If you post your articles, or your photographs onto your blog, you may be surprised to hear they’ve been published, regardless of how many people read your blog.
This is a dilemma of the blog age. On one hand, you want to advertise your services on your blog. On the other hand, by doing so you may undermine their exclusivity.
If you’re stuck for a clear answer, then perhaps bear in mind how important it is to make your clients feel like they’re special. Like anyone, clients like to feel they’re first to see something.
Opinion from editors is mixed. Paul Davies, assistant editor of the Telegraph Magazine says, ‘I would think twice if an article was published on a blog first, though it would depend on the article, how long ago it appeared on the blog and how popular the blog was. Essentially it’s already been published.’ He adds that if it’s already on your blog, you should offer to rewrite it.
Diane Smyth, deputy editor of the British Journal of Photography agrees. ‘Strictly speaking, if you put a feature on [your blog], you have published it, and that obviously makes it less attractive for anyone to buy it to republish.’
Jo Glanville, editor of Index on Censorship says that ‘everyone wants something exclusive, so I wouldn’t take [an article] already published on blog unless it had never appeared in English before.’
But while that’s easy with words, with photos it’s more difficult. Perhaps play safe. Many photographers set up a blog with a password lock.
Gary Cochran, art director of the Telegraph Magazine advises photographers to just put three or four of a series of photographs on their website, rather than all of them. ‘If they were all on there,’ he says, ‘yes I’d be put off. But if you just offer a selection, then that would be fine. I’d have no problem running them.’
Lou Siroy, picture editor of the Travel section of The Times says, ‘for myself, I wouldn’t have a problem with [seeing a photographer’s work on their website or blog] as I feel it’s about bringing the work to a different audience and possibly in a different context. It would be a different story if the photos were used by a similar genre publication, but their own website is a platform for themselves and their work.’
Guy Andrews, editor of Rouleur, an up-market cycling magazine with a strong photography focus, says that if a photographer had already posted a set of images on their website or blog, he would certainly consider the pictures, ‘albeit with a different edit perhaps. We’re just about to do something like this in a forthcoming issue.’ With an article, he feels the same way. ‘With words, [I’d] possibly [accept them], but they’d have to be very good and again we’d want to add in something extra, so a rewrite or postscript would be suggested.’
So, what’s the solution? To play really safe, you should avoid posting a pre-sale article or series of photographs altogether. However, if you want to post work to your blog, in order to get Twitter and Facebook circulation, it’s worth locking for a client’s exclusive use and stressing that exclusivity. Alternatively, offer half the article password protected. If you’ve posted your article or photos already, you could offer to rewrite, so the exclusivity remains. As for photos, it seems that two picture editors on two major national newspapers don’t mind if the pics are on your blog already, so it’s worth taking a chance.
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