Marketing Articles Through Syndication Agents

Many freelance writers don't have the time or the money to constantly query publications about reprint rights for their articles. It takes a lot of effort to research markets, submit queries, wait for responses and pay for postage. The alternative is a syndication agent. Essentially, when you market your articles through a syndication agent, you take away the stress of marketing your own work, which frees up your time to write more articles.

When you use a syndication agent to market your articles, you essentially put your financial future into their hands. You've written the article and, in most cases, it has already been published by one publication, but you want to get the most "miles" out of your article that you can. A syndication agent will take your article and submit it to editors with whom she has a rapport, often in foreign countries where the information will be entirely fresh.

When a syndication agent sells your article, you receive a check for your cut of the sale price (it is usually done in a 50/50 split) as well as a tear sheet from the publication and the country or state in which it was published. Most syndication agents shoot for three or four reprints per article, though it can be as few as two and as many as six or seven.

The advantage of using a syndication agent to market your articles is that you don't have to worry about it anymore. Your job ends with writing the piece; the agent takes care of everything else. Plus, your article is more likely to be given attention by editors if submitted by a trusted agent; you'll sell more work and therefore make more money.

International syndication agents are usually the ones in the highest demands because it is easier to sell reprint articles to foreign markets than to domestic ones. For one thing, most publications are nationally-based rather than internationally distributed, which means no one in the other country has seen your article before. Furthermore, most syndication agents do not work with Internet or electronic rights because they are less lucrative.

According to syndication agent Sheila O'Conner of the International Media Assoc., the articles that do best in syndication are those geared toward a broad audience, such as articles about health, relationships, food, self-help and travel. However, any article that has been accepted and published by one editor has a good chance of repeating that success in syndication.

If you decide that you want to pursue marketing articles through syndication, your first task is to find an agent. Run a Google search on "syndication agents" and choose the ones who represent work that closely resembles your own. Then submit four or five published clips as well as a resume and a cover letter to their e-mail or physical address and wait 4-6 weeks for a response.