Comments on Wylie-Merrick Literary Agency: Before Posting Your Work

Who knows where to download XRumer 5.0 Palladium? ...

2009-11-21T21:52:16.001-08:00

Who knows where to download XRumer 5.0 Palladium?
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Mostly publishers only care that the work be not c...

2008-11-04T06:46:56.300-08:00

Mostly publishers only care that the work be not covered by any other publishing contracts at the time you sign with them.

Our post was built around the contractual language which states:
"...the Work has not heretofore been published, in whole or in part, in any form."

You can interpret this language any way you want to, but legally, if this language is in your contract and is to be understood literally, then it means exactly what it says, "...in whole or in part, in any form." "In whole or in part" covers chapters, right, and "in any form" would cover the internet, if the publisher in question considers the internet a part of the E-publishing industry. What we are saying is that if this appears in your publishing contract, you should (1) have it removed or (2) if the publisher refuses to remove it, consider getting legal advice or just don't sign the contract with that language in it.
If you do sign a contract with this language present and if you have posted your work "...in whole or in part, in any form." it's up to the publisher if he or she wants to take you to court and sue you for damages. In our opinion, that's hanging it way out there.

Mostly publishers only care that the work be not c...

2008-11-03T23:50:00.000-08:00

Mostly publishers only care that the work be not covered by any other publishing contracts at the time you sign with them. If you posted some chapters (not the complete work) on Query Tracker or something like that for feedback, they're not going to consider that "published."

Vivien and Anonymous:Just wanted to let you know t...

2008-07-04T15:30:16.100-07:00

Vivien and Anonymous:

Just wanted to let you know these questions will be addressed in a post on critique groups soon.

Thanks for your questions!

Thank you for the response. I went through and de...

2008-07-02T11:49:00.000-07:00

Thank you for the response. I went through and deleted anything that had specific lines from my work. When I get to the point of ever signing a contract, however, I will make sure to mention that some lines were made public on the internet. I'm assuming it's okay to mention the work, as long as it's not lines from it.

I also wanted to ask about private critiquing sites. The one I'm currently a member of is password protected, so it's not a public site, but if I post chapters of my novel there, could that also run me into trouble? Other people will have seen it, but they're all members of the site.

There's very conflicting information about what is considered published and not on the internet.

Miss Snark's blog says that anything published on a blog is not considered published. But overall, I think it's better to keep your work a private matter.

Vivien--It is published, but the main concern is w...

2008-07-01T19:59:10.512-07:00

Vivien--
It is published, but the main concern is whether this would impact a publisher's sales, and with something this small, that is doubtful. It also depends on how cranky the publisher is.

However, in the future, I would suggest, if you want to give dialogue examples, it would be best to make them up and not use something excerpted from your work. You need to market your work after the contract, and not before.

This is where many writers get into trouble. They want to post examples to help other writers or hope that their work will catch the eye of an agent or editor. If this is the case, write something specifically for that purpose. It's time-consuming, but worth it. I know writers who post free stories, but they know that these will not be published anywhere else. We face the same issues. For example, we've had to come up with several different query examples. It takes time, but it really is worth it. You're a writer...write! (said with an empathetic grin)

Scott--Ummm. We did a quick read through, so we ma...

2008-07-01T19:51:04.287-07:00

Scott--
Ummm. We did a quick read through, so we may be a little off here. However, here is our take on this:

There’s a section 11.1 under Additional Terms in which we don’t like the language. Yes, the writer always retains copyright. Even when an author signs a publishing contract, he/she still retains the copyright in the work, but Google is saying in 11.1 that they have a non-exclusive license to your work which gives them the same right that a publisher would have in the work. Publishers are, after all, only contracting the right to print, publish and distribute and the authority to grant license to others to print, publish and distribute your work. By agreeing to section 11.1, it seems to us that you are granting Google some of these same rights and not getting any royalties for doing so, although you do get to use Google Docs services. The language is a bit misleading, and, in addition, the fact that this is listed not under Terms of Service, but under a separate link few people will click on called Additional Terms (Why not put a link to this in the original?) is troubling. One good point this brings up is that it is important when working with an online provider of “services,” to make sure who has what rights to the Content. This is also important in industries like software and publishing in general. You should always ask, “If I’m working for you and create something, who do you think it belongs to?” Some companies insist on proprietary rights, and that can mean a lot of work for someone else’s benefit.

Thank you for this information. I have been consid...

2008-07-01T12:54:00.000-07:00

Thank you for this information. I have been considering joining an internet based critque group but I had wondered if posting chapters on the web for review would cause problems down the road if the final draft was publishable. (Never hurts to dream.)

Most sites I've seen who have you post on their website seem to minimize questions about this issue which made me hesitate. I'm glad I did. Better safe than sorry.

If they restrict who has access to the works (no lurkers possible), would that still count as published from the industry's viewpoint?

I posted dialogue from my current WIP on my blog, ...

2008-07-01T11:21:00.000-07:00

I posted dialogue from my current WIP on my blog, to use in an example, but there's no narrative there, so technically only the spoken lines have been posted.

Would that be considered published?

A friend who is very Net savvy cautions me about u...

2008-07-01T07:41:00.000-07:00

A friend who is very Net savvy cautions me about using Google Documents. He says the language for its use might imply they have a right to whatever documents you post to or create on it. What are your thoughts about it?