So I was doing some surfing online and came across websites like FictionPress and Wattpad. In these types of websites people of all walks of life post their stories whether it's short or actually the length of a novel. I don't plan on publishing a novel anytime soon, I have too much to learn but I'm curious if posting my stories on these websites is a good idea. I know it's good for critiquing but what if one of my stories has risen to a certain caliber where it's actually possible for it to be published. Will posting my stories on sites hurt my chances of publication and will my stories be in danger of copyright?
From the point of publication you'd be deliberately throwing them into the waste basket. Most of the publishing chances would be gone. Not all, but surely it would be a pain in the ass at the time. So don't publish anything with too much potential. At least writing short stories would seem durable, since they don't take so much trouble and time. I wonder if you'd write a sizable novel, publish it like this, and then realize you could have gotten it really published. It's a risk for all the work and trouble. But then again I'm not sure if it's worth anything to be too scared of that chance (I get the idea many are), because after the last one you just write the next one. Dose it really matter which is the best?
I don't really know what has potential and what doesn't. I also really can't dictate what becomes a short story and a sizable novel. I just write and whatever happens, happens. So I guess the best way not to screw up my chances of publication is not posting my stories. It's all about risk, I guess.
Yep, the advice I've heard was to not put the stories you really want to be published online. Publishing companies hate that.
There have been recent book contracts awarded for novels that were previously posted online for free and/or self-published on Kindle. These have been by major publishers, and one of them is one of the best sci-fi books of 2014 (The Martian, which was made available for free by the author, then self-published, then picked up by Random House). Publishing is changing and adapting to the online and ebook environment. The fact that you have something up on your website or on a place like Wattpad isn't a automatic bar to publishing. However, if you have specific publishers in mind for your work you should look at how they handle this sort of thing.
Yes, it will hurt your chances. Sometimes publishers pick up novels that are available online for free, but this happens so rarely that I wouldn't take any risks.
I assume that if you don't want to publish it then fine, I know a lot of people that post fanfiction online and its stuff they can never publish because its based off someone else work. Posting online for everyone to see in order to get feedback is not something I would ever do. I might post a paragraph or something but not my entire work or close to it. For feedback I plan on showing it to trusted friends and family. I'm just at the point of doing this as I just completed a rough draft so take my advise with a grain of salt lol.
Once it is freely available on the internet, who is going to buy it? It significantly harms your chances of getting published.
If you're posting to improve the work, it'd be better to find a solid crit group (local or online) than post and take whatever random opinion comes across in a reader's critique.
