if any of you have
suggestions on where I should go to self-publish or e-publish short stories for
young adults, please offer tips and/or websites or publishers to visit. This is
a task I need to learn how to do or learn where to go to look for assistance. I
hope to learn lots from your blog posts this month!
As for my full-length college memoir
manuscript…sigh…
I took the month of August off to
work on writing projects, remember? Well, my mother had been sick and in and out of
the hospital for a long time. I, like my siblings, had been caring for her,
allowing her to live independently as much as possible. In August, that all
changed. I spent the month caring for my dying mother in my home. Which I would
do again in a heartbeat!
I was only able to submit a few
short pieces of writing this past month. The Lord finally blessed my mother
with peace on August 27th. And after planning for the funeral, I hope
to try and shake some of the sorrow from my shoulders, and hopefully out of my
head—even if only for a little while—to be able to concentrate on writing
again. Wish me luck!
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This post was written for the Insecure Writer’s SupportGroup. We post on the first Wednesday of every month.
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