Does posting work here harm our chances of being published?

this is one reason why it's best to never post an entire piece of work and only post brief excerpts...

 

Are you sure that's even prudent?

Let's suppose you have an ancillary character (that you use as a spear carrier) and you write a scene for laughs. This character is a chronic masturbator who mistakes the hero's automotive clay bar--used to polish his 'Vette--for a bar of Ivory soap.

The few paragraphs mean virtually nothing to you, that is, until you see the scene appear in money making Broadway play.

In fact, the reason I wrote this is to see just how honest our membership really is. Clearly, it's my work, for now...

 

thisi is important. I did not know post here is published. I have to consider carefully what to post here. but some of writings indeed published on site, then published by company. maybe they are exceptional.

 

In the end, if it's going to sell they won't care. Fifty Shades may be a tired example, but it was heavily posted on fan fic forums, then given away for free on Amazon, then sold cheap on Amazon, all before the publisher picked it up and made squillions. So if it can sell, they won't give a hoot about it's internet history. As long as it's copyright isn't questionable.

 

Selbbin, the fact is that it CAN ruin your chances with publishers, and many members had no idea before joining here that publishers do look for such things. Publishers are already taking a huge risk publishing work from unknown writers. First novels are rarely very profitable, and often the d=first novel is the only one an unknown ever produces. If it's available for free, it makes it that much more of a profit risk.

Sure, every writer has the choice to make, whether to take that risk. But most writing sites don't even mention that the risk exists, and many newcomers to this site are seeing and considering the matter for the first time.

It's hard to make a reasoned choice if it never occurs to you in the first place. And with the odds already stacked against new writers, it pays to hedge your bets every way you can.

 

i have to ditto all of that... it's not smart to count on being a rare exception... it's wise to maximize your odds of being published, instead of limiting them...

 

But is it wise to spew your best ideas and work product all over the internet and maximize the chances for your competition?

You have no idea how much some corporations will spend in planting an employee on the payroll of their chief competitor. They hope on getting even a glimmer of a look at their R/D. Getting a jump on "the next big thing" could be worth billions.

My work is my own. I have my own goals, my own desires and my own reasons to be driven. I have no intention of giving a lazy sluggard, whose idea of suffering for his art is burning the roof of his mouth on his mom's pizza rolls, a free ride for even the goofiest literary idea I have created.

I owe him nothing. And I really don't care what the rest of the world thinks.

 

Actually, I am a romantic. At the same time, I've met a lot of weirdos on forums. Two stalkers at my gym, and a shooting at a food court.

I do like to respond to people who love writing. In the same breath I do not suffer fools, and I don't mind a good scrape. I'd like both my dear friends and blood enemies to say, "The Tourist is coming."

In that regard, I'm re-thinking posting any aspect of my story in a computer forum. When you consider "www" allows world-wide access--and my book is almost complete--this is just foolish. Look at our recent news, one building in China hacked into the USA. One geek with a mouthful of his mom's pizza rolls could set down his video game controller and steal the work of decades.

It's time for me to protect my own. When writers here are struggling with arcs and initial character development I can see some open dialog. As the work evolves they should start being more guarded.

For example, when you first begin to build a house, there's no reason to lock down a hole in the ground or the roughed out frame. But as the house becomes a home it's time to install heavy locking doors and secure windows. I'm at that point.

 

Yes , this is my worrying too even though I haven't written any complete long story yet! I offer in such situations you change some part of your story intentionally or hide some sensitive pieces of that to be not recognizable. Of course thus, some graces of your story will gone or some of your story planning will lose but it is better than a publisher say you pitiful : " dear writer! this story which you have offered me has been published a month ago and if we publish that we will encounter an illegal issue in copyright ". then the publisher will smile you and returns your book to you respectfully

 

Woah,
I nvr thought of that at all,
Well, i don't think its harmlful if you will only post you 1st chapter and change it a little compared to the original

 

sorry, mans, but that won't help, if the whole story/poem/article/whatever is still posted... the only smart thing to do is to post only a brief excerpt of anything that you hope to have published some day...

