Does posting work here harm our chances of being published?

Discussion in 'Support & Feedback' started by vyleside, Jul 13, 2009.

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  1. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    right... plus, since they can be read for free online, why would any publisher pay you for them, for people to pay to read them in a magazine?
     
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  2. slippingbeauty

    slippingbeauty New Member

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    wow ok

    well thanks:)
     
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  3. Kalpea_Tuli

    Kalpea_Tuli New Member

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    Some books giving advice for writers to get published do say things like "make a blog", "make a website for your manuscript". How about this? And I do know at least two examples of blogs getting made into books. Both of the blogs are still available online!


    Anyway, I don't aim for anything less than exceptional writing anyway, so that doesn't put me off.
     
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  4. Dithnir

    Dithnir New Member

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    I was thinking of starting a blog to record the travails of writing a book and the choices I make in doing so.

    The point of it was partly because there does seem to be a drive for writers to have done some work themselves getting their name out there and getting some followers, but also for it to have a niche, namely, a writer's craft angle to the construction of it.

    As such there would probably be excerpts to show how drafting improves flow and other stuff.

    It seems as though if I want to self publish via Amazon this isn't a problem. Or is it?

    If I wanted to submit to an agent I guess I'd only be ok if the blog required members to sign up before they could read it?
     
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  5. Cogito

    Cogito Former Mod, Retired Supporter Contributor

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    If you are going to self-publish, posting your work makes no difference. Your "publisher" (you) won't reject your work because it has become unsellable. In fact, your publisher won't reject it even if it is steaming, odious crap.

    Many new authors consider it a disadvantage that they have to submit and revise, submit and revise, in the hope of getting accepted. It isn't. A publisher knows what can be sold and what cannot, with a pretty high degree of accuracy. So the submission ordeal forces you to become a better writer.

    That is why self publishing costs money up front. Most self-published books will take a huge loss. So if someonbe is going to swallow that loss, it won't be the companies that provide the services that enable you to self publish. It will be the author who resorts to self publishing to get his or her name in print who will eat the losses.
     
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  6. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    in re submitting to an agent, i don't get what you think would be 'ok'... agents won't take on something they'll have to sell to publishers who'll then want to sell it to readers, if it can be read for free in a blog...
     
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  7. Dithnir

    Dithnir New Member

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    Hi, assuming mammamaia's point refers to my post...

    No the blog wouldn't contain the novel, it would contain excerpts showing redrafts with analysis of the changes made. We're talking isolated paragraphs and perhaps discussion of chapter ordering.
     
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  8. chellelouj16

    chellelouj16 New Member

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    It's better that you won't publish your work here if you need it to be published in paper. You don't want it to be like what happened to a certain singaporean teenager who claimed to make a graphics of an apple company logo where there is a silhouette of jobs. Another person claimed it be his work and there goes the battle of claim.. To cut the story short, better show it to the paper company if you want it to be published with pay.
     
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  9. Lucien Jay

    Lucien Jay New Member

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    Thanks so much for this thread. A few years ago a friend made a little free website (without my permission, I think) and posted stuff I was working on at the time there. Luckily, those stories are old and I've stopped working on them or am working on a way more advanced version without much of those old elements in there. Since this person isn't my friend anymore, I think about a year ago I tried to make sure she removed them, and she told me she did. Though, like you said it doesn't change the fact it's still "published," but at least they're gone now and I'm moving on to bigger and better things.

    EDIT: Also, thanks a lot because I was going to post a short story I want to have published on here for critique, and now I've thought better of it. Still would be nice to get some critique from some people for it, though!

    EDIT EDIT: Thanks for the welcome, and I already said I know it doesn't change the fact it's published. I also already know about those kinds of archive sites. :) Thanks again, though.
     
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  10. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    you can post an excerpt and a brief synopsis if you want feedback...

    you should know that deleting work from a site won't necessarily remove it from the internet, as virtually everything that has every been posted anywhere is caught and archived by 'crawlers' such as google's... if you google the title or a line from one of those 'deleted' works you'll probably see it pop up...

    welcome to wf.org!... you may want to introduce yourself down below in the intro section... you'll find the site's rules 'n regs there, too...

    love and hugs, maia
     
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  11. rottingsmiles

    rottingsmiles New Member

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    Well, crap. A lot of this stuff would have been good to know before I started posting, but I guess most of my works are unfinished first drafts. How far from the original copy would something have to be to be able to consider it completely new? (I work mostly with poetry so a lot of the things I change are pretty small.)
     
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  12. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    for a poem, i'd say much more than basically the same, with just a few words changed here and there...
     
  13. Darkmasker

    Darkmasker New Member

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    What about email (which could technically by a website)? I've pretty much sent all the writing that I hope to publish to some people but only one of them I signed a non-disclosure agreement (an editor). Is that considered published? I don't think so but this leads to my next slightly off-topic question, what if one of the people I sent the partial to publishes that (however unlikely)? Am I screwed?
     
