Selling fiction reprints

I would print out the original story and note in your cover letter that it has been printed already and in what format/magazine. And then note that you're looking to see it as a REPRINT, just in case that's not clear enough.

good luck on that - I understand the market's quite tight on selling reprinted short stories.

Yes, definitely don't send them a photocopy. Send them a clean ms and mention the reprint in the cover letter.

First, make sure they are a market for reprints. Sometimes the market comes to you (yes, not often!) but I have had it happen a couple of times (once in Finnish) where an editor sees your story and writes to ask if they may reprint it.

Make sure you own the reprint rights - you usually do, but check to make sure (I didn't, in one instance)

Kate Thornton said:

Sometimes the market comes to you (yes, not often!) but I have had it happen a couple of times (once in Finnish) where an editor sees your story and writes to ask if they may reprint it.

Make sure you own the reprint rights - you usually do, but check to make sure (I didn't, in one instance)

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Yes, that's true. I did it once for Peccary Magazine. I liked a story I read so much, I asked the zine to put me in contact with the author so I could ask them if I could put it in Peccary.

I'm forgetting who said it, but I recall seeing a quote to the effect of (paraphrasing): "if it can be sold once, it can be sold again."

That sounds a bit overly optimistic across the board and there aren't a ton of markets for reprints, but they certainly do exist and are worth approaching. Be sure to check the guidelines closely on your intended market. Also double check the rights from the original market, just to make certain you don't breach that contract.

One particular market that's eager for short story reprints is podcasting, such as Escape Pod. Though there aren't many of those markets yet and their turnaround times on submissions can be long.