Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Published or not?

Al Manning and I are wondering if stories or articles written on a blog must be identified as published when they are submitted to contests, presses, or magazines.

Al's posting a short story on amanning.blogspot.com. Can he send it to a contest and say it has not been published?

Ed Southern of Blair Publishing, said this is a gray area and has no definitive guidelines yet. What do you think? If I publish one of my poems on this blog, does that mean I have to say it has already been published when I submit it elsewhere?

I've asked another publisher, but so far have not heard from him on the subject.

At the Fall Writing Conference we were told that your creation, if published on a blog, might be picked up by a publisher who reads it and likes it, and some publishers don't mind that it has been on a blog. Other people post on a blog and hope to be recognized and discovered so that the next thing they do will have a better chance of being published.

Strange things are happening to the literary world, it seems, and more people might have a chance of having their work read and appreciated by building an audience on the internet.