I don't know if this is the right section to ask these questions, so please mods or admin let me know and move/delete post if this is the wrong place to ask. The questions I need to ask have to do with publishing, but through a competition and they are related to some of the rules of the competition. One of the rules says that the work to submit must be an inedited/unpublished and that this mean it must be not have been published under any form, also under the form of self-publishing. Now, I'm not sure what this mean. - Does it fall under the self-publishing cathegory also posting it on a board or forum or creative writing site? - And does this apply if one has uploaded it to his own site, too? - Or is this restricted to say one that has printed and published it by himself? This is actually the first time I've ever taken into consideration the idea of participating in a competition, so I've never encountered this problem before. The works I thought I'd submit are actually uploaded on my own site and there are extracts from one of them posted on a board, so I figured this maybe falls under the self-publishing thingy. Is it the case?
If the work appears in whole, or substantially, on the internet, then I would say that would count as published. In terms of extracts, it depends how much has been posted, and how much the final (current) draft differs from what was posted. At any rate, I would advise that if it's possible, you email the publisher/competition organiser to ask them directly about this, and I would certainly mention it in any submission, otherwise.
From the wording, I would say they would consider your entry previously published, and therefore ineligible.
