Author Showcase and Syndication Services: Do They Work?

by Debbie Ridpath Ohi

Writing for magazines and newspapers usually involves a great deal of research and administrative work: checking for potential markets, making your pitch, keeping track of where a particular piece has been accepted and rejected. Some writers opt for using author showcases and syndication services to save time and effort.

Author Showcases

Author showcases are supposed to help writers sell their work by providing online space to authors for posting samples of their work. In theory, content buyers will visit the site, looking for material to purchase.

What are the advantages of using this kind of service?

Instead of spending your time looking for a market for a particular article, the idea is that you can post it where editors are already looking. Most showcase services allow you to label your article with a certain category or keywords so that editors looking for your particular topic can find it more easily. In theory, this should increase the number of potential buyers looking at your article at any particular time and thus increase the possibility that it will be sold.

When your article is sold, most services will handle the transaction, eliminating the need for you to worry about administrative tasks and payment details. In theory, the service will get payment from the buyer, take a percentage or charging a transaction fee, and mail you a check for what's left.

In theory, the showcase service will already have an established list of clients, editors and other content buyers who visit the site regularly looking for material.

What are the disadvantages of using this kind of service?

The key term, of course, is "in theory." Just because a Web site calls itself an author showcase does not make it a good one. These days, anyone with online access can post material online, and there is a lot of bad writing out there. Editors have limited time and often prefer to work with established writers; an author showcase must be able to lure these potential content buyers to browse its offerings.

Do editors actually use this kind of service to look for material? Many editors that I surveyed for my original article said that they preferred to work with freelance writers directly, and that they already had trouble keeping up with the unsolicited material they already receive. However, several of the services did report that their visitors included editors and agents, and gave examples of successes. More on this in my next column.

Although there are legitimate author showcases out there, authors should be wary of online scams, so-called services which basically take your money and run. Before investing time and money in an online author showcase service, make sure you know the answer to the following questions:

• What costs are involved? These could involve a regular monthly or annual fee, percentage of the transaction when you make a sale, and extra fees for special services... To avoid unpleasant surprises, be sure to read the fine print before you fork over any cash. Do you get a full or partial refund if you decide to withdraw from the service?
  
  
• Who can access material on the site? Is there any kind of screening process, or can anyone visiting the site read your material? Some sites require editors to register for an account before being able to access showcased material. This helps reduce the chance of your work being plagiarized, especially if only an excerpt of an article is posted rather then the full piece. Keep in mind that registered accounts may not all belong to real editors.
  
  
• Can the service provide any kind of statistics? How many unique visitors does the service get regularly? How many of these are editors or agents? Do they track their success rate, such as how many pieces are actually requested and sold?
  
  
• How does the service reach content buyers? Does this service actively market itself to potential content buyers? Where does it advertise, for example? Or does it just passively wait and take the "if you build it, they will come" approach?
  
  
• Is the service convenient for content buyers? Are articles or excerpts organized in such a way to make it easier for a potential buyer to find what he or she wants? How are postings organized? Is there a search engine? Can content buyers ask to be notified about when new articles are available?
  
  
• Is there a screening process? Can anyone post anything on the site, regardless of quality or content? Or do writers or material need to go through an approval process first? Editors are more likely to use the service if they know the quality of offerings has been screened.
  
  
• What rights are you giving away? Do rights revert to back to the author once a contract expires? What happens if an author decides to withdraw his or her material?

Author Syndication Services

The difference between author syndication services and authors showcases is a blurry one. In theory, an author syndication service will often specializes in helping sell reprints as well as distributing editorial material to venues like newspapers and magazines.

Do editors actually use these services?

In my original survey for a chapter in Moira Allen's Writing.com, many of the magazine editors I surveyed said they did not use manuscript showcase services. Doug Bennett, publisher of Masthead magazine, didn't even know this type of service existed. "We assign articles to freelance writers directly, or they pitch us story ideas directly." Many editors said they have enough trouble keeping up with the amount of unsolicited material that they already receive.

