Freelance journalism: notifying editors of the previous publication of your article

I have a question and I’ll just get to the point. Today, I emailed an article to my unit adviser to be inserted into the June newsletter of New Directions Clubhouse. If I decide to submit the same article elsewhere for publication, do I mention that the article first appeared in my barely-there little clubhouse newsletter? Only most mental health communities in Michigan and a few out-of-state places know about us. Thanks so much—Rosa

This kind of depends upon where else you want to submit it, but if your newsletter is known in professional circles, then that publication probably counts as first North American publication—which is what periodicals in North America are interested in.

Professional freelance journalists deal with this issue all the time.

Once you’ve done a lot of research on a topic, it’s not really economically-viable to only use it in only one place. So freelance journalists use their research to write a number of similar articles on a given topic for a variety of publications. They query the editors of those publications with their topic before writing each version of the article. Each editor knows exactly what their publication needs and, if they’re interested in the topic, will give the writer a specific slant to write.

There are some very experienced and helpful freelance journalists out there blogging about such issues, as well as others you might want explore.

I recommend you do a “Search” for this issue on the blogs of:

Laverne Daley: Words into Print

Linda Formacelli: The Renegade Writer

Susan Johnson: Urban Muse





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