Top tips for selling your story

 

Do you need advice on selling a story?

 

Here are our top tips.

 

 

1) Make sure you're happy to sell your story.

 

2) Have a think about what sorts of publications you'd like to sell your story to. Which are your favourite newspapers and magazines? Are there any publications you really don't like?

 

3) Use a press agency to sell your story rather than go direct. If you go direct, its hard to know who is the right person to talk to, or what sort of fee you should expect.

 

4) Be prepared for the fact that you may need to provide paperwork, evidence and photographs to accompany the story you are selling. Ie, if you want to sell a story about a crime, do you have any court or police papers? If you are selling a story about a relationship, do you have pictures of you with the person in question? We can help you with what sort of documents and pictures you'll need to provide. In certain instances, we may not be able to sell your story without certain photographs and documents. The bottom line is that you have to be able to prove your story is true.

 

5) Remember, you will get less money for your story (and your story may not in fact be saleable) if you are not named and photographed.

 

6) Don’t take it personally – not every story people try to sell is successful!!!! And not every story is worth thousands of pounds (even if to you it feels like it might be). However, we can advise you very quickly on whether or not you have a story that newspapers and magazines would buy, and how much you can expect to earn through selling your story. 

 

7) If by any chance you change your mind about selling your story, just let us know as soon as possible. We don't mind, but we need to keep our clients in the loop if someone selling a story changes their mind.

 

 

 

Where would you like to go next?

 

Why not have a look at our Frequently Asked Questions section?

 

Or visit our do you have a story to sell page?

 

Or find out about whistleblowing?

 

Or check out our new resources section, with information about becoming a journalist, handling press attention, getting free publicity, securing a book deal and more.....