[Sara Bickley]

I suppose this is one of those things where if you need to ask you already know the answer, but I'm wondering what "previously published" means.

You see, I posted some poems on my account on FictionPress , but afterward I started thinking of submitting a few of them to magazines. I've already removed the ones I plan to submit.

The question is, does posting on FictionPress (or my own website) count as "publication"? Will it doom their chances of being legitimately published? Or can I get away with pretending they were never there?

Sara

[Kate Benedict]

Although I think their position is arrogant and hard-line, some editors do consider self-web-published works as "previously published." I had a poem rejected once because it appeared, temporarily, on a subsidiary page of my website.

The safest thing is to publish only previously published works on one's website, or works one doesn't intend to submit.

[Sara Bickley]

Okay, then, a related question (which does edge into the realm of cheating): Since they have been removed, and since there is no public record (that I know of!) of their having been online, am I likely to get caught?

[Robt_Ward]

Oh, who CARES if you get caught? Are they gonna shoot you at dawn? At worst, it's a magazine that won't publish a certain poem. If they would have otherwise, someone else will anyway.

I can tell ya one thing; at Susquehanna Quarterly I got lots better things to do than try to track every poem through search engines to see if the author "cheated"...

But maybe that's just me. Some of the po-biz attitudes give me gas, if you know what I mean?

By the way, the site linked above is NOT a personal website: I imagine that would qualify as "publication", and from what a quick perusal shows me of the poems there, it ain't worth publishing TO...

(robt)

[This message has been edited by Robt_Ward (edited April 19, 2004).]

[Roger Slater]

Since it's not clear whether they have indeed been "previously published" or not, I don't think you have to assume that the magazine would consider them to be so, which suggests to me that you needn't disclose the information about your website.

I love "previously published"; as oppose to what, published in the future?

[Mark Blaeuer]

Hi, Sara.

I don't know how many editors Google a writer's name or his/her poems' titles to find out hidden truth, but I just accessed sonnets at FP by Googling your name. Of course, if the site exists for the purpose of soliciting comments so that you can revise, then you may be OK, a la Eratosphere.

Honesty is an underrated policy, and patience usually a virtue.

Best wishes.

Mark

[Diane Dees]

I checked out Fiction Press, and it is a no woman's land between writers' workshop and writers' showcase. With very few exceptions, "unpublished" means never published anywhere (it is okay, however, to work on a piece in an online writers' workshop). Now that you have taken them down, I'd go ahead with the submissions. If an editor tracks them down through a search engine, your defense can be that you considered FP a workshop. But in the future, I wouldn't put anything there that I intended to submit.

[Sara Bickley]

Thank you, everyone.

[grasshopper]

Robert,
I am sometimes shocked by the arrogant attitudes of certain editors, so it's good to read your comments. What editors are often doing, when it comes down to it, is asking for free copy for their publications - and for authors to be obsequious about providing it. (I accept that where a fee is involved, different considerations come into play.)
There was an example of this overweening attitude recently on another board where an editor posted a call for submissions. A couple of us took the trouble to go to the website and read the guidelines, and DARED to ask for clarification, rather than grovelling at the editorial tootsies.
I was puzzled by the comment that the editors are bored by mainstream poetry -so I asked what was meant by 'mainstream' poetry. I was told off in no uncertain terms, and was informed that the editor did not intend to define anything. Gosh, that was pretty cheeky and unreasonable of me, expecting clarification. Who do I think I am? I should know my lowly place, and be aware of the great honour of being allowed to submit to this august publication.
What would happen if authors got fed up with this arrogant attitude, and decided to boycott certain publications, which have got too uppity?
By the way, I edit a small poetry ezine, and I appreciate every submission sent to me, whether it is selected for inclusion or not. I don't care about previous publication or simultaneous submissions. My only concern is to spread some good modern poems more widely across the Net.
Regards, Maz

[This message has been edited by grasshopper (edited April 20, 2004).]

[Diane Dees]

You bring up a good point about clarity, too. I am amazed at how many submission guidelines omit things the writer really needs to know: Does the publication accept previously published work? Simultaneously submitted work? How many pieces may one submit? Will the publisher accept an email attachment, and what kind? There is not only a lack of courtesy in such guidelines, but a clear lack of thinking.