Foster

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Foster

Dude, where's your stories?

Foster
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Hi johnshade, and thanks for asking. A Quiet Evening can be found here: http://www.wingedhalo.com/flashme.html The Hangman is here: http://diddledog.com/ A Most Depressing Expectation here: http://archive.cynicmag.com/archive.asp?articleid=1684&cat=Features Cream-Colored Berets and Big Fish was in Sep 07 Skive: http://www.skivemagazine.com/backissues.html And a few others here and there, and a few more due out either online on in print over the next couple of months - every single one of them was workshopped here. Even if a story didn't get comments, just knowing it would be "out there" for all to read forced me to write it the best I could - I go over and over stories before putting them up because my name (or at least my first name) is attached to them. ABC is a good place. foster.
Congratulations on getting so many stories published! What's the deal with copyright on stories published online? Do they insist you take them off other sites (like this one)? And are you working on a collection?
Foster
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I'm not the best one to answer this (David Floyd seems to know quite a bit. Mark Brown, also). This is what I know: some editors will consider a story published, even if on a site such as ABC, so this would prevent publication in their magazines. The catch is that there's hardly an editor out there with the time to google an author or a passage from submitted work in order to see if it's been 'published'. The good mags are swamped with subs to read through and that's where the editors spend their time. Of course, there have been and will continue to be the odd exception to this. Copyright reverts back to the author upon publication in most cases. Anyone who knows more than me (which would be just about everyone), please chime in. No collection in the works. foster.
At the risk of being told I'm pushing my book, I can answer this one because it is one of the issues we deal with. When something appears online on a general website you have effectively used First Electronic Serial Rights. This does not affect your print publication rights, but some print editors will not accept work that has appeared online, even though you still have First Print Rights to offer. As to the Electronic Rights, this again will depend on the editor in question, but if you have something accepted by any editor it is always a good idea to remove the piece in question from public view. www.lorrainemace.com
Well, the rights stuff is generally of limited interest until you reach the point where someone is actually paying you to publish your work. At the level that the vast majority of us are it - sending stuff to small literary magazines who will publish it in exchange for a free copy of the magazines - publishing something on ABCtales first is unlikely to be a problem unless you're dealing with an editor who has significant delusions of grandeur. It's a courtesy to take it down if someone agrees to publish it - that's probably even more the case with an online magazine as opposed to a print one - but, once again, I think any editor who actually trawls the net to see if stuff they print is still available online is probably slightly lacking in perspective. On the other hand, if you have a realistic aspiration to sell your work for cash money, I wouldn't recommend putting a full length finished version online beforehand. No problem with trying out bits, though.

 

"Well, the rights stuff is generally of limited interest until you reach the point where someone is actually paying you to publish your work." I'm sure you are right, but there are online mags who don't pay for work, but whose guidelines still state unpublished submissions only. I was just trying to be help members who are planning to try getting their work accepted somewhere. www.lorrainemace.com
Just to point out once more to one and all - if you place your work on ABCtales then the copyright remains with you, the author. You are only granting us the right to publish it on here - you may remove it at any time. Anyone taking it from this site and using it for their own ends is infringing your copyright. It is all very clear in the 'terms and conditions' on your personal page. Go back and read them if you so wish!
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