Are rewrites more difficult to do then writing the article yourself? I wanted some opinions before I applied for a job rewriting a very long article. Thanks Sherry
Well if nothing else, make sure it's a legal re-write. If it's not a PLR article or something the client owns the copyright to, rewriting it can actually be a copyright violation (no one can make derivative works from something without the copyright holder's permission), and that would fall on you as the writer. I don't rewrite other people's articles, so I don't know how it fares. When I rewrite my own from time to time, the rewrites are always much quicker to do, but then again, I'm already intimately familiar with the subject matter by that point. My advice: if you want to be a writer, write your own material.
Rewriting is usually easier than writing original stuff, unless it's a field where you have little experience. It also depends on the extent to which you rewrite the article [I.e if you change only a few words or substitute entire parts of the article with your own writing]
I would ask to see a sample of the work to be rewritten. If it's a total mess, it will take much longer for you to complete the rewrite and it might be cheaper for the client and easier for you to create a new article. If the article is top-notch, it might also take you more time to rewrite - at least it does for me. I would also ensure whether or not fact-checking is expected. Ask for extra if it is. If you are really worried about how long it would take you, perhaps find a similar article on an article directory and rewrite it for practice. Time how long it takes you from start to finish and that should give you a better feel for how hard it is for you to do rewrites. I would hesitate to accept any rewriting job where the ownership and copyright of the article(s) are in question for the reason Jenn has already mentioned.
It's always easier for me to write a new (better) article on a particular topic then try and salvage something from another one. Rebecca
^^ Agreed, 100 percent! I did have an opportunity last week to edit down an article from 2600 words to 2000 words so it would "fit". I really enjoyed doing that.
I'm with internet author. I can sometimes draw some facts from a previous one but mine have to be original.
I think that rewriting is much harder than doing original research. For example, I might typically draw facts from five or ten different sites while researching. The final product doesn't resemble any of the sources, because the information has been synthesized in a new and original way. With a rewrite, you'd be trying to make a new article using only one article for a source...so it would be much more difficult to say anything unique. It's like...well..like sexual vs. asexual reproduction. What makes each generation of human unique is combining several different genetic codes. An amoeba will be much the same for hundreds of generations, because there is no other source to mix it up.
I have to say that rewriting is so much easier but you need to make sure that you are legally authorized to rewrite any material.
Rewriting can be a nightmare if the articles are horrible to start with. What I've gotten in the past is someone who didn't want to pay my prices for the original so they went elsewhere and then came back with these pieces of crap and asked me to rewrite them. Never, never again will I do that. You can bet that I will see the articles to be rewritten before agreeing on a price. Now if I don't like the way something looks, I just tell them it will be more to rewrite those articles than it will be to have original unique content created. I got myself into trouble once with some technical information as well. I was just asked to rewrite articles and a price. Then when I got them, it took me forever to figure out what they where even talking about to be able to rewrite it. But I pushed through and did a good job on them even though it took me two to three times as long as I had estimated it would.
I think that a rewrite is just like any other article. If you don't know the topic all that well it can prove challenging. Plus, you need to ask to what extent the rewrite is. For instance, I am working on an e-book. I don't need to change the content, but it needs to sound less technical and more conversational. Pricing is a personal thing. Some people choose to do it by word, others by the page. It all depends on the scope of work needed. I would agree though to not settle on a price until you see what kind of work it will entail. I wouldn't turn down a rewrite but make sure you clearly understand what they need and look the project over before agreeing. Others here have made some very good points!
To answer the original question, it depends on the quality of article that needs to be rewritten. While there are the legal issues that others have touched on, you want to be careful when applying for a rewrite job. I learned the hard way to ask to see the article first before agreeing to a price. Looking at the article first is also a good way to make sure that the client is within his/her legal bounds to ask for the rewrite. You can do a search for the text or copyscape it and make sure that you aren't stumbling into something shady.
How do you find out who owns it? Come right out and say "hey how do I know you are the owner of this piece?" Is there a way to do it or find out who the owner is when you are copyscaping it?
Simply ask the client where the article is from. If they won't tell you, move on, because it's not worth the risk. For something like that you really should have a contract or something else in writing saying the client owns the right to have derivative works made to protect yourself legally to some degree. They may have purchased PLR articles with the rights to modify them. They may have written them themselves. They may have purchased full rights from another writer and simply now just want new versions of the articles. If, however, they tell you something like "I found them on EzineArticles," don't rewrite them, because they don't have the rights to them. At the very least, search for a few unique phrases in Google from the original they give you and see if it's published elsewhere with a copyright notice not belonging to the client.
I occasionally do re-writes, but I usually regret agreeing to do them. The requests tend to come from people who bought some PLR content that turned out to be keyword-stuffed junk. I usually end up writing something new from scratch. When I see an re-write request for an article going by the title 'Travel Tips For Sweden' tells you that 'Sweden travel tips will include things to do in Sweden, and good travel tips may tell you where to eat in Sweden, you should research Sweden travel tips before you go...', I usually just take the title, and start from scratch.
I have a contract I use with clients that says they represent that they have rights to the article. You can't really know, they can lie to you. You just need protection if someone were to come after you. And if you are writing under their name, it's hard to say the original author/owner will come first to you rather than the client. I love rewriting! It's fast, it's easy. You just put it into your own words, and unless it's truly crap or highly technical, it goes fast. Even if it's keyword-stuffed; I put on the microphone and dictate away. I get pretty good rates now that I have a track record, so it's a great way to profit from the time between other projects. SueC
I am a freelance writer as well as I have created and sold my own lesson plans and ebooks. I find for re-writes, you usually only want to use some of the ideas in the original and write a whole new article if it is going to be used to submit to article directories. I have found unless I change 1/2-3/4 of the whole article is is still considered as duplicate content by places strict such as Ezinearticles.com(which is one of the big, popular sites) It is still easier to do a re-write if you can find enough to build off of the orignal due to you are not having to research from scratch. I have tons of PLR that I use for a basis for my own articles just because it gives me ideas and limits the whole research time which is the time killer. Just my 2 cents. Melanie
It depends on a topic, I sometimes find it harder to rewrite other people's work but if it's my own, it is extremely easy and normally what I do is just pursue one thought or trail of idea in order to rewrite an article in a new one. I don't try to completely rewrite it as it is. Its much easier that way. John Steiner