Has anyone had luck selling reprints? It's not something I've really tried. But there's this newer magazine (a few years old) that pays for reprints, and on top of that I think I have a story that could fall inline with what they're looking for. The story was first published in one of the literary quarterlies (it was only in print and not online) and now I want to try and sell the reprint to a genre magazine. If anyone has experience selling reprints, I would love to hear from you. How hard is it to sell reprints? It doesn't seem like there are too many places buying reprints. And it seems like the magazines would pretty much always want original fiction over reprints. So, what do you have to do or what needs to happen for a reprint to sell? I look forward to hearing what you guys think about this. Thanks.
Not in the fiction market (I need to sell some stories before I can think about reprinting them!), but I have had success selling reprints in the short humor market. Not the same thing, to be sure, but there's probably some useful overlap. I think the main thing to consider with reprints is this: how likely is the average reader of the publication you're targeting to have already read your piece? Readers (and therefore publishers) always want something fresh and new, but if they haven't seen it before, it's new to them. So, first, is there a lot of overlap in the readership of the two publications? If so, then the second place probably won't be interested in the reprint. Going from a lit quarterly to a genre website is probably a decent move. I'm sure there are some people who read both, but it's likely to be a smallish part of the core readership. Second, if the piece was originally published in print, how recently was it in print, and how easily available is it? It's probably a lot easier to reprint something that's old and hard to find than something that was just printed in the most recent Paris Review. In any case, if the site says that they accept reprints, I say go for it. Either you get a sale, or you get one step closer to that 100 rejection mark. Win/win!
And while it's not directly relevant to your current situation, I may as well mention a few points about reprinting pieces that were originally published online, too. First, is the piece available online? If so, you're almost certainly not going to sell it to another online publication. Nobody wants to duplicate content online because the search engine algorithms don't like it. If the piece was online previously but was taken down, you might have a shot, but it's still unlikely. I think it would be tough to reprint a piece that's currently available online in a print magazine, though not impossible (I've done it, but as I said, humor is a different market), but you might have more luck if you find an anthology that it would fit into. That's just a hunch, though.
My experience is very limited. I'm writing shorts, most publications where I submit specify something previously unpublished, though a few do permit reprints. My first ever publication was an online magazine in June 2021, so not so long ago that it needs to be revisited. I think they reserve publishing rights for a year or something and then they revert to me. None of my acceptances (6 so far with a 7th due this month) have been paying markets apart from one (5 quid). I've no expectation of making money from this, though do get a boost when something is accepted for publication. My writing practice hits all the "don't do this..." list. I don't plan, though might have a general framework in my head, edit as I write, mull over it and arrive at a point where I'm pretty done with a particular piece, which, if it meets my notion of quality control, I then flog to a bunch of publications. If it gets accepted, then I'm really done with it and it exits my consciousness in a sense. If it keeps getting declined, I'll stop sending it out eventually and try something else. I don't know that I've answered your question, other than anything I've done that's published has completed its circle, so far anyway. It may be different in the future, but maybe not. I'd welcome any additional income from writing but have no expectations and that's not what its about for me.
