Saturday, March 18, 2006
A little help?
Question: There's this essay. It's out there, in the hands of editors, places like Post Road & Harvard Review. But I'm seeing new sections, am considering posting another series here, one section at a time, as they come. Should I? Would this be considered "previously published" for print journals currently considering the piece?
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13 comments:
I'm unsure of the actual "rules" concerning blogging and publication. I've been reading more and more poetry submission guidelines, however, which state something to the effect that a poem appearing in ANY venue on the Internet is considered "previously published." I even recall a few which specified "blog" but, of course, I can't remember where. I'll go look now, tho....I've nothing else to do. :)
Most of the bloggers I know will post a poem or a essay for 24 - 48 hours or less and then take it down in order to avoid the whole situation. That's probably fudging the issue but I'd imagine it works quite well. I also know that you can post a poem on an Internet Workshop and it's not considered "previously published" so I suppose if you post something on your blog you can also say it's still in the writing process and therefore exempt from the "previously published" rule.
Hope that helps some, altho I'd dearly love to be able to read what you've written.
No. Well, I wouldn't.
A blog isn't being published. Do you have a board of editors? Do you have a submission process for what you post here?
Do you think the Harvard Review reads your blog?
Lo - Thanks for your kind words and perspective. I too have seen some guidelines stating that previous blog "publishing" of work is not considered, but only for some obscure online publications.
S - The cautious approach. I hear it.
R - I do have a board, and the submission process is quite convoluted, though obviously the standards for quality are not very sophisticated. And while I do indeed agree with you theoretically, I unfortunately know that, yes, some print journals discourage blog publishing, and yes, the Harvard Review reads my blog. Often. At least, I sometimes get hits from Massachusetts.
Hi David,
I've wondered the same thing about the blog stuff. I guess it's best to take stuff down.
It seems though if something is in progress that it shouldn't count. So far, I want to make changes anyways to stuff. One guy I know said if a title changes, or things change it is a different piece. But he pretended to be a Christian when he wasn't for a fellowship he applied for, and he actually got it!
Sheryl
I think it's OK to post small segments of work in progress, but not the entire piece you're trying to get published. "I recognize that paragraph" is different than "I've seen this whole thing before."
I just read your "Sense of Direction" essay and really enjoyed it. Thanks so much.
S - I actually don't think posting on a personal blog is publishing, but know that there are editors out there who feel differently, which is why I'm guaging what others do. In my opinion, posting on my blog is the equivalent to printing out a poem and posting it on telephone poles around town. That's certainly not publishing, and more people would probably be reading it than on here anyway. Oh, and concerning your friend and changing even the title, I couldn't agree less. But that's just me.
M - I certainly hear that argument--posting a segment is different that a piece in its entirety--but I just don't feel this is publishing. I mean, besides my avid Harvard Review crowd, who's reading me anyway? Problem is, I need to know what the normative view in the print world is, because it's not really up to how I feel...
Oh, and thanks for your kind words about "A Sense of Direction." I wrote that piece last year in Iowa, and it was my first ever submitted work.
As an editor, I'd prefer that a piece of writing not be published on a blog *before* publication in our journal. That's just my preference though; every editor is different.
Deb -
I'll keep that in mind! Do you know other print editors who share this preference? Do you sense that this is a normative view among editors?
I posted a poem on a workshop site and got a private email from an editor saying she'd wished she'd seen it first because she would have published it, but her zine had very strict guidelines about not appearing 'anywhere' online.
I'm still kicking myself over that one- it is a paid zine.
Yikes...that's the nightmare scenario for sure.
Who's reading you anyway? Potentially, a far broader audience than you will reach with any literary magazine. At least, that's how it feels to those of us who have been around for a while. I guess it depends on who you want to be read by; influential editors and literati probably don't read many blogs.
I take it the quandry isn't over whether you should write the new sections, simply whether you post them here. I'd say that you should choose whichever option makes you feel less inhibited about continuing to play with the essay.
Who's reading you anyway?
Answer: my new blog/poet friends. All five of them.
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