Notice What’s Around

Keeping alert to opportunities will really help your contributions flow. For example, scanning newspapers, listening to the radio, watching television and reading Internet discussion group postings will all acquaint you with people who are well informed on particular subjects. Often you will find that ideas for items come from seemingly irrelevant sources – it may just be a tiny snippet on a programme that sparks off a train of thought in you and leads to a really exciting piece of writing.

Once you have found the ‘lead’, all you need to do is contact the relevant publisher or producer, or respond to the chat group, asking if the person would be willing to contribute. You can also write to book authors, asking if you can use an extract from their book or if they will write a piece especially for you. Keep your eyes and ears open and you will find endless possibilities for contributions.

Liaising With, And Rewarding, Contributors

Maintaining good relationships with contributors is vital to success – they are the lifeblood of your publication and should be valued and cherished. So once you have found people to contribute, communicate with them effectively. Some of the things that they will appreciate are: knowing what your deadlines and publication criteria are (see Chapter 10 for more on this), knowing if and when their items will appear, being kept informed of any delays or changes to your scheduling, seeing proofs of their items if they are substantial or if you have made major editorial changes to them, being credited appropriately in the publication and being sent a free copy of the issue in which their contribution appears.

People have different reasons for contributing to magazines, for example:

• They like writing.
• They want to see their name in print.
• They want to make a contribution to a cause.
• They want the publicity.
• They need to generate additional income.

 

All except the last of these are easy to handle, but the final one is more difficult if you are operating on a low budget. Although some publications pay contributors as a matter of course, others only pay in certain circumstances and some do not pay at all.

Some ways in which you can reward contributors are as follows:

• By paying them. With a small publication, people are unlikely to expect payment and, even if they do expect it, they will usually understand the reasons why it may not be possible.
• By giving them publicity. Adding their names, photographs and contact details to contributions or columns will give the authors some promotional space. Spare copies of the publication will also give them promotional tools they can use themselves.
• By giving them free copies of the publication. Giving contributors a number of copies of the issue in which their item appears, or giving them a free subscription for a period of time, can be another useful reward. Make sure, however, if you choose this option, that the cost of providing these copies does not exceed what it would have cost if you had paid for the contribution in the first place.

 

Contracts

Finally, it can be useful and, in some circumstances, essential, to have a written contract for the provision and acceptance of contributions. In principle, if you publish guidelines for contributors, these are likely to be upheld as the basis of an agreement between you and them, but there are some specific points that could usefully be put into a contract, including, for example, the contributor recompensing you for any claims made against you as a result of material contained in their contributions.

While it is unlikely that issues of this kind will affect very small publications, it can be useful to take legal advice in this area, or at least read something that will inform you better on these topics. If you join one of the professional associations listed in Appendix 4., such as the National Union of Journalists, they will be able to give you further information on this subject and tell you how to insure yourself against possible litigation in this area. You will find more about this also in Appendix 4.