From a reader through talk to me:
Are there any concerns involved in posting one’s writing works on a blog? For example, would publishers be less inclined to pay if a work, say a short story, or a novel draft, was already publicly available on the internet? What about after you get published, what control do you have over how you may distribute your writing outside of your publisher? What other rights issues are involved? I figured you might be able to answer me since you’ve posted some of both your published and unpublished work on this site.
Thank you! I am a great admirer of your work.
And thank you for your patience!
The answer is, maybe. It depends. (Don’t you hate that kind of answer?) If you’ve published an entire novel on your website and have had very few visitors, most print publishers won’t see that as a threat to their market: but they may wonder if there is a market for your book at all. If you have thousands of visitors, the publisher may assume you’ve already reached your audience — but clearly there is an audience for your book, and perhaps that audience can be expanded either for this book, or your next one.
Short stories are more problematic. If I had posted a short story on my website before publishing it in a professional market (online or print), I would make certain the editor knew it: and I think the editor might regard the story as “used” rather than “new,” But again, it depends on the individual editor, the overall market, and what kind of traffic you get.
I can’t speak for publishers or editors. I can only speak from my perspective. But I can also call upon Great and Powerful Resources for you (grin): here’s a blog post on this topic from Moonrat at Editorial Ass, who is an actual Publishing Person and has informed opinions. Make sure to read the comment conversation as well for more discussion. (And follow her blog: she’ll give you lots of insight into publishing and editing).
As far as rights after publication, that depends entirely on your contract for the story or novel. The publisher will generally take exclusive rights for first print publication in some form (English/North America; world English; first serial rights for short fiction; etc.) During that time, you may not publish the work in its entirety with anyone else, although generally everyone agrees that it’s a good thing to post a sample chapter or a story on your website, or the publisher’s website, and to possibly serialize the first bits of the book to bring readers in.
When you sell a short story to an online or print magazine, you generally sell one-time rights. When you sell to an anthology, you generally sell world rights and hope the anthology will be translated into a zillion languages. In all cases, after the story has been out a certain amount of time, you will have the right to re-sell it to other markets (reprint rights). And the right to post it on your own website, as many writers do.
The publisher will always take some form of electronic rights and you will get them back when hell freezes over.
I never publish sold work on my website without either having the rights myself or negotiating clearly with the publisher (as in the case of my stories that appear both in Dangerous Space and on this site). The only time I publish unsold work here is when I’ve decided that it is unsaleable. That may change as the overall publishing model changes, but for now it’s how I work.
A lot of writers blog work-in-progress because they just can’t wait for readers; just can’t wait for people to see their work. But unless the writer is an established writer posting work-in-progress for a specific reason (writers do this to raise money for themselves or others, for example), then I don’t see a lot of point. Posting work without a) an audience already in place, and b) a skilled hand at the writing wheel, seems to me to be wholly driven by impatience: I can’t wait, I want people to love my work right now!
I get what that feels like. I am sometimes so impatient this way that I think my head will explode. But writing doesn’t get better just because it’s in public. It’s either good enough, or it isn’t. If your goal is to see your name on a story online, or a print book, then self-publish it. If your goal is to be professionally published (as it is still currently defined, although we all know it’s becoming a moving target), then do what pros do: keep your work to yourself until it’s really ready, and then go out and sell it.
That’s my two cents. To the reader who sent this question, let me know if I’ve answered it fully for you. To everyone else: mileage varies enormously in this area, and different opinions are welcome in the conversation.
