Why, yes we do. Sign up today!
Yes, you'll need to get registered and be logged in to upload stories for sale and to buy and download stories. It's free and super quick to register so how about doing it now?
Nope. Registration is free. Quick too.
Yes, we quickly check all new registrations to make sure we’ve got your details right and that your content or publication meets industry standards. Once that's done you'll be able to see your stories on the site and buy stories if you've registered as a buyer.
We rely on the information you provide in your Profile, so it helps us work faster if you fill in all the fields in your Profile (you can get to it in My Account). If you’re in a hurry to buy a story you can call Julie Starr on +64 21 828 568 to expedite things or email her at julie@allaboutthestory.com.
We charge sellers 20% of the transaction price for each sale, which is deducted at time of payment.
We do not charge buyers to use this service.
No, we don’t make material changes to stories although we may correct obvious typos, tighten headlines and summaries and move stories to a new category.
We encourage sellers to check facts, quotes and spelling before posting stories, and we encourage buyers to exercise their usual level of care in selecting and editing stories. Buyers can also look at sellers’ profiles to get a measure of their work.
Yes, if we feel that content doesn’t meet the need of our buyers or has become stale we will put the story on hold and consider offering editing or other guidance. Sometimes we ‘rest’ stories as part of story rotation on the site.
We will remove content we think is in bad taste, defamatory, plagiarised, in breach of copyright or our terms or similar.
Great! We're always trying to improve our service so we'd love to hear from you. Drop us a line in the Contact Us form or email julie@allaboutthestory.com.
Just Register as a Buyer and log in to see the stories in full. You can buy and download stories as soon as your registration has been processed, which is usually very quickly. If you're in a hurry to buy something email Julie at julie@allaboutthestory.com and she'll get things moving for you.
Once you confirm the purchase, you will be able to download an RTF document or a JPG in the case of a cartoon or photograph.
At the same time, you will receive an email containing a sale summary, the RTF document or JPG, and an invoice which is payable on the 20th of the following month. If you have paid via PayPal you will receive a receipt in this email instead. The email will list the title of the story, the applicable licence and licence period, and the price. It will also contain contact details for the author of the story should you have any editing queries.
If the story you have purchased is offered under an Exclusive licence, it will be removed from public display until the end of the exclusivity period. If it is offered under a Syndication licence, it will remain listed for sale on the site (and the 'Previously Published' details will be updated automatically).
You can keep track of the stories and illustrations you have bought in My Account.
The confirmation email we send when you buy a story contains the author's contact details.
You can make reasonable editing and sub-editing changes, but if you are going to change the story substantially you should discuss those with the author and check whether they want their byline to remain on the story.
You should also abide by any agreement you have made with the author prior to purchase with regard to editing changes and sign-offs.
Select the categories, authors and keywords you are interested in under Get Updates in My Account. You can then grab an RSS feed of new content posted in those topics. We will also email you from time to time when new stories are posted that may be of interest and send you our monthly newsletter which includes featured stories and illustrations from across the site along with industry news, tips for journalists and journalism jobs in NZ and Australia.
Click on the story and look at the blue Key Info panel on the right. If the story has previously been published, you'll see details of where and when listed under the Previously Published heading. Worried about your competitors? Don't be. The moment a Syndicated story sells the Previously Published information is updated, so there's no danger that you and a competitor will inadvertently buy the same story on the same day. (Also, the moment you buy an Exclusive story, it will be removed from the site and won't be visible to anyone but you.)
Sure you can. When you're logged in, use the green Submit Story button. If you want to organise bulk uploads, email julie@allaboutthestory.com.
We have more than 80 registered buyers including the Dominion Post, stuff.co.nz, Idealog, scoop.co.nz, ACP magazines, Digital Advance, Education Gazette, Bay of Plenty Times, PPTA, NZCS, Tech Day, Sunday Star-Times, Walking NZ, Times (NZ), Magazine Solutions, Grapevine, Review Mags, Good, Let's Travel, RV Magazine, Winton Record, NZX, Taranaki Daily News, Rural Trader, Latitude Magazine, The Sun, The Lifestyler, Scene, APN, Energy, Contractor, Tourism Business magazine and more. These publications are interested in original stories and illustrations of good quality that are relevant to their readers. Help them out today!
When a buyer confirms the purchase of your story, we'll send you an email telling you who bought the story and when.
If the story is offered under a Syndication Licence, it will remain listed for sale on the site. It’s up to you if you then want to edit the story’s price or other details. To do so, go to My Account and click on the Edit button. To withdraw your story from sale, select Draft mode. Choose Delete to permanently delete it from the site.
If the story is offered under an Exclusive Licence, it will be removed from the site for the duration of the licence period and we'll notify you when the story is available to be re-listed under a Syndication Licence. You cannot offer the story for sale on allaboutthestory.com or anywhere else during that exclusivity period.
Once payment for a story is received and cleared, the balance, after the deduction of our 20% fee, is deposited in your nominated bank or PayPal account. Go to the Edit Payment Details tab of My Account to enter or update your payment details.
No, it doesn’t cost anything to post content.
All stories posted to allaboutthestory.com should be well researched, written to a publishable standard and include attribution of sources.
You must own all rights to the content you post, whether it is a story, photograph, cartoon or caricature. If you initially wrote a story at the suggestion of a commissioning editor, you might want to give them a courtesy call before posting the story for sale even if you do own the copyright.
Photographs should be 300dpi JPGs of 2Mb-3Mb in file size. They should be suitable for at least an A4 half-page.
