I don't know if this is already clearly established, but are we allowed to publish what we put here for review at a later date (once the work is done)? If not, I'll have to stop posting my work Just in case. I know we're not allowed to post entire novels, but that is not my question. Thanks.
As far as I understand, (someone will correct me if I'm wrong) publishers are unlikely to want short stories or poems that have already been published online. Even if you delete the original post (not advised, and deleting threads isn't allowed) there's a chance someone could still track it down - in which case, the publisher doesn't have exclusive rights. So basically if you want to publish a poem/short story, it's probably not a good idea to post it here With a novel, a short excerpt is probably fine (especially as it will change a lot during the editting stage) but you must tell the publisher that you've posted bits. I'm sure someone more expert in this will come along in a mo...hope I helped a bit..I'd like to see a good answer to this as well
sophie's mostly on target here... however, while publishers generally don't buy 'exclusive' rights, they do usually want 'first' rights... and that's what could be lost if you post a complete work on a public-accessible site... even if the section where you post it requires membership, the work is still going to be available to a large number of people, which won't make a paying venue eager to shell out good money for it, in hopes others will pay to read what can be read for free... especially since it's so easy for anyone to copy it and make it even more widely available, anywhere on the internet... so, it's not a matter of being 'allowed' to publish your posted work, but rather whether you'll be able to find anyone willing to publish it... as far as telling publishers if you've posted only bits of a piece of work goes, it's not really a 'must' as it's not legally required and most won't care...
Whatever you do, don't tell a publisher your story has never been published if it HAS been posted, even if you had it removed. You cannot "unpublish" a piece of writing, and if you are ever caught in such a lie, expect to be blacklisted.
Thanks. No, I wasn't talking about short stories. The day I can't write another short story is the day I lose my fingers. All 9 of them. (10?). Yeah, I really was talking about the novels. I'm just glad WritingForums claims no ownership. Thanks.
You can join a critique group (hidden forums, within forums like this one, that can only be accessed through passwords by a very select number of members.) and have your work reviewed without losing first electronic publication rights from what I have been told by publishers and from what I have read myself.
the trouble is, not all publishers see it that way... some just don't want to buy work they expect people to pay to read, when it can be read by many for free... remember that even in a so-called 'locked' or 'safe' section of a site, anyone can still copy it with a couple of mouse clicks and post it anywhere on the internet they want to, or send it around to all their email pals, if it's something they liked and want to 'share'... which happens all the time, from what i can see in the mass-mailed stuff that keeps dropping into my inbox... that's why the safest course is really to NEVER post an entire piece of work, if you hope to ever have it published...
Yes, that is true. I did forget to mention that part, not all publishers will accept work that has been posted in a critique group. That is very true and I myself have been a victim of a couple of mouse clicks and the poem being put on another forum, resulting in me not being able to publish the poem because it has appeared online and has been placed in search engines. Mind you, it was not placed in a critique group, it was placed in open forum and now why I don't post my work. This is good practise for short stories, novellas, etc. But for poetry, you don't post any of it if you want to get it published.
i don't get your point here, tor... why would posting a line or two of a poem be any more of a problem than posting a small excerpt of a prose work?... it's still posting the whole thing that will be the problem in re future publishing, even with poetry...
But it's harder to post a meaningful excerpt of a poem, unless it's a rather long one. I think that''s really all she meant (correct me if I'm wrong, T).
She probably meant that since poems are so small you'd probably post them all (or at least half), in which case then it would be a problem trying to publish it.
