Monday, January 30, 2012

Is Blog "Published" Considered Published?

If you've been reading my blog for a while (or a month), you know that one of my New Year's Resolutions was to "submit at least two short stories." Thanks to Theresa who sent me a whole list of contests and literary magazines, Charity who writes posts on any contest she thinks worth entering, and Michael who makes sure I read those posts, I have a few places in mind. All of them require the submission to be unpublished.

If you've been reading my blog a little while (or a year) longer, you know that I've posted many short stories thanks to The Chrysalis Experiment. Many of those stories are good or at least have the potential to be, if I do say so myself, and I think they would have a chance at winning or being accepted (whichever the case may be).

My only concern is, if I have posted or "published" the story on my blog, is it considered published? Would I be able to submit it? What do you think?

21 comments:

  1. I know about speculative venues, and the bad news is that most of the time publishing on your blog means that your work is considered published.

    That means that you will only be able to sell your work as a reprint. There are very few exceptions. Here's hoping that it's not the same for literary venues.

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  2. Possibly if you revised your stories and changed them a lot in revisions, they wouldn't count as published anymore??

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  3. I seem to remember reading somewhere that if it's published online in a public area (i.e. you don't need a password to read it) then it's generally considered published. I could be wrong though.

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  4. That is a good question. I have no idea. I think I'll post it on twitter/facebook and see what others say. I'm interested to know the answer.

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  5. Yes it is considered published. But, you can unpublish it in the event that you want to submit it someplace to see if someone will publish it. The issue at hand is "why would a magazine pay you for something when ppl can get it for free?"

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    1. I figured it was something along these lines, but I still wasn't sure. And there seems to be varying opinions. Perhaps it's a place by place sort of thing?

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    2. It may be a place by place thing? The only way to know for sure is to carefully read the submission guidelines.

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    3. Do you think, if they don't specify, I could email the various "hosts" and ask?

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  6. If you un-publish it, you will still have lost first publication right, which is what many venues are seeking to buy.

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    1. Does this still apply to contests though? And if Google has only nonexclusive rights, does that still count as first publication rights? I'm only asking because you seem to know a lot about the subject. ^^

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    2. It depends on the contest. Sometimes you'll see a contest or a venue that will state that blog publishing doesn't count.

      But sadly, publishing anywhere, even if it's non-exclusive does use the first publication rights.

      The only exception is if it's a password protected site, that online crit groups often use.

      Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. It doesn't seem very fair.

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    3. Thank you so much for answering all of my questions. ^^ It's made everything a lot clearer to me.

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  7. I dislike being an addition to the bad news, but from things I've seen and read, those short stories are considered published.

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  8. Yeah, I'm in agreement with what everyone else said. :(

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  9. Thank you all so much for responding to my question with sincere answers. ^^

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  10. My thinking is that you should write "spin off" stories for each of your stories, and then submit those :D

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    1. lol Nice, Trisha, but I think I would rather go to the trouble of writing completely new stories.

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  11. When I posted this, I had mixed answers. For the most part, people said yes, that it is considered published. They also said to check with the contest and their rules. Some organizations don't consider blog postings as published, but they are few and far between. So, just be careful. Sorry I didn't get back with you sooner (most responses were all over the place and I wasn't sure what the REAL answer was).

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    1. Thanks so much for taking the time to come back and tell me what you found out. ^^ And that does seem to be the case. I think I've decided not to submit anything I've posted on my blog, just to be safe.

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