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  14. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    ...no, it's not... and 'non-disclosure' agreements are not part of the submission process... to ask for one marks you as a clueless amateur, sorry to say...

    ...1.how could a partial ms be published, unless they did it themselves, since no paying publisher is going to publish only part of a book?... 2.why would anyone be idiot enough to pay to have part of a book self-published?... 3.you need to learn the ins and outs of copyright... get the official skinny here: www.copyright.gov
     
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  15. Darkmasker

    Darkmasker New Member

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    My posts are pretty stupid when I'm sleep-deprived and sick with the flu. Sorry about that.

    The editor offered a non-disclosure agreement because I mentioned some of the content could be libelous and describe illegal acts. So I figured it couldn't hurt. But I guess I kind of now see how it's pointless if I do want to publish anyway.

    I thought of the possibility that one of the people that I sent my writing to would high-jack it and publish it themselves. So I was curious, does it ever happen that a writer has his unpublished material stolen? What could they do about it?

    Thanks for the link to copyright info!
     
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  16. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    next to never happens, if it ever has... first of all, as-yet-unpublished writers' work is, sorry to say, generally not good enough to be published, so even if 'stolen' the thief wouldn't be likely to find a publisher to take it on... and if self-published, it's not likely to have any/many buyers...

    however, if published in any way and you find out about it, you'd have to sue the doer for damages [which, if the work wasn't ever published by you would be hard to make a case for...check this out in the copyright info]...which is why your best proof that you wrote something is to save all your earliest notes, plus your first draft and a couple of edited later ones, so you can show progression from the germ of an idea to the completed ms... no one else will have that...
     
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  17. jazzabel

    jazzabel Agent Provocateur Contributor

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    This is really helpful, thank you! I didn't know this. I did write a novelette (about 55000 words) straight onto a blog, and I got a publishing offer (in Croatia though, nothing exciting) but the story wasn't ready as it was only practice (and I wanted to write a better story in English), so I declined. But yeah, I didn't realise that the material was already "published" as they never mentioned anything about that.
    Will make sure I don't post anything new on line though ;)
     
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  18. The Magnan

    The Magnan Active Member

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    I've read and understand everything that has been posted here, and now I died a little inside... but would i have better success if I did end up completely rewriting, I mean my present piece is still in the works, its no where near finished. But i did post a fews things on a blog and a website, so does this mean I would have to adapt those chapters enough to be new. And even then the book isn't finished. Can anyone clear this up for me.
     
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  19. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    depends on how many chapters you put up anywhere on the internet... did you put up more than 3 full chapters?
     
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  20. The Magnan

    The Magnan Active Member

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    er yes, but even then a recent idea of mine may end up scrapping them.
     
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  21. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    it's just not a good idea to put anything more than brief excerpts anywhere on the internet, if you hope to someday have that work published...
     
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  22. Drusilla

    Drusilla Active Member

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    What if I have mentioned my character's full name in a post? Mentioned the name of my fictional world?
    I was so dumb to make a quiz concerning my fictional world (to a friend) when I was 16 (now I'm 23). The only thing I mentioned was the name of my fictional world and the name of two of my characters. The questions were like that: what is the capital of "fictional world"? Who did "character" vote for during the last election? How old is "character"? etc.
    I didn't understand how serious it was and I wasn't really planning to make my fictional world and characters into a writing project.
    I don't remember the username and password when I posted the content, and they didn't reply when I sent them an e-mail. The site seems to have been down for a long time.
    Will the publisher dismiss my work if they find the name of my fictional world or one or two characters online? I can't prove that I was the one who made the quiz, because I can't remember the username and password I used back then. Will I be forced to change the name of my fictional world?
    Today, I am extremely careful with what I put online. I would not even mention the full names of my characters or the true name of my fictional world in here. I often give them pseudonyms.
    How do you think the publishers will react when they find the name of some of my characters and the name of my fictional world mentioned in a quiz?
     
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  23. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    it won't affect anything one way or the other, since names can't be copyrighted... and they can only be trademark registered/protected after a piece of writing containing them has been copyrighted and the names are used for sales of peripheral marketing items, such as character dolls and other merchandise... as with 'batman' and 'star wars' characters...

    no... see above...

    only if the name you give it is has been used by someone else and is trademark protected...

    see above... but what do you mean by 'a quiz'?
     
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  24. twinkle28874

    twinkle28874 New Member

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    So glad I read this post! I had no idea- phew!
     
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  25. Boriol

    Boriol New Member

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    I was about to post the ending of my best story on some site for critique. Like, tomorrow.

    This thread saved my first novel. Thank you, everyone who posted here.
     
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