I'm a beginner and I have been toying with the idea of a creating a blog where my stories can be read. I'm wondering what the consequences of that would be if someday I wanted to try to get that blogged material published. Does anyone have the answers? Thanks!
[This message has been edited by chalkdustfairy (edited July 12, 2010).]
Posted by JenniferHicks (Member # 8201) on :
My understanding is that if you put an entire story (or a large section of one) online, it is considered published. That kills any chance you have of selling the story to a paying market later on. So my advice is: Don't do it. If you want to blog about writing, that's great, but keep your stories off the web.
[This message has been edited by JenniferHicks (edited July 12, 2010).]
Posted by Owasm (Member # 8501) on :
Anything you publish on the web is public domain and a publisher won't touch it because they can't get exclusive rights. That doesn't stop you from putting some material on your site, but realize it's not longer eligible for publishing.
KDW has a better handle on it than I do, but that's why the Feedback for Books and Novels are restricted to the first thirteen lines.
Posted by tchernabyelo (Member # 2651) on :
If you publish your stories on a blog, you will no longer be able to sell First Rights to any publisher.
VERY few publishers will be remotely interested in work if they can't get First Rights.
Why do you want to blog your writing? Some people believe it will give them a presence/get them noticed, but in practive it is very hard to drive up traffic to a blog without having some kind of hook already (like being very famous).
You are almost certainly better off honing your writing with a critique group and then trying to sell it to online or print publications.
Posted by chalkdustfairy (Member # 9175) on :
I think it's a matter of deciding how serious I am about these stories. Is this just going to be a fun hobby I share with friends and family or am I seriously going to work to get them ready to be published? I really want to share the stories. That's the point in writing them, after all. I guess I will never know if they're good enough to be submitted to a publisher until I try!
Thanks for the info and advice everyone.
[This message has been edited by chalkdustfairy (edited July 13, 2010).]
Posted by JSchuler (Member # 8970) on :
quote:Anything you publish on the web is public domain and a publisher won't touch it because they can't get exclusive rights.
Woah, no! Public domain is stuff that can be used without asking permission and without attribution. You do NOT give up all those rights by posting your story online (you do not give up any rights at all by posting online). All that you have done is exercised your right to first publishing (which is what almost all publishers want, which is why it's not good to do this if you're looking to sell in the future). If someone wants to reproduce your work, they still have to ask and abide by whatever terms you wish to impose. Unlike works in the public domain, the stories you post on a blog are very much protected by copyright law.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
I "maintain," kind of, a site where I've been putting up my rejected stories. I say "maintain" in quotation marks, and "kind of" also, because I haven't been that prolific these past few years, and rarely put updates. Just the stuff I had on hand, that's been bounced by the major print mags. (I don't put up rough drafts or partially-finished stuff, at least not yet.)
Partly it's a way of cybersquatting on my own name (www.robertnowall.com)...partly it's to show to anybody who asks that I can write something that's not Internet Fan Fiction...and partly it's disillusionment with the concept of submitting stories and being rejected by editors I've gradually lost respect for because of this continued submission-rejection cycle...
It's been relatively fun, though rather low-key---not much action. I'm not inclined to advertise or promote the site, also "at least not yet."