On Wednesday, Lysa TerKeurst posted on her blog A Chance for You to Get Published (which I think you can still comment and add your article link — just do it today because they are reading over the weekend!).
I wrote this in the comments to that post:
I’ve read in some writing groups that most publishers want first rights (or not reprints) of an article for their magazine. I’ve also read debates on whether posting an article on a blog or website is really publishing it or not.
I think you are going to get some great articles and maybe you’ll be able to pick more than 1 — or maybe not, but I was wondering how that might affect the ones who aren’t published in your magazine. Do you think other publishers would discount the article because it was published on a blog?
This is a great opportunity and I think it’s absolutely awesome that you’ve opened this up. That thought had just been nagging me though
With the majority of us being new writers, I’d hope we wouldn’t do anything to hurt our options in being published in the future.
Sarah from Genesis Moments: A Writer’s Journey had left me a comment on Learning About Writing:
I was very interested to read your comment on Lysa’s blog about putting things you want published on the web as blogs. What other feedback have you gotten about this? I just quit work to write and am looking for non-fiction avenues while I write children’s fiction. I debate whether to put pieces for feedback “out there.” But, enough about me. What did you find out? Thanks for your insights.
What Sarah and you may not have seen was Lysa’s response to my question later in her comment section:
Great Question Lisa B-
After consulting with some people, typically if you write something on a blog it is not considered “published” and most editors don’t have a problem with it. However, I’m sure there might be exceptions to this. so, the safest bet is to let your editor know that it has appeared on your blog. Then of course in the same breath you can add how many wonderful comments you got about it and it might actually help you and not hurt you-
Happy Writing Everyone- your ideas sound great.
I pulled this all together in a post because it’s easy to miss great information when a conversation starts in the comment section. I for one have been trying to remember where I comment and to go back to see if the author responded there.
I can see Lysa’s point and thank her for sharing that — it’s good to know especially how the P31 Magazine gang views this. I had many article ideas, but I went with one and tailored it to P31 the best I know how right now. [Don't forget to leave me feedback on that article if you have the time to read it -- I love any advice especially that which can make me a better writer.]
This week I got my copy of the 2008 Christian Writers Market Guide. I just flipped through it pretty quickly. It has a lot of great information in it and I can see why it’s highly recommended for new writers. In it though there’s a section for online publications. I would think that anything you submit to them would be considered publish. I can see where these online publications might have more weight added to that opinion versus a blog that family reads, yet it does add to some confusion on the published or not question.
I’ll continue to dig up some research on this and post here anything I find out. Please comment here with your opinions or what you’ve read/heard. Any experience shared is great!
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4 Comments
Lisa - you are a saint! I am not kidding! The fact that you took the time to compile that list of P31 submissions is amazing to me! (How much time did that take you? It took me FOREVER to read everyone’s!) I have a new appreciation for editors and what a challenge it is for them to read so much on a regular basis.
Responding to your comment on Lysa’s blog… The “nutrients for the Body and Soul” is a series I did for my church and I do not have on my blog. Same for “Jesus Wept”. It is an amazing 2 hour class I use to teach. I will have to add them to the blogs. I was putting forth the class themes which I created. Sorry they are not posted at this time.
In His Graces~Pamela
Lisa,
I wanted to thank you so much for all the hard work you did in numbering, posting, and linking all the entries for the P31 writing contest. It made it so easy to just click and read and keep up with where I left off reading. What a sweet service you offered.
Blessings,
Miss Sandy
I wasn’t sure what list compilation these comments were referring to, but I thought I’d share my experience with digital publication.
The sites I edit generally purchase non-exclusive rights. That means we allow the author to republish wherever they like, but we ask that they wait for a certain amount of time before doing so.
We actually prefer to find folks who are willing to post a portion of the article on their blog–so long as they also link to the publication page on our site. We feel that this helps boost the bloggers credibility by showing where they’ve been published. And it gives us a chance to invite that blogs readers into the rest of our site. (We’re nonprofit, so I feel no shame in sharing audiences in that way.)
In general, I’ve never had any problems republishing my own content after I posted it on my blog, but sometimes I wonder if I’m giving away the store. Once I sent a poem to a emagazine that refused to publish a revised version on their site. They claimed it had already been published on my blog and they weren’t interested in republishing content. That kind of thinking is pretty short sighted in my opinion.
I still publish lots and lots of poems at my site.