Article exclusivity

1. 57

   Fiona Bramzellposted 5 years ago

   What are the rules regarding publishing articles that I've written for other sites? As a ghost writer I have written countless articles, many of them for clients who haven't had me sign any type of exclusivity contract. Can I publish them on HubPages?

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      theraggededgeposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      No, not if they have been published elsewhere on the web. They'll be flagged as duplicate content and will be rejected.
      
      You can republish hubs that you write, but there's not much to gain by doing so.
      
      Your best bet is to do what I do... take the topic of the original article and completely rewrite it.

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      1. 57

         Fiona Bramzellposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         Perfect - thanks!

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2. 92

   Natalie Frankposted 5 years ago

   Also be careful about assuming you can use articles ghostwritten for others as your own.  If you received any payment for them they do not belong to you and you cannot publish them anywhere.

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   1. 96

      theraggededgeposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      That's not necessarily correct. Most writers will negotiate the terms, which may include handing over all rights, but may not. I gave mine first publishing rights, but that doesn't mean I couldn't publish them elsewhere.

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3. 93

   Kenna McHughposted 5 years ago

   Speaking from experience, I am a ghostwriter. I've posted a few on HubPages thinking because the original site is no longer in business it was okay.  I even used Copyscape to make sure the articles not published elsewhere.  HubPages flagged some of them. I queried the flagged articles and discovered the defunct companies sold them to another website. Now, I rewrite the articles. It's not that hard to do.

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4. 93

   Kenna McHughposted 5 years ago

   True. Each client is different. If they want exclusive rights, they pay more.

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      psycheskinnerposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      But ghostwriting is far more likely to be work for hire and paid accordingly-- like you  I would want to be very sure the client/contract permitted author use.

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5. 92

   Natalie Frankposted 5 years ago

   Usually ghost writing means the person buying the article intends to put their name on it as the author.  In such a case, the article belongs to them.  I suppose there are cases where you can negotiate rights per legal contract and through copywrite law and providing you have the correct legal signed contracts detailing which rights and for how long you might have the rights revert but this is more likely in the case of fiction not non-fiction articles.

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6. 93

   Kenna McHughposted 5 years ago

   True. Legalese is trying and tiring. Let's not get into NDAs!

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