Getting syndicated is difficult, according to some industry experts. Featurewell.com's CEO David Wallis warns writers not to expect to get rich through syndication, and adds: "Everybody wants to be a columnist. The competition is stiff, so you better have a compelling idea and strong samples to have a shot." Craig Branson of the American Society of Newspaper Editors advises writers to build up clips and a reputation before attempting syndication.

However, there is also evidence that some showcase services do succeed in connecting authors with editors and agents. Authorlink, for example, is one of the few services that posts their statistics online. According to information dated June 1st of 2004, more than 800 writers are currently listed with their service, and 1793 requests have been processed for requested manuscripts since tracking began. Of the 390 editor or agent offers Authorlink has been able to track, 86 have lead to publication as a direct or indirect result of exposure through the site. "On average, about 45-65% of evaluated manuscripts are requested by editors and agents, some receiving multiple requests. Of those we've been able to track who have received interest, about 20-25% are signed with agents and 15-20% of these have directly sold their works to publishers. Our performance is highly effective, considering that only 2% of works coming in over the transom in New York ever make a sale."

How well do they work?

From Peggy Tibbetts: "In August 2002, I signed up with Publishers Marketplace. I like it. I've received inquiries from agents and film producers, no sales yet, but I'm reasonably impressed with the exposure I'm getting. The fee is $15/month. For me, that's a fair price. I don't really have time to actively pursue agents, or other opportunities such as film, so I'm happy to be able to post my information online where those who might be interested can take a look at what I have to offer."

Scott Nicholson notes: "I used Publishers Marketplace for several months. i had already sold a novel before then, and had an agent. I listed my completed works and at least one New York editor inquired about a book. My agent asked me to take down the site because it conflicted with what he was doing (people were asking for books that he was already proposing to other editors). So, for me, I guess it worked. But that was when the service was fairly new and there weren't a whole lot of writers on board, so its effectiveness may be diluted now."

Thomas Wictor has never used a showcase or syndication services because he doesn't believe they work. "The people who matter don't read them, so you won't get critiques from those in the industry." Editors are already inundated with submissions, Wictor argues, so why would they need to go online to find material? "Plus I think agents and editors use the submission process to find writers who can persevere. They don't want writers who will go into a tailspin when things don't go well for them."

Judy L. DiGregorio shares Wictor's opinion that editors don't use author showcases. "I have not attempted to use any author showcase sites because I'm convinced legitimate editors and agents don't really access such sites. Most of my writing friends who use those sites are self-published authors who have no PR resources."

From Katherine Swarts: "I posted a manuscript at The Writer's Edge once. I was contacted by only two or three editors and none of them bought the book."

From Josh Aterovis: "I have been using GayLinkContent.com for some time now. I got one brief paying gig from it, but that didn't work out very well since the editor wanted me to write something that was rather outside my specialty. I now post my columns on there as free content. Editors pick up the pieces they like and run them with full credit and a link to my website. It gives me a lot of exposure and brings people to my website where it hopefully introduces them to my books. I worked out a deal with one website that gives me free advertising and banners in exchange for the use of my columns."

Whether or not author syndication and showcase services are useful, says Aterovis, depends on what you expect to get out of them. "My columns were on the site for months available for a fee with no interest. Once I decided to look at it as a marketing strategy and made them available for free, I'd say it's been very useful."

Summary

Online services which market themselves as author showcases are often not effective in helping writers sell their work because editors and agents don't use them, and may not know they even exist. The services that do work are effective mainly because they are active in building and maintaining relationships with editors and agents.

Some writers found that even though the online showcases and syndication services they used did not result in many direct sales, they found the exposure was worth it, or that they got other assignments because of editors who had seen their work online.

Before putting the effort and money into an author showcase or syndication service, be sure to do your research and be wary of relying too heavily on the service as your only marketing tool. Writers should also be aware that poorly written material will not sell, whether or not it's being featured online. Properly researched, an online showcase or syndication service can help increase your exposure and sales, but a writer should use it to supplement rather than replace his or her own efforts.

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