 

My Creative Writing teacher told me, after I confessed to her that I had posted excerpts and discussed characters with people in this forum and other writing forums, to not worry about it and just write. She's a published author herself, wrote a lot of mysteries set in the Deep South.

However, I think the lesson learned here is that from now on, if I have an exciting story idea in my head, I keep it all to myself as to minimize the chances of anyone taking them for their own. If I have a question, I would ask it in the most obscure way (or just make up alibi names for my characters) so it isn't obvious who my characters are.

But if you did put your stuff online, no regrets. The fact that you were creative in the first place to create those worlds prove that you are creative enough to make other worlds. Only this time, guard them with everything you have.

 

Thanks guys for the information, I just joined and considered posting glad I didn't just a paragraph

 

Posting a few chapters of your work won't do any harm. I think it helps that we are able to share ideas and show fellow writers our creative flow. I am actually thinking of posting here the intro to my self-published ebook.

 

I really hope your correct, because I could really use the help.

 

What if we were to write using Google Docs and share the document openly on this forum? Then, after collecting comments for several days, we go back and close sharing of the document. Obviously you can never be sure who will take the text and post it, but just for the sake of the argument if we assume that that has not been done, could we consider this to be a workaround to the publishing issue?

I should note that this would be for a short story, not a novel manuscript.

 

won't work, because you need to post the actual material here, not just a link to it...

 

Indeed you are correct, mammamaia.

 

I try to help fellow writers as much as I can. In my website, I am even offering a personal critique of any writing proposal or sample chapter. I am an Oxford trained tutor which maybe would help establish your confidence in me.

 

Useful information

I just wanted to say thanks for posting this question and to all the knowledgeable people who have answered. I did not know this and it is now clear. An excellent example of how very helpful this forum is for basic information as well as writing tips and advice.

 

Am I being too simplistic here, or does this whole discussion make very little sense? If we aren't supposed to post our work, in case someday some publisher decides to check every forum in the universe to see if we've ever posted our work onto it, then what is the purpose of this forum at all? Of course we need to post our work, to get a critique! Unless we just want to discuss writing in general, without showing any of it?

I would tend to agree with Link the Writer's writing teacher here. Especially as we are not usually posting 'finished' works here, but works in progress, which will continue to be edited. I guess if you're terribly paranoid about this ploy backfiring, just don't post!

I'd love to see some actual cited examples where somebody's work was rejected by a publisher because they'd posted it earlier on a writing forum. If somebody can produce this evidence, I'll shut up, go away, and eat my hat...

 

You don't have to post the specific work that you're hoping to get published. Sure, the time may come when your writing skills are so polished that you hope to get every single precious word published, but I know that I am a good distance from that point and will have plenty of "practice" stories that I can put up for critique. The flaws in them will probably be representative of the flaws in anything that I do hope to submit, so I can transfer what I've learned.

 

it's only recommended that you not post the whole piece of work that you intend to have published... there's no problem with posting brief excerpts for review/help...

 

Considering the number of options available to people to publish stories for profit or to even start their own personal publishing company with their friends, this is a moot point. Also considering such options, it also seems foolish to go to a publishing company. The only real advantage would be cheaper print copies and a reputable publisher name. Other than that, you can sell electronically with Apple, Amazon, Google, and in print with Amazon Create Space. The only disadvantage with selling in print is that the books often cost more when using print on demand services. The advantage with Amazon is that your books will be sold along side their other books. You'll also have a lot more options publishing on your own, as opposed to with a major publisher. You'll keep a larger portion of the profit and you won't be locked in to distributing through a single company.

 

A reputable publisher name is a huge, huge thing.

That reputable publisher also comes with professional staff to do editing, layout, art, marketing, and so on. When you don't know the details of those professions, it's easy to assume that a writer can master the entire career of several paid professionals and do as good a job or better, but, really, does it seem all that _likely_? If those jobs required no training or skill, would people be getting paid to do them?