Say you write a freelance article and you submit it to 5 different publications. If multiple publications decide to publish it, can you get in any kind of trouble? Or is it done by contract (assuming you're getting paid)? So place 1 goes "we'll publish your article and give you $200." You say ok. So at that point if any of the other places come to you and offer to pay you you have to say no, right? Or only if that first deal was an exclusive contract?

I know people who have freelanced before and had the same article published in multiple papers simultaneously, but they didn't get paid so it didn't matter.

Anyone have any experience with this? Care to share how exactly it works?

Thanks