Selling a Story? Here Are The 5 Questions We Get Asked The Most.

Here at Phoenix Features, we are an open book. We believe that in sharing with you exactly how the process of selling your story works, we can work together as a team to publish an honest and thorough story that you're proud of.

Here are the five questions we get asked most when people are inquiring about selling their story.

1 | How much will I be paid?

This is the million dollar question. Of course, not everyone is selling their story with the prime objective of making money. Some just want to help others or spread awareness of a charity or good cause.

However, we pay for every story we help publish and money matters. How much you get paid depends entirely on the story. If you have a story that lots of magazines want to publish then we can negotiate you a bigger fee as the magazines will have to out bid each other to secure an exclusive interview with you. If your story has strong pictures, it is more likely to sell for more money.

In general, a short, light hearted story will sell for about £200. More heavyweight stories involving crime or relationships are known to sell for several thousand pounds, especially if you are keen to share your story in more than one publication over time.

2 | Will I get to approve the story before publication? 

Absolutely. We take great care to ensure that you are happy with your story and give it your blessing before it's published. We are the writers but you are the story tellers - it is vital that you are completely happy with the feature.

3 | Can I work with more than one agent?

In a word - no. The reason for this is that we all pitch to the same publications and our editors need to be confident and certain that the story they are buying from us isn't being sold to someone else, somewhere else. The last thing anyone wants is the same story coming out in rival magazines in the same week. So, we ask that you work exclusively with us.

4 | Can I sell my story more than once?

Yes - we intend to sell your story as many times as possible. Certain magazines won't follow others so there are rules we have to abide by, but there is plenty of scope for getting your story into multiple publications. We work with women's weekly and monthly magazines, national newspapers, TV shows like This Morning radio shows and foreign magazines. The opportunities are endless!

 

 5 | Do I have to be pictured?

In rare cases, some magazines will accept an anonymous story, but only a few titles run anonymous stories so it really does limit what we can do for you. Magazines love people to be proud to put their names and faces to a story - and if you do have lots of pictures to help tell your story, then there is a lot more we can do for you.

Whatever questions you may have about selling your story, we'll answer them! Get in touch with Phoenix Features today and give us a whirl. We are very good at what we do! (And so modest...)