important question

That depends on the ezines' rules! By publishing on ABCtales you, as the writer, retain the copyright. You grant us the copyright to publish your material on this website alone - and you may remove your work at any time. It therefore protects your work by having it on here - you are able to prove from the second that the work is displayed here that it is your work and that any use of it elsewhere, without your grant of copyright, is a breach of your statutory rights. Do read the Terms and Conditions, we went to a great deal of trouble and expense to get them right.

Hi Tony. Can you provide a link to the Ts & Cs? Thanks. I'm working on a story at the moment which I am planning to enter into a competition. However, the competition rules state that the story must not have been "PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED OR DISTRIBUTED IN ANY WAY", which I presume includes putting it on ABCTales. I am therefore going to wait until the competition's winner is anounced before submitting it here.

You can find them in your personal account - you ticked that you accepted them when you joined. But here they are: Please read the following terms and conditions carefully. IMPORTANT: Please note that you ("the Contributor") cannot submit any material to us ("ABCtales.com") without accepting these terms and conditions. 1. GENERAL These terms and conditions set out the terms upon which the Contributor submits written material ("the Work" which term includes all drafts and revisions thereof) to ABCtales.com. 2. LICENCE (a) The Contributor licenses to ABCtales.com the following rights ("the Rights"): (i) the right to publish the Work on the ABCtales.com website ("the Website" which term includes all future versions of the ABC website in whatever format such website is produced); (ii) the right to publish the Work in print publications produced by ABCtales.com ("the Publications") in any and all media provided that ABCtales.com pays the Contributor in accordance with Clause 3 below; (iii) the right to edit the Work for the purposes of publishing the Work on the Website and/or in the Publications. (b) This licence of Rights shall be for a term of 5 years from the date that the Work is submitted to ABCtales.com and shall be non-exclusive except in circumstances where ABCtales.com.pays the Contributor in respect of the Work in which case this licence shall be exclusive for a period of one year from the date of first publication of the Work by ABCtales.com and shall be non-exclusive thereafter. (c) The Contributor waives (and to the extent that the Contributor is not the author of the Work procures that such author shall waive) all moral rights and all other rights described in Chapter IV of Part 1 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to the extent necessary to allow ABCtales.com to fully exercise the Rights. (d) ABCtales.com gives no assurance that it will publish the Work and to the extent that it does publish the Work, ABCtales.com reserves the right to remove the Work from the Website and/or the Publications at its discretion. 3. PAYMENT The Contributor acknowledges that the Contributor shall only receive payment from ABCtales.com if ABCtales.com publishes the Work in the Publications, the amount of such payment to be negotiated in good faith. 4. WARRANTIES (a) The Contributor warrants and undertakes that: (i) the Contributor owns the copyright in the Work; (ii) the Work does not contain any material the rights in which are owned by a third party ("Third Party Material") and to the extent that it does the Contributor shall immediately provide ABCtales.com with details of such Third Party Material and the Contributor shall at its own expense arrange all necessary clearances in respect of such Third Party Material; (iii) the Contributor is free to license the Rights to ABCtales.com and will not during the term of this licence enter into any obligation with any third party which conflicts with the terms and conditions of this licence; (iv) the Work does not contain any libellous or defamatory statement or matter infringing the rights of any third party; (v) there are no claims pending proceeding or threatened in respect of the Work. (b) The Contributor agrees to indemnify ABCtales.com (and its employees and any affiliated companies) against any and all costs, damages and losses (including legal fees incurred and any compensation paid by ABCtales.com) as a result of any actual or alleged breach of the warranties and representations made by the Contributor in these terms and conditions. 5. CREDIT ABCtales.com shall endeavour to accord the Contributor an appropriate credit should the Work be published by ABCtales.com. 6. UNSUITABLE MATERIAL ABCtales.com reserves the right not to publish or to withdraw from publication (to the extent already published by ABCtales.com) any material submitted by the Contributor which in its absolute discretion ABCtales.com believes to be unsuitable for publication. 7. REVIEWS The Contributor acknowledges that a Work submitted to ABCtales.com will be subject to criticism and review both by ABCtales.com on the Website and/or in the Publications and by users of the Website and/or readers of the Publications. ABCtales.com reserves the right to publish any criticism and review of the Work at its discretion and cannot guarantee that such criticism or review will be constructive. If the Contributor is likely to take offence at certain criticism or review ABCtales.com suggest that the Contributor should not submit the Work to ABCtales.com. 8. LAW These terms and conditions will be governed by English law and any dispute arising under these terms and conditions will be dealt with non-exclusively by the English courts.