Last night I received a fat letter from my church's magazine department. Two months ago I sent in two articles on blogging, and making family history websites. My first thought was that they were returning my articles and saying "no thank you." Then I remembered I had sent them in as attachments to an email.
Curiously I opened the envelope and found the salutation..."Dear Author." Thinking they had made some mistake I read further and found out they wanted to buy my article "Calling All Genealogists." Then I knew they had made a mistake because I couldn't remember any article I'd written with that title but they were offering me $100 for 800 words (which Caryn reminds me is not $1.25/word but more like .125 cents/word.) At any rate, they wanted to buy something from me. Well, I looked on my computer and luckily had backed up my submission. I had written an article called "Calling All Geneal-ogists" about making webpages. See my family history website at http://www.geocities.com/famhistory1867.
To quote the letter: "We are pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been accepted for possible publication in the 'Ensign'. We ask you to sign the enclosed form...to protect your rights as the creator of the work, as well as our rights as the purchaser...we are buying the right to use your work, but ...you retain the copyright. You certify that the work is your own and that you have the right to sell it to us. We state that we may edit and translate your work, that we may use it more than once and in a variety of formats, and that we have the right of first publication."
Now here's something to add to my "Joy Journal." Whoppee!