Hi That's the question. I'm submitting stories (very few, not assiduously). In the meantime, I'm dying to put them up where at least my friends can read them. If I "publish" on my website, will editors not accept the stories as unpublished submissions? Thanks
If you put them on your site, they're considered published. A lot of magazines ask for first publication rights. Some magazines will consider stories that have been published elsewhere, but most magazines don't do this in my experience.
[expletive deleted] And that (if I ask six different ways maybe you'll change your answer) is the definitive word?
Yes. If you want to show your work to a few friends, you could always email it to them or print out copies for them. This would not be considered published work.
You could publish just a paragraph or two. I think that, if it's not the whole thing, it's not considered published.
If it's available to the public, it's considered published. If it's password protected, or otherwise only available to certain persons, it's not (which is why using protected critique sites/forums are 'safe').
not always... don't rely on this false sense of security! some sites that say they're 'protected' and 'safe' from google's and others' all-acquiring crawlers really aren't... and even if they are, that doesn't keep anyone who can view work there from copying/pasting it in places that wouldn't be 'safe'...
Thanks for all the info. Does, though, bring up a memory of trying to get a song to Judy Collins. Reached some kind of assistant/gatekeeper who was there to forbid entrance to all. And her "advice" was that for my own protection the best thing I could do with my songs was keep them in my filing cabinet and never show them to anyone.
Look carefully at the submission guidelines for whatever you're submitting to. Some will get pretty specific about what is considered "published" or whether it's okay to have the whole story on some website. The criteria can vary significantly.
True, but I've never heard of that happening. Putting it on your own site, on the other hand, is common and pretty much irrevocable; it will appear in search engines, the Wayback machine, and a bunch of other places that would require take a concerted effort to track down and remove it from.
But again, that's why there are passwords and robot text. Yes, the absolutely safest way is not to put it online - but handing it out to friends instead doesn't guarantee it won't find its way to the internet either.
If I wanted to show a story to a large group of my friends, I would use either email or Dropbox. If your main goal is to share your work with people, publishing it on your own website, and then building traffic to your website could be a good way to go.
I guess if I wanted to go wholesale and didn't think I was gonna sell anything, and had enough stuff I thought was good, I'd go for self-publishing. Meanwhile, I do e-mail stories to a few people. Publishing on the website is from the wish to have a book, so.... And I have just started putting my music on Dropbox for my notsomany fans.
