If I wish to propose a novel idea to some local newspapers, similar to a comic strip, is it ok to say I reserve the right to sell my “column” to other publications? (Or, do I need to get syndicated, somehow? If so, how does this work?) Also, is there other jargon to describe a “comic strip”? Hmm, I guess I am looking for jargon to describe perhaps a “corner”, like those misc. things that comprise the comics page that aren’t exactly comics…
Any SDopers have experience here? Is there some ref. book for trying to sell ideas like comics, similar to the “Writer’s Market”?
Copy editor for a small daily newspaper here. We generally buy stuff from the syndicates directly. But we do talk to people who come through the door with self-syndicated material. Mind you, we don’t often buy anything, but I always listen, because I don’t want to be immortalized in a line like “Before Pulitzer-Prize-winning cartoonist Percy Dovetonsils sold his first cartoon, he was rejected by 287 editors.”
Except in very rare cases, towns have only one newspaper, and in every town with more than one paper, there is a clearly dominant paper. The point is, you wouldn’t have to worry about selling your idea to another paper unless you tried to sell it to a crosstown rival, of which there are almost none. In fact, the last guy selling a self-syndicated column helped establish his bone fides by providing a list of the other papers who were customers.
If your idea is good enough that one of the big syndicates will pick it up, that’s your best move. Self-syndicating is a hard business. You can mail out samples, or set out on a trek to visit your potential customers personally.
In either case, you’ll want to have a finished product to show, not just an idea or a concept. If you have the skills, build it yourself; or you can hire it done by a graphics professional. Be prepared to leave a copy of the finished sample and pricing information.
Unfortunately, the newspaper business is getting hit as hard as all other retailers at this time, so if you had some way to demonstrate how the newspaper could generate extra revue directly from carrying your feature, it would make it a much easier sell.
The state organization of newspaper publishers where you live (look on line for the [insert your state hiere] newspsper publishers association) should have contact information for every paper in your state.
Thanks for the advice, Hometown, but I am still a little confused!
Who ARE “the syndicates”? Are there companies, like syndicate.com, or “Joe Syndicate’s Sales” (as two dummy examples) to whom I should pitch my idea to?
On a more dismal note, good freakin’ luck. A more immediate concern than trying to have a newspaper agree to let you sell it to others is the primary problem: getting ANY paper to run it. Comics/newspaper syndication is just as brutal a business as music or book publishing. 99% of the stuff is rejected. The papers and syndicates have so much material to choose from, they absolutely have the upper hand in negotiations with newcomers.
My advice: pitch to syndicates as well as to local newspapers. Pray that ANYONE accepts it, and then take whatever they’re offering you, without attaching any of your own strings. If your feature grows in popularity after a time, then you can renegotiate or take it somewhere else.
You might want to consider giving it for free to alternative papers for a while - does it have ‘alternative appeal’? Or give it to a college paper, or, for a lack of a better term, a ‘homeless’ paper like Streetwise here in Chicago (please note that I cringed sufficiently while typing ‘homeless’ paper - it really is for lack of a better term).
That’ll teach you a lot and give you some credibility.
It needs to be exactly the same size every time you do it - nobody’s going to bother if they have to reorganize the page.
toadspittle has it nailed. It’s the Catch-22 of nobody wanting to even look at your stuff unless you have a track record.
We did hire a political cartoonist not long ago, who qualifies as local only by being within 80 miles as the crow flies. It isn’t particularly lucerative for him – we pay him $20 per cartoon used, and only use one a week because the publisher is already paying a package deal to a syndicate that provides up to a dozen nationally-syndicated political cartoonists and doesn’t want to “waste” that expense – but he also sells to other papers in the area.