Help - what would you do?

Did they have some fine print somewhere that said they could offer up to $15? When I get an offer, I put it in a folder and save it for later. Then I go over it and make sure that they didn't short change me. Do you have the original offer stating that they would pay you $15? If you do and there doesn't seem to be loop hole they can crawl through, I would send it as an attachment or do a forward and ask them what happened to the other $7? I'd also ask why they didn't have you edit it. It's possible, one person made the offer and another is in charge of paying or that they have a carefully worded loop hole. Maybe they think you won't remember who much the original offer was? I think I'd get to the bottom of this money discrepancy before I made any decisions. Esp. since I'm sure someone must be interested in your story enough to pay. To be offered $15, work so hard. Then be told you're only getting $8, that just doesn't seem right to me. Since you seem to have the option to retract it, you can. Once your story is out there for free, unless a tv host takes an interest or someone like that and you get invited to be on a talk show, this article might b e the only chance to make $ on it. Or not, if you know somewhere else will pay for it. Other than argue with them and try to get the full amount, I don't know what I would do if I were you. That's up to you. Let us know what you decide to do.

Sounds to me like this is a story that is yours to tell. I'd back out of the payment option with AC and post it for display only for the views. Then you can do same elsewhere with it. And then also, it's a teaser for more that will surely be written, your book, for example! Good luck! PS...I'm at AC if you'd like to follow me, my link is here on my profile.

My vote, Stick it to them. You can still spread the word about AC, you don't have to publish your article to do that. Or better yet, take your article back, don't publish it at all and save it for your book.

First congratulations on surviving a nightmare and having the courage to write about it. I stopped writing for AC several years ago because every now and again, mainly when I seemed to get a lot of page views, they would come through and cancel a perfectly good article for no reason with no explanation. I don't really care much for them, but that may be just me. Of course, I would never sell them all rights to anything. I personally think even $15 is way too low for such a story. They are going to make much more than that off your work, but I understand too that exposure for any writer is important. I personally would turn them down flat, I certainly would not sell them all rights to anything. You might want to think about going over and posting such a story squidoo.com. You can post anything you want there, you don't make a lot of money (well,I don't..some people do) but if you get enough people to look at your story then you can make some money there. Is it possible you can refuse to sell them this story and still write for AC if you choose? In case you want to stay with them? One thing you should know too, that those sites never like to tell you, facts absolutely can't be copyrighted. The way you write or present the facts can, but you can do several stories from several angles just using the same facts. When they buy all rights to your story they're just buying all rights to that particular story, the way your wrote it, etc. But if you present the facts in a different way then there's nothing they can do about that. For instance, say you told your whole horrible story about living through Katrina and they bought all rights to that. Well, you couldn't sell that particular story again if they bought all rights. But if there was a little bit in that story, say there was a pet you fought to save or something along those lines, you could certainly write a whole new story on that and post it elsewhere. As long as you rewrite some aspect of the facts in a different way you're fine. You just can't write the exact same story, even in slightly different words, if it's too similar to the piece where you sold all rights. Still, facts themselves can't be copyrighted. My advice is don't take any money where they want to buy all rights. If you like, post it on AC as a non-exclusive piece. I know you can do that there, it pays hardly anything (if they allow it with this work, I haven't been on there in a long time, but until you take their offer and sell them all rights then it's my impression they don't own it automatically). When you don't sell them exclusive rights, you have the right to post the same piece elsewhere as well. You could post it there and www.squidoo.com as well if you like, as long as you don't sell all or first time rights. By now of course this might be a moot point, you might have already decided what to do, but just know you can still write about Katrina experiences in other ways, even if you did sell them all rights by now to your original story. Just don't make it similar to the story you sold all rights to, but keep in mind that facts are just facts. All they are buying is all rights to the way that story is written, you can still use the facts in another way and another angle to write another story elsewhere if you wish, as long as it's different to a large degree from the story you sold all rights to. Good luck with this and if you do decide to post it on your blog or squidoo.com let me know and I'll go over and read it for sure.

Hi Canellita, Don't even think about selling exclusive rights for such a poxy sum. Think of the long term residuals you would be giving up. You could earn $8 every few months continuously with a good article. The upfronts on Helium might be low but the residuals make it worthwhile. In fact I was rating some aticles about Hurricane Katrina the other day so pop it onto Helium and see how it pays out in residuals.

You know you can, if in fact you still hold the original agreement, contact a News station and send them an email. Better yet if you still hold the original agreement and in fact there are no loop holes you should let this company know via email would be a start that they are not honoring the agreement and if do not you will be sending this information to a News media as this is taking advantage of people and clearly they will be making much more after you give it to them. This is one fine example. Betcha they will re-think the payment as I am sure they will not want the media attention. Good Luck with this.

Take the $8.00 dollars and tell other people about what happen to you and nether bother with them again so they know what to expect it's not fair you wasting all that time to get the pictures and did there work for them and that's all they pay you it's a joke and they get alot more money for what you sent in. cd

Hi Canellita, did they say they will pay $15 or up to $15? Would you receive the page view payment on top of the $8 upfront payment? If Associated Content going to pay separately for page views, I think the overall payment will exceed $10. That is better than you can get elsewhere. I think your content will be featured to get the maximum exposure.

Hello, Canellita. I'd go with one of the news channels, or suggest it as a title to Helium, and follow up with more on the same theme. If you pick the right channel, you'll get an empty title bonus and upfront payment, and the article is still yours to publish elsewhere. I lost faith in AC when they stopped paying international writers. I could only earn for page views anyway, but it takes a lot longer to publish on AC than Helium, and if Helium can pay international writers the same rates as US citizens, surely AC can as well? You're a good writer, and it must have really taken it out of you to write about that - it's still early days, and the memories must still hurt a lot. AC do not deserve you, and you deserve better. I'll be thinking of you on Sunday.

From what I've read on the Associated Content forums, this is pretty typical of their offers. There's no actual promise to pay $15.00, and a lot of people are offered less than the original amount quoted. It's not a bad price for an article on AC because normal upfronts don't get that much. But if you were expecting the full amount, and if you don't want to give up your rights for that amount, then don't accept the offer. I don't know what you mean by it's being too late to put it up on Constant Content. The hurrican season isn't nearly over, so there might be better offers from buyers. Maybe I'm just too cynical, but it could be that by the time you've worked your butt off to write the article, including the changes they want, they figure you'll accept anything they offer rather than not get paid at all.