Hi all,
I am one of the many who submitted a story for the Visit theme competition.
My piece was unpublished (as per the T&Cs) but I do put some of my writing up on a blog for feedback and sharing.
Does a story on an author's blog count as published?
In these digital days non-commercial e-book or online publishing is so trivial.
I think a public forum or pay site is certainly published.
And social media posts have counted as published as many people have found to their cost.
But what about a personal blog - which is still publicly readable?
Does this technically cross the line of publishing, and do a competition organisers care?
Does anyone have any experience?
Thanks for your views guys.
Much as I assumed, in the absence of any clear rules or policy, making something publicly available probably does count as publishing.
But in some places (like W&A) a forum post might not count.
But for any work that might be later submitted to a competition or publisher it would be safest not to put it on the open web.
So I'll carry on sharing privately with my writer's group when I feel it's appropriate, and save publishing for a later time, e.g. after any competition is over, or formal publication (or rejection!).
Form the various T&C's I've seen, as Jonathan says the rules vary - some count your work being on a forum as being published, others don't. I'm sure I read that W&A don't class it as published for the Visit competition, but some magazines for example have stricter guidelines for submission so its a case by case basis.
Competition rules vary, but I'd say that anything on a publicly-viewable blog counts as 'published'.
BUT, since a part of the whole is not the whole, snippets and 'previews' don't count in that respect.
This is my theory...ahem! Which is mine... ;)