Hi, I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, but on the Publishers board, there's a sticky about how posting large excerpts/entire stories on this site isn't safe, because publishers will get PO'd if they realize that your story is available for free somewhere online. Lots of people here post their children's stories (including ones that get published) on this board. It seems like a wonderful place to get constructive feedback, but I'm just a little confused. Are the rules different for children's stories? If you edit your original post and replace the story with something like "This story has been sent to publishers and has been removed by the author", will it be removed from publishers being able to find it, or is there still a way for them to find it through archives? Sorry again if this is in the wrong place. I just thought I"d double check first, to be on the safe side. Thanks!
I've moved this thread to the Publishers forum. I don't think there are different rules on this for childrens' stories. First publishing rights are first publishing rights, and once a piece of writing is posted on the internet, those are gone. FPR are what most publishers are interested in, hence why posting harms your chances of being published. Removing it doesn't make much difference really. You've already published it, so the rights are gone, not to mention that the internet is open to everyone, and there are sites which archive such things. The best way to avoid this is to post extracts (if it's a longer piece), only very early drafts, or pieces you don't intend to publish, in order to get general critique on your writing.
Also, you want to check with individual publishers. If you are putting the excerpts in a password-protected forum that is only available to registered users on a site, rather than posting it where anyone browsing through the site can see it, some publishers will still considered the work "unpublished" and you won't harm your chances with them. If anyone browsing through the site can see the story, publishers will generally consider it to have been published, which limits the rights that you can then sell and that they can acquire.
the problem is most publishers don't get that specific in their guidelines, so to maximize your chances of selling your work, it's best to only post small exerpts...
Thank you so much....small excerpts for longer stories/novels, but for something shorter I'll avoid posting entire drafts on the public forums just to be on the safe side...
