Associated Content Submission Options: Putting Exclusive Versus Non-exclusive to the Test
Should You Submit Articles as Exclusive?
Exclusive submissions are defined by Associated Content as "You guarantee that this original content has not been previously published online or in print and will not be published elsewhere in the future. Upfront payment offers are typically higher for exclusive submissions."
Non-exclusive submissions are defined by Associated Content as "This original content may have been previously published either in print or online and you retain the right to publish it elsewhere in the future."
Given the definitions, an exclusive submission would have to pay a significant amount more than a non-exclusive submission for it to be worthwhile to essentially assign all rights of a particular article to Associated Content.
A Surprising Personal Experience
I originally submitted an article called "Mount Rainier Camping and Hiking: Mowich Lake to Tolmie Peak" to Associated Content as non-exclusive. I received a monetary offer with a note that stated I would receive higher compensation for the article if I had submitted it as exclusive.
As I imagine is common among Associated Content writers, I would not mind receiving higher compensation. Accordingly, I declined the up-front monetary offer for my non-exclusive article and resubmitted the article as exclusive.
About a week later, I received an up-front monetary offer for my exclusive article. The offer was for $4.35. By then, I could not remember exactly what amount I had been offered for the article when I had submitted it as non-exclusive. Since $3.00 is the absolute lowest amount Associated Content offers for an article, I doubted that the amount I would have received for my article was much less than $4.35.
Putting My Article to the Exclusive versus Non-exclusive Submission Test
I decided to decline the $4.35 offer for my exclusive article submission. This time, I noted the offer amount in my records. I then resubmitted the exact same article as non-exclusive.
Exactly one week later, I received an automated e-mail from Associated Content alerting me that I had received an up-front offer. I hoped it would be my article "Mount Rainier Camping and Hiking: Mowich Lake to Tolmie Peak" so that I could compare the exclusive submission offer to a non-exclusive submission offer. How much higher would the exclusive submission offer be than the non-exclusive submission offer?
The Result
To my surprise, I was offered an up-front amount of $4.46 for the non-exclusive submission of the exact same article. That is $0.11 more than I had been offered when I had submitted my article as exclusive! I accepted the $4.46 offer and retained my rights to publish the article elsewhere in the future.
To Be Fair . . .
To be fair, the Associated Content's definition of an exclusive submission states that "upfront payment offers are typically higher for exclusive submissions." Perhaps the key word in that statement, "typically", allows for anomalies like my specific experience.
However, the reason I resubmitted that particular article as exclusive in the first place is because Associated Content had specifically included a note with their offer for my non-exclusive submission stating that I would receive higher compensation for the article if I had submitted it as exclusive. This turned out not to be the case.
Should You Submit Articles as Exclusive?
I offer only one personal experience I had with this issue. After my experience, I am not inclined to submit articles to Associated Content as exclusive. As for you, the decision is entirely yours.
End Note
This article was originally submitted to Associated Content for consideration of an up-front payment. Considering the content of the article, I strongly doubted Associated Content would offer an up-front payment.
The article was declined with a note that stated, "While we do publish tutorials about AC, we cannot offer an upfront payment for them." Accordingly, this is the first article I have ever published on Associated Content without receiving an up-front payment.
Published by Lori Wheat
Lori Wheat is a progressive, reformed attorney turned freelance writer, gardener, and property manager. She lives with her wonderful husband and adopted greyhound dog in Norman, Oklahoma. View profile
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29 Comments
Post a CommentGreat article! I used to submit my articles as exclusive, but now I submit them all as non-exclusive. I've found that my offers are generally the same for non-exclusive articles as they were for exclusive.
Answered my queries also. (On a side note, I hope that people are reading my work two years after I publish it too!)
Thanks for the article, it answered my question.
I find some of the articles that they are willing to pay higher prices weird considering one of the articles that they refused to pay for was about how old it was to babysit. Now I find this rather crucial as a mom to know how old a child has to be to be left with a child. Yet, AC told me it would never be searched on the internet I have to say it is one of the higher page viewed articles. Great job on the article!
Thanks for the info! I have been curious about this very issue.
"No shelf life" is often the reason given for a rejection and it seems to me, that most "news" does have a short "shelf life". Yet AC had calls for content, such as celebrating the 4th of July, which is kind of local news, that definitely is not relevant for 07/04/2008. All that said: the pay or no-pay and how much at AC makes no sense to me.
It seems quite insulting to get offered $3.00 for exclusive rights to one's work. I understand that AC makes money via ads and look for articles with pageview appeal, so assume they are qualified in judging how much they can pay for what. One CP told me privately about an aritlce that got 30,000+ pageviews. Yet the next article submitted on the same subject was declined for payment, because it was not considered "news". The CP did give them the exclusive and no-pay option to publish.
Excellent experiment. I have been trying different types also and will let you know what happen if my experience is similar to your. Greta article and one I was certainly wondering about.
Good points! I think the discrepancies may be rooted in the fact that AC uses multiple editors to review and publish items. They may not know what one another is offering for a given article. Personally, I almost always submit items as non-exclusives, even if I have not published them elsewhere. Unless the payment would be significantly higher, it really behooves the writer to retain reprint rights.
Thank you for sharing your experience. Excellent advice!