Question regarding reprints

Check your contract. That's what determines what and when.

Harlequin said:

What's the etiquette for querying reprints?

Eg if something sells in July, to an anthology that comes out the following spring, do you have to wait till after it comes out and has expired before querying the reprint elsewhere or can you query sooner with the stipulation re date?

(Dates are pulled out of thin air for illustrating the example.)

Sorry if this has been asked before. I did search but maybe used the wrong terms or something.

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The standard etiquette is to state the publication history of the story. You'd say where and when it was (or will be) first printed and if the rights are free to reprint (and if they're not yet, give the date when the story will be available). In theory, you could start trying to sell reprints anytime, as long as you make sure the reprints won't be printed until it's allowed in the initial contract.

However, you might want to be a little cautious about sending out reprint submissions too early. A market that does reprints on an ongoing basis is unlikely to be looking for stories that won't be free for a couple of years. You also have to allow for things to go wrong. If the contract says the rights are free three months after publication, but they can delay publication for up to eighteen months, that could add a lot of time. On the other hand, if the contract says the rights revert on 10th May 2019 no matter what happens, you have a clear date and it makes reprint submissions much more straight-forward. In the end, you just have to do what you think is best.

All the stories I have published in magazines and anthologies will be reprinted in a short story collection, all mine. I saw several other writers doing this, too. It is rather common in my country.

Each of those already published will have in the footnote a note when and where it was published. I asked the publishers of the magazines and anthologies and they say I can do it and it is good to do it. (I will publish the short story collection at the publisher who published one of the anthologies, as a prize for winning the literary contest and getting included in the anthology).

AW Admin said:

Check your contract. That's what determines what and when.

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This is basically the answer to the question.

If it’s six or twelve months after the date of publication, that’s how long it has to be before it can be published again. Stating that in your cover letter is a good idea since it usually takes a long time from acceptance to publication that a piece will come out. And since it generally takes a long time from submission to response before you know if a piece is accepted or rejected, querying sooner should be fine.

The glacier pace of the publishing world is really quite something.

Reprints are a great idea, but there really aren’t a lot of venues for it. Every time I see a publishing listing that’s also accepting reprints, I send something in.

That sounds a little confusing, but honestly, if the contract says 12 months before the story can show up somewhere else again, you might want to just wait 12 months despite what another contract may say.

At the same time, asking for permission/clarification from Aurealis won’t hurt. They’ll just say ‘Yes’ or ‘No’.