posting some of your novel in a blog

[MommyHawk]

do we have any thoughts about publishing snippets or chapters of our - in reality - unpublished work in our blogs?

What would editors/agents think?

Is it safe?

Has anyone else done it? Did you put in a disclaimer? Mention it was a first draft? Second? Still a work in progress?

...

[midnightwriter]

Originally Posted by MommyHawk

do we have any thoughts about publishing snippets or chapters of our - in reality - unpublished work in our blogs?

What would editors/agents think?

Is it safe?

Has anyone else done it? Did you put in a disclaimer? Mention it was a first draft? Second? Still a work in progress?

...

Everything on your blog is technically considered published. From what I know, you can put snippets, but not more. It is not considered professional. Publishers won't buy your work if it is lready available for free. Don't put any part of your writing on your blog that isn't 100% polished. Even after you delete your blog your writing might continue to exist.

[MommyHawk]

so should we NOT 'publish' it on MDC either?

[Oriole]

Hm, I spent some time trying to find the section on this Agents blog where I read something on this topic. Nathan Bransford must be pretty big since he represented one of the Nobel winning books, so I trust his opinion, and I learn a lot from his comments in general (FAQ section is incredible).

I couldn't find the section
Anyway... what I remember from it, is that he mentioned that it's okay to post small portion of the books you are working on.

[midnightwriter]

Originally Posted by MommyHawk

so should we NOT 'publish' it on MDC either?

I wouldn't put the entire novel. There's a rule re percentage--what percentage of your novel can be posted for public. I'm not sure about the actual percentage, though.

I think here it is fine, because the context is clearly one of a workshop.

[Violet2]

Originally Posted by MommyHawk

so should we NOT 'publish' it on MDC either?

The way this sub-board is today, no. You really shouldn't b/c it's technically giving up first rights as I understand it.

Other writing board work around this by making their crit section password protected so that work is not publicly available.

Also, it's good to go back and delete your work once the crits are in, don't leave it hanging in cyberspace.

As for snippets, don't worry about it. Don't post a ton and keep 'em short and you shouldn't have a problem. Try to retain control so that if you do sell the work you can delete them.

HTH
V

[MommyHawk]

ok, that sounds fair enough

hope no one minds, but I'm deleting my chapter from the critique post since I got all my critiques

thanks!

[dharmama]

thanks for this. so timely for me.

i was just thinking maybe i should start sharing some of my book (to motivate myself to get busy and start writing it) on my blog. glad i read this.

[cdmaze]

I share snippets- but I too may delete the large section from the other thread...though, I can't imagine someone wanting to steal it or anything.

[Violet2]

Originally Posted by cdmaze

I share snippets- but I too may delete the large section from the other thread...though, I can't imagine someone wanting to steal it or anything.

The worry is not stealing it's about first rights. If you sell a work to a publisher they want to buy first rights, but if it's out on the internet somewhere you can't technically sell the first rights.

It's about not mucking up any future publication contract legalese. Some of them are touchy too about how much is online and they want to control promotion and marketing, which means they want to gatekeep what is on the web.

Although people do plagiarize and steal--even the pros do. There have been some pretty big scandals the last few years. Smart Bitches, Trashy Books exposed quite a few of them.

V