I've seen all the advertisements for "writers needed" articles, short stories, news pieces... yet when I research further, seems you must sign all your rights away, whatever is accepted and posted is no longer yours; the site may re-post, alter, do whatever they wish with what you've written I've read on this forum that some of you have written internet articles & short stories, and make good money at it. I think I could, but I'm not sure I want my work on a site that reserves the right to do what they will with what I have written. On the other hand, this seems a simple, quick way to get my name as a writer out there and gain some experience with "professional writing". Anyone have experience or thoughts about whether internet writing is a good way to get started? EDIT: Okay, Newbie mistake! I just saw the previous post on e-publishing. Much good information there; a long thread so I didn't read it all; hoping I'm not again asking a question y'all have already answered - but arent' any of you "e-publishers" and "self-publishers" concerned about your work being stolen, or portions of it used in un-intended ways?
Until you're up there with Stephen King and J.K. Rowling, obscurity is a much bigger problem for most writers than piracy.
im an artist and totally disagree. if i have put effort into making a piece of work and it gets stolen then i would be royally p'ed-off regardless of whether people are enjoying it or not.
Probably depends on the situation. I know I used to write articles for a website for free. Now, this situation probably wasn't the same as yours because there was no "signing rights away" or anything like that, and the website wasn't making money directly off of what I wrote. But it was similar in the sense that the moment that my article was posted... I pretty much guaranteed that I couldn't make money off of it in the future because it is already somewhere for free. Technically they can screw you over and use your work in a way that maybe you didn't want it to be used or if it's stolen or w/e. I don't have too much experience with how that all works so I can't really tell you if that happens a lot. But I imagine if this is a relatively unknown website and you are a solid writer, they don't want to piss you off by doing things that will get them on your bad side. The reason they make you sign your rights away is so that they don't run into legal trouble later on, it's not necessarily because they mean to do something bad.
You are protected by copyright, and you can pursue legal remedies if your work is stolen. The harsh truth is that it probably isn't worth stealing, or worth pursuing. If it were, why settle for that type of publication?
Agreed. Step 1: Try to get published. (FAILED) Step 2: Try to get published again. (FAILED) Step 3: Self-Publish and try to sell the book yourself. (FAILED) Step 4: Post it on the internet for anyone to enjoy and start a new project.
