when is published, published?

dear nadia ... i wish i knew ... i wouldn't count ABC sets or newsletters ... hmmm maybe someone else actually knows about this sort of thing ...

I came into this thinking it was an Alice-in-Wonderland type thread - when is a blackboard not a blackboard. It depends on whether when you 'published' your work elsewhere, there was any agreement of exclusivity. A rule of thumb would be, if you got paid, generally the people paying you don't expect to see the piece they paid for on display elsewhere.

Exactly. Thankyou, Andrew!

Thank you IFP and Andrew. I am asking with particular reference to competitions where they say you may only enter unpublished work. I certainly understand Andrew, your point about if you're paid, but what if you're not? Help, 'I need more input' .......

From what I understand Nadia (and this is such a grey area still), the majority of editors now consider material 'published' if it's appeared in printed form anywhere, whether it be on the Net or through the 'normal' channels. Some won't even acccept material as being 'unpublished' if it's appeared on your own website. If, for instance, you've offered FBSR to a (UK) mag (or whatever) and they've published your stuff, you are then free (according to my understanding), to publish elsewhere, because you haven't infringed those first rights. They've got the first pick of the cherry, so to speak. If you then want to offer the same piece elsewhere (in the UK), you then offer SBSR (Second British Serial...etc). Similarly, having offered FBSR (and been accepted), you can then offer the same piece with FASR (First American Serial rights) or FCSR (First Canadian Serial Rights) without infringing the FBSR. I know it's pretty confusing (I'm pretty confused myself), but my advice would be: If you're thinking of entering stories/poems in competitions, don't publish them anywhere else first, not even on the Net... Hope this helps.

Thank you so much Andrea for your help. I think your advice is sound and so reluctantly, I will not try one or two of my little gems on talers. Its hard to assess your own stuff without any feedback at all (I discount most of what my family say because, bless 'em the think every thing I do is wonderful, which is great but not very helpful). How do I go about finding a mentor? And finally I know about smiley faces :) but how do you write tongue in cheek? bye for now. NJ