How many publications will turn down a submission if it has been "published"?

Question

on a internet site like Y!A? I read somewhere that because it has already been viewed by the "public" they define that as previously published. Anyone here have that come up?

Answer 1

That is true for most. Most publications ask for First Rights. You should check out the front sections of POET'S MARKET regarding rights, copyrights, and other things to know before submitting. A few magazines don't care, but Y!A maintains a pretty good archiving system, so as a rule of thumb, an editor can punch into a search engine a title, or a first line or if they are really clever, a random line and find your poem, then they will probably not take it. This goes for your blog, your personal home page, your anything where an internet search can bring up the poem. Now some sites will protect the workshopped work by making it non-archival in the html, but you need to figure those out for yourself. You can go to a poem in the workshop that's say ten days old and then do a search to see if you can find it. That's your best bet for finding who set up their workshop site with writers in mind. Try alsopreview.com, the writers are pretty good there and they have something called "the wall" where all the workshopped poems that have been published are acknowledged, which makes me think they must have figured this stuff out. You can also find more details about this sort of information in their other forums.

Good luck!

Answer 2

It depends on the publisher. If you're entering your poem in a contest, then it might be disqualified if you've previously posted it. I say "might" because it is still owned by you (YA doesn't "own" your poem, they cannot publish it in a collection), you have never received any monetary reward nor does any other publisher maintain any future publishing rights to it. These are all things to consider whether you are a publisher or a poet. It is also the reason that many of what I consider to be my best poems have never been posted...just in case. If you believe you have an award winning poem and don't want to take a chance of having it disqualified, just ask for anyone who is willing to privately review it and have them do so. I routinely edit and critique poems for poets at no charge (unless they try to swamp me) and don't ask for any publishing rights to be surrendered :)

If you ever feel the need for a private review that will not affect your poem's status as being "unpublished", feel free to send it to [e-mail]

hope this helps

Answer 3

Good question. If you are in line for a first run in a National, then YES, a Y!A post history might be bad.

If, on the other hand, you are submitting 100 a month looking for $30 per...then don't worry about it.