Q: When working out a contract with a magazine, what are first serial rights?—Anonymous

A: When you sell first serial rights to a newspaper, magazine or periodical for a piece of work you’ve written, that media outlet has the right to be the first place to publish the article/story/ poem. After the piece runs, you’re free to resell it to another medium or to package a collection of your work into a book.

Rights can be sold geographic-ally, as well. It’s not uncommon to see article submissions with “offering first North American serial rights (FNASR)” written in the top, right corner of the first page. This limits the buyer’s rights and gives you the opportunity to sell the article in other locations outside the U.S. and Canada—such as England, Russia or Madagascar.

Reprints of your work that previously appeared in another publication are considered second serial rights. These rights are nonexclusive, meaning the author can sell the piece to many publications at the same time.

In the online world, you can sell the electronic rights to your piece. These rights aren’t as clear.
While they cover most of the same rules as first serial rights, the ever-evolving technology can cause some discrepancies between yourself and the publisher—like whether it can archive your work, place it in a database and let young punks download it to their PCs. This process is the least defined, and you may want to specify each right you license to the buyer.

Other rights to consider are simultaneous rights (giving you the ability to sell work to publications that don’t have overlapping circulations) and all rights (which means you sell all the rights to your work to the buyer, and you never get another dime for the piece, no matter how many times they publish it).

And remember, it never hurts to have someone familiar with freelancer contracts glance over your contract before you sign.

Brian A. Klems is the online managing editor of Writer’s Digest magazine.

Have a question for me? Feel free to post it in the comments section below or e-mail me at WritersDig@fwpubs.com with “Q&Q” in the subject line. Come back each Tuesday as I try to give you more insight into the writing life.

Q: Do agents steam off the stamps on self-addressed, stamped envelopes (SASEs) and resell them? The agents demand pages, SASEs, that sort of thing, but—and I know this sounds cynical—many of my queries disappear. In this age, why should we need to use what they call “snail mail” for queries and why do agents never answer?—Don Ballew

A: Of course agents don’t steam off stamps from SASEs and resell them. They steam them off and use the stamps themselves. (Hopefully you know I'm J/K, which is "just kidding" in Internet speak.)

Actually, they don’t steam off anything (as far as I know), and really do try to respond. To gain further insight on the matter, I called Donald Maass, president of Donald Maass Literary Agency. He represents more than 100 fiction writers.

“If you’re certain that you wrote to the agent’s current address and the SASE had sufficient postage, then you can conclude one of three things,” he says. “Either the agent is rude, the agent is busy or the agent just isn’t interested.”

Now, I doubt that agents try to ignore you, as their profession and income are based on finding great writing. With the mounds of submissions they continually receive, they probably don’t have time to respond to everyone (though that would be nice). And they do try to respond, but it's easy for queries to get lost in the shuffle.

“Snail mail” is still a viable form of submitting your query, though e-mail has really become increasingly popular in the last couple of years. There is one ultimate problem with e-mail: All that hard work goes down the drain if the editor accidentally labeled your e-mail address as spam and  you’re officially blocked from the system. So it's best to follow the agent's guidelines (which can typically be found online) when deciding whether to send it by the postal service or electronically. But when in doubt, you can always send a hard copy. After all, they are easier for agents to carry around and read while traveling, eating lunch or steaming off stamps.

Brian A. Klems is the online managing editor of Writer’s Digest magazine.

Have a question for me? Feel free to post it in the comments section below or e-mail me at WritersDig@fwpubs.com with “Q&Q” in the subject line. Come back each Tuesday as I try to give you more insight into the writing life.

Q: A friend approached me about writing her memoir. I don't know how to charge for it, especially since I have no idea how much material I'll have to work with and, therefore, how long it might be. Also, I know I want to share credit, on the one in a million chance that the client gets it published and the book becomes a bestseller. What should I charge? Should I assure a minimum number of pages?  What guidelines do you suggest? —Tamara Kort

A: According to guidelines set forth in the 2008 Writer's Market, ghostwriters charge anywhere from $50-100 per hour for "as told to" projects and $30-115 per hour for no credit pieces. “As-told-to” ghostwriting often nets you less money per hour because you get other benefits—such as a byline, an advance and a split of the royalties (up to 50 percent). But if you're willing to skip the byline and future earnings, you can act as a work-for-hire ghostwriter and charge more on the front end.

"Whatever is negotiated needs to be done, agreed upon, on paper and signed before work commences (or continues--if already started)," says Robert Brewer, editor of Writer's Market. "Included should be an estimate on the amount of time or pages expected; how many re-writes/revisions are expected; what constitutes a finished product; how and when payment will be made; and conditions under which the price might escalate."

If charging by the hour makes you (or your counterpart) nervous (Hey, I know I said to write about my first time at Yankee Stadium, but I'm not paying for the three hours you spent catching a game in the bleachers no matter how much 'ambiance' it added to the writing)—you can simplify it by charging per page. When translating hourly rates to pages, it comes out to $4-$25. I know that seems like a large range, but, like with any contracting job, the more experience and success you have, the more you can justify charging a higher price.

Realistically, the best bet for your first time ghostwriting is probably to negotiate a specific page count and price per page, so both you and your counterpart know the total amount that will exchange hands when the book is finished. (Negotiate royalties separately). As you become more comfortable with the process,  you can adjust accordingly.

Brian A. Klems is the online managing editor of Writer’s Digest magazine.

Have a question for me? Feel free to post it in the comments section below or e-mail me at WritersDig@fwpubs.com with “Q&Q” in the subject line. Come back each Tuesday as I try to give you more insight into the writing life.