Some freelance writers have trouble seeing possibilities in their articles. They get hooked on presenting a particular article in a certain way for a specific magazine and, when that doesn’t pan out, they give it up.
In this age of recycling, renewing, regenerating, replenishing, it only makes sense that freelance writers would conserve time and energy by revising rejected articles and even published articles to fit new markets.
If you would like your articles to work harder for you, here are some ideas that might help:
1: You sold your 1,200 piece on how to achieve family togetherness to Family Magazine (a regional parenting magazine for New Jersey parents) and earned $200. Now tweak that piece to fit other regional parenting markets. Mention family-related events, activities and programs in Massachusetts for Bay State Parent Magazine, New York for Hudson Valley Parent, Atlanta for Atlanta Parent, Alabama for Birmingham Parent and so forth. These are regional magazines, covering only certain areas and there should be no problems with rights overlapping.
2: Health Magazine purchased your article featuring the whooping cough epidemic and paid you $2,000. Now start submitting spin-offs of that piece on whooping cough facts and fiction for a general interest, religious, senior and/or parenting magazine.
3: Your submission focusing on therapy pets was a big hit with Vim and Vigor. Now change it to fit several regional publications (featuring local people and organizations), a religious magazine (focusing on families using therapy pets), a travel magazine (how to travel with your therapy pet) and senior publications (how to locate the right therapy pet).
I met a man many years ago who had written an article for a magazine that I frequently write for. He asked me to read his article and tell him why I think they keep rejecting it. (Yes, he has sent it to them more than once.) I looked it over and told him that this magazine publishes how-to pieces and his was an essay. I suggested that he change his article to comply and gave him some pointers on how to do this.
The next time I saw him—about a year later—he was still trying to get the same article (the essay) published in the same magazine. It’s kind of like trying to fit that square peg into a round hole.
If you have an article that is repeatedly rejected, perhaps you should start looking at it as that proverbial square peg. Certainly, there are methods of driving that peg in, but it will take some significant changes. As I see it, you have 3 choices. You can continue to try making it fit and experiencing failure. You can hone the angles on the peg so that it conforms to the round hole, thus will fit. Or you can enlarge the hole. What will you do?