You can type or paste text directly into the Submit Story page and attach files (including jpg, pdf) using the Add Image or Add File buttons.
You should write a headline and summary for every story or image that you post so buyers can see what the content is and decide whether to read more.
If you are uploading a story, select ‘story’ under the Kind of Article heading on the Submit Story page.
If you are uploading a cartoon, illustration or photograph, select ‘image’ under the Kind of Article heading on the Submit Story page.
Photographs should be 300dpi JPGs of 2Mb-3Mb in file size. They should be suitable for at least an A4 half-page.
When you sell content on allaboutthestory.com you are actually selling a licence to use the content, rather than selling the content itself. We offer two licences and you can see a full definition of each in our Terms and Conditions. Our two licences are:
Exclusive publication rights for 75 days
For stories/illustrations that have never been published
The Buyer is granted an exclusive, worldwide, non-transferable licence to publish the content in print, online or in a digital publication for a period of 75 days and non-exclusively thereafter. The Seller confirms the content has not previously been published. The Seller retains ownership of the content and may, at the end of the rights period, choose to re-sell the content under a Syndication licence
An exclusive licence suits stories and illustrations that have never been published before and have appeal for newspaper or magazine publishers who want to be the only publisher in their region carrying the story.
You cannot offer the content for sale anywhere else during the 75-day period.
At the end of the 75 days you are free to offer the content for sale again on allaboutthestory.com under a Syndication licence.
Non-exclusive publication rights
For stories/illustrations that have been published before or may at some time be published elsewhere
The Buyer is granted a non-exclusive, perpetual, worldwide, non-transferable licence to publish the content in print, online or in a digital publication. The Buyer acknowledges that the content has already been published or may at some time appear in other publications. The Seller retains ownership of the content and may choose to re-sell the content at any time under a Syndication licence.
The Syndication licence suits stories and illustrations that have already been published in one region but may have value to a publisher in another region, and stories that have previously run on small websites or blogs but have been re-worked to provide value for print publishers or other web publishers. It also suits people who want to get published more widely and/or want to sell multiple times at lower prices.
You must include information on where and when the content has previously been published so buyers can determine whether the content is useful for them. Please be specific - include name of publication, and date (at least month and year) published.
The amounts publishers are willing to pay varies hugely according to the size and location of publication, reputation of the author, kind of content, story length and so on. Prices for stories have been trending downwards for some time as publishers deal with recession and rethink their business models.
Consider this a rough guide:
You can change the price on your story at any time using the Edit function.
Yes, really! Because it’s going to help raise your profile and help buyers find out more about you and get a measure of your work.
You can use your Bio to link to any online profiles you have that will help buyers find out more about you – LinkedIn, for example, or Twitter or Facebook or your blog. Just include the url in your Bio, it will be turned into a link automatically.
You can also use your Bio to tell buyers what kind of work you do, what subjects and regions you cover, and what makes you tick. If you’re a journalism graduate looking for a break – say so. Likewise if you’re a blogger looking for a paid gig, a columnist looking for a home, or an innovator testing the market for data visualisations.
In other words, use your Profile to tell buyers who you are, what you’re good at, what you have to offer and why they should trust your work.
Your profile has a unique url that includes your user name, which you can use to link from your website, email signature or blog to your profile and stories here on allaboutthestory.com. Go to your Profile (in your Account) and in the address bar you will see the url. It will look like this: http://allaboutthestory.com/users/7-your-name. Copy and paste it into your email or website.
Buyers find it easier to trust someone who’s face they can see. Having a complete profile - including a headshot of yourself - could make the difference between selling a story and not.
You don’t have to but your story may stand out more if there’s at least one image to go with it. Many publishers expect two or three images to accompany features and travel stories. If you have multiple images, upload one or two with the story (and include them in the price of the story) and make a note in the Notes to Publishers field that you have more available. You can also upload and price photographs separately - select Image Only when submitting the photograph - then include the link to your photographs in the Notes to Publishers field.
You must own the copyright to or have permission to use and sell any images you post on allaboutthestory.com.
You should write a headline and summary for any kind of content you post – stories, images, slide shows, graphics – so that it looks its best and grabs buyers’ attention. The headline and summary are all that potential Buyers first see of your content when they browse on the homepage or look at their RSS feed of new content.
We will deposit the money you have earned from sales on allaboutthestory.com – less our 20% fee – into your nominated bank or PayPal account. Visit My Account and click on Edit Payment Details to nominate a bank account and give us the details. You should also tell us if you are registered for GST and if so give us your GST number.
Yes. Go to My Account and click on the Edit button beside the story you want to edit. The story will open in edit mode and you can edit any part of it, including headline, summary, text, categories, licence and price. At the bottom of the form, click Update to save the changes or ‘Cancel’ to discard them.
Sure you can. Go to My Account, select and open the story you want to hide, and in the Mode bar at the top click on ’Draft’ then Update. That will remove the story from public view.
Yes. Go to My Account, select and open the story you want to remove and in the Mode bar at the top click on Delete. The article will be permanently deleted from the site. You might want to check you have a copy of the story on your own computer before you delete it from the site.
Our editors select a range of well-written stories to feature on our front page. The best way to make the front page is to impress the editors with well-researched, original, well-written stories!
Use the Contact Us form to notify us and we’ll take a look straightaway.
We reserve the right to revoke registration and use of this site at any time at our discretion. We would consider doing so if, say, content or behaviour failed to meet industry quality standards, if an author’s content was found to be plagiarised, objectionable or fraudulently offered for sale, if a publisher gave false details or consistently failed to pay on time.
