Can Rights Be Wrong?

By

Mona Hodgson

 

Any walk through the maze of marketing needs to include the paths surrounding the submission of our poems. 

 

You Have The Rights

 

The poem is your creation and belongs to you. That is, until you begin to share it, and more specifically, you begin submitting for publication in magazines and other periodicals. When you send your writing out for editorial consideration, you are automatically offering  publication rights to your poem.

 

It’s important you know your options and know what rights you’re presenting to the editor.

 

           

Editorial Preference

 

Here are five questions vital to this process.

 

Does the magazine or periodical require first rights?

Do they buy only one-time rights?

Do they accept reprint rights, or publish only original material?

Do they buy all rights to the poem?

How do you know what rights they want?

 

You know the answers because you’ve done your market research. Publishers will list their preferences in the market guides and in their Writer’s Guidelines, most are now available online at the publisher’s website. Some still offer guidelines through the mail. That fact and process are also available in the market guides, which include Writer’s Market Guide (Writer’s Digest Books), Poet’s Market Guide (Writer’s Digest Books), The Christian Writer’s Market Guide (Shaw), and others.

 

 

Know Your Rights

 

First Rights is the right to publish your poem first—before anyone else. When you off first rights, you are saying the poem is original. Though you retain rights to the poem, you may not offer it elsewhere until the publisher who bought first rights to the poem has published it. Otherwise, you run the risk of a different magazine printing it first, before the one who purchased First Rights has done so.

 

One-Time Rights is the right to publish your poem one time, not necessarily first or tenth. When you submit poems and offer one-time rights, be careful not to send them to overlapping markets. Magazines, church take-home papers, denominational periodicals that target the same readership. This can be especially easy to do in simultaneous submissions. First, you determine whether or not a market will consider simultaneous submissions. Then you make sure you’re not submitting to two periodicals that share demographics. For instance, two that target the same audience within a specific denomination.

 

Reprint Rights is the right to publish a previously published poem. You can only offer reprint rights, if you retained the rights to your poem. Poems offered for reprint can be submitted simultaneously with the same precautions I gave for one-time rights submissions.

 

All Rights gives a publisher sole rights to your poem. When you sell All Rights to your poem, you no longer have any rights to it. You cannot offer your poem to any other printing outlet. Few, still purchase All Rights, but that is still the policy of Highlights for Children and Guideposts.

 

 

Selling or Giving Away Rights

 

How do you decide which rights to offer?

 

Determine which periodicals you want to target with a specific poem or group of three-to-five poems. List the markets in order of priority.

 

1.  Are there magazines in the list that also appear on your publication goals list? If so, what rights do they buy? If they only buy all or first rights, you may choose to submit to them first, offering the rights they require.

2.  A periodical’s circulation numbers may also play a role in your decision.

3.  Payment may factor into your decision. Usually, publishers who purchase All or First Rights, pay more. If you only sell First Rights, you can turn around after publication and sell Reprint or One-Time Rights.

4.  Your poem may be seasonal. Rather than wait another year before it could be published, you may decide to offer one-time rights simultaneously to several different magazines or church take-home papers.

 

How does the editor know what rights you’re offering them? It’s part of your submission format. For those of you who may not be familiar with that format, I’ll offer a brief summary here.

 

 

Submission Format

 

The format for submitting poems shares similarities to that of submitting articles or short stories. But there are two main differences. You can single-space your poems if the form is better served by single-spacing it. You can also ignore the margins and play with the relationship between the text and the white-space that surrounds it.

 

At the top, left side, give your personal information, leaving a 1inch top margin. Name, Mailing Address, City/State/Zip code, Phone number, E-mail (optional), Fax (optional).

 

At the top right side of your paper give your manuscript information. Rights offered (First, One-time or Reprint), Number of lines.

 

Place your poem title about one-third down on the page. I like to use all caps. You may or may not want to center it, depending on your form and visual intent. Double-space and center by under your title. Double-space and center your byline (the name you want printed with the poem). The body of your poem follows.

 

Your poems needn't be double-spaced for most editors. Check their guidelines to be sure of any preference. I usually double-space mine to leave space for editorial suggestions.

 

Print it out on 16-20lb non-erasable bond paper. Place one poem per page, using only one side.

 

 

Undercover or Not

 

A cover letter is not usually necessary or desired with poems. An exception includes a one page letter referring to any previous contact with the editor. Perhaps you met him at a writers' conference or workshop. Maybe the editor had accepted an earlier poem, article or short story from you. In that case, a cover letter would be appropriate.

 

Marketing can be fun. Okay, tolerable. But, at least, it’s extremely beneficial.

 

Good market research helps limit rejections, saves you postage. You’ll know what is an appropriate topic, form, style, and length for a particular publisher. You’ll also know how to submit to them and what rights they want, and the rights you want to offer. And who can’t use that kind of a heads-up and head-start?