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This morning my husband googled me, mostly to see if they had caught on to my web site (they have, by the way). I guess this is the sort of thing I should have done myself years ago. It just never occurred to me to search for myself online.
Anyway, he found some other Christine Amsden doing genealogy work, an old senior project of mine from college, and an assortment of my short stories.
One of those short stories was one I never knew was published.
The second short story I ever sent out was called "Gateway." I sent it to the Clarke-Bradbury contest in 2003 and it had an incredible information dump at the beginning. Several months later, I received a form letter saying I was not a winner and listing the people who were. Since I had recently attended boot camp and learned quite a bit in the intervening months, I was not surprised.
I was surprised to find my story listed in the book they published for that contest. It was released in 2004 and I guess it was my first published short story. Would have been nice if they'd ever told me about it. I double-checked and in fact, by entering the contest I did give them the non-exclusive right to publish the story, but an e-mail would have been nice. I guess I'm kind of ticked off.
I'm not sure if this story has a moral to it. Google yourself from time to time, maybe? Mostly, I'm just wondering if I should be feeling ticked off about this.
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You should definitely be not very happy at the least. Those guys should have warned you. Yes, what they did was legal, since you entered the contest and accepted their rules, but it would have been good form to let you know.
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Another good reason not to jump into contests and other offerings without reading the fine print! Like all businesses, there are those in it with honor and integrity, and those that don't even have a shred of decency.
It hardly seems fair, Christine, but ultimately it'll be their loss when you become an established author, which you are well on your way to doing, and start telling more authors about the practices of this contest. At least you'll get some satisfaction as you warn other authors to look out for this sort of thing. I certainly appreciate your posting this.
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Writing Contests are a cheap way to aquire publishing rights to lots of stories and only have to pay for one. Posts: 370 | Registered: Feb 2006
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Hmm...it's a wash. If you're ticked about it, that's understandable. They do promote these contests to writers who are new to the publishing business, and they do stick a bunch of stuff like this in the fine print, and they do actually take advantage of you.
On the other hand, it is there in the fine print, it is a contest, you did give them permission to print the story even if you didn't win.
The only strange thing is that they didn't inform you that your story would be in the book. The reason it's strange isn't because of any ethical requirement, it's strange because usually they stand to sell a few copies they wouldn't otherwise have sold if the authors of the stories can tell their friends about being in the book.
So really, they should feel ticked off that someone neglected to tell you about it. The publisher lost more than you did here, any way you look at it.
Of course, they can't rationally direct any of that anger at you...but reasonably speaking, your anger at them isn't particularly rational either.
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Survivor, you summed up my feelings perfectly.
And as for fine print, it was right there and I knew it when I subbed the story that they had the right to print the story. I don't think I'd submit to such a contest again but like I said, it was the second place I ever submitted a story.
No, the *only* thing that has me bugged is that they never told me about it. And why not? My mom would have bought a book for sure. And my grandmother. And a couple of aunts and uncles...maybe a cousin. Sheesh, there's half a dozen sales they missed by not sending an e-mail! It's weird, unprofessional, and just irksome.
Oh well, in the end it's their loss. I imagine I'll put a link to it from my web page and move on with my life.
I've checked out the site, and it's all very odd - affiliated to the European Space Agency, and apparently intended mostly to gain publicity for its work.
You really would think that they'd want to tell authors they were being published...
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Hmm...that might not be a bad idea. "...delighted to see that you published my story...unfortunate that I didn't find out in time to recommend the publication to my friends...."
Of course, that implicitly admits that you didn't buy the book yourself, but it isn't like you had an obligation to do so anyway.
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Maybe I'm wrong, but since her story ended up in a publication (whether she won or not), shouldn't they owe her royalties for use of her story? Or at least some cash payment for usage rights to her story? She did after all submit the story under confidence that she would be paid, had they liked it enough to publish it.
Posts: 136 | Registered: Mar 2006
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No, Jammrock, in my naivetee as a young, budding writer, i did not ssubmit the story with any understanding that, should they publish it, I would receive royualties or a cash payment. The rules of the contest plainly said that the winners would get prizes and that some others would have their stories in print. By submitting, I gave them the nonexclusive right to publish my story --no payment necessary. This means I could publish it somewhere else and get paid for it, but very few places would want such a story.
Posts: 3567 | Registered: May 2003
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Sounds pretty underhanded to me. I'll make a mental note to be careful in the future. I would definately write a note to them. Be as professional as possible, but relay your "unhappiness" that they did not inform you that they published your story, as it is something you could put on a query letter.
By the way, how goes the publishing process thus far? I am very curious.
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Once I googled myself and the book I wrote, which is fictional but extremely historically accurate, and found an article on an official NPS website--in other words, one of the first places one would go for information on the subjects involved--listing my book as "historically inaccurate." I immediately wrote the head Ranger demanding to know every instance of historical inaccuracy in that book and citations of sources showing said inaccuracy. They removed the remark.
Posts: 283 | Registered: Feb 2006
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Googles of my real name brought up some weird stuff that didn't involve me. Googles of my pen name brought up several posts from here and the Nauvoo Writer's workshop, which I've been neglecting. Not that I mean to...
Posts: 366 | Registered: Sep 2006
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