I'm part of an online writers forum, and I'd like to know your view of copyright issues and online posting. Some people say that writers shouldn't post any WIP on the Internet because then part of it is considered "published" or at least "overexposed." What's your professional opinion on this?
Editors and publishers know the value of critique groups. They're like the soldiers in our armies, fighting on the battlefield below, while we sit in easy chairs at the top of the hill, our minions feeding us peeled grapes as we survey the devastation. Without critique groups, most of what arrives in Evil Editor's in-box would be even crappier than it already is. So don't worry that you've been published. If critique groups counted as being published, everyone would be a published author. Nor is copyright an issue. If you wrote it, you have the copyright. If there is an issue, it's that a publisher may not want your entire book available on the Internet once they buy it. So it might be best to join a critique group that doesn't leave your writing posted for eternity. Once you've taken all the constructive criticism you can bear, remove the humiliating early draft of your work from public display.
3 comments:
Of course, don't forget to read the terms and conditions of said critique group so you don't accidentally agree to sign over all your rights to some unscrupulous scammer and make sure the online group you post to is password protected and/or have some sort of credit system so only serious authors/critiquers can access it.
With Google & other caches, posting it to the Internet is effectively putting it online forever (but it becomes a bit more tedious to get to once it's off the original site; one has to know there's something to look FOR and then find it ;-).
I've read recommendations to simply not put it all up...or do it chapter-by-chapter so that it's not really all in one simple place like a real book...or to use critique sites that require registration. But from EE's response, those sound surprisingly unnecessary.
If I'm critiquing a novel, I think I'd just as soon get it a chapter at a time. You can always request more if you're captivated.
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