online publishing

[Biffy Pyro]

hey guys, i'm new to this forum, i've read about it several times when looking at jims website but finally decided to take the plunge

anyway, i am an amateur author and i publish my work online on a blog under my pen name, i was wondering if anyone else does this?

P.S. if your british like me i apologise for the obscene hour of the posting, the lack of uni make me turn nocturnal lol

[prophet224]

I'm sure there are folks that do that.  My only thing is that if you are publishing your work via blog, than you are obviously interested in the 'being published' aspect. To me it is sort of a validation, so I definitely am interested in that myself. If you publish work via a blog, it is, today, considered 'first publication', unless there is restricted and limited access.  Thus you no longer have 'first publication' rights to anything you blog. Excerpts, however, are a notable exception.

[Apocrypha]

The only thing is that I have seen a few submission guidelines that say they won't accept anything that has been published online in any format previously.  I used to publish some of my work on a blog much like you till I saw that and so now I have stopped.

[Biffy Pyro]

hmmmm, well i may have to re-consider, i thought it might be a way to build up credibility, you know, say to an agent "here is some of my other work" etc

[Apocrypha]

Yes it certainly can be.  But from what I understand it is as prophet224 says:

If you publish work via a blog, it is, today, considered 'first publication',

And as most places want first publication rights they won't touch things that are already "published" online.

I can see using a site like that to build a reputation does have a lot of credibility to it but what you put on there might not be usable by publishers.  What I might suggest as well, is possibly purchasing your own domain and looking into something called "Creative Commons".

[Biffy Pyro]

how about if i only publish stories that i'm not bothered about going to a publisher, or small excerpts like prologues?

[KevinEvans]

We are in the process of setting up a web site, Such sites are are great for visibility, but any thing on a public site, is public. Our thought is to have a section for stuff we cut, and another for thoughts about writing.

It is nice to have a place to point prospective publishers to. Giving them samples of your work.

As to self publishing, it is viable, but only if you have at least a thousand fans that will buy "anything" you publish. For the rest of us the publisher provides the distribution network that gets our work in front of the public.

All of our stuff is published on line, but it is in a magazine that requires subscription to see the whole story (about 2/5ths is available for free) we get paid, the publisher gets paid, and the readers get the story.

Regards,
Kevin

[Apocrypha]

how about if i only publish stories that i'm not bothered about going to a publisher, or small excerpts like prologues?

That's what I was implying.  Sorry I wasn't clear 

[Aakaakaak]

Online blog book writing is a fairly new medium that some publishers have latched onto as they're only buying the popular ones with a guaranteed track record (online readership) and at a reduced price since they're technically selling the second printing. I haven't really looked into it too deeply, but I remember there used to be a few sites dedicated to it, including contests and such.