Honorable Writers & Readers

[TheUltimateChosenOne]

I'm just curious about something.
About 2 years ago, I had written a short story and posted it on a writing/poem site and a few weeks later I found t poster on another site by another user. It took awhile before I could get the person to take it down.
But, should I or anyone else who post stuff here, be worried of someone stealing it and then if you try to publish a book or short story in a magazine, will this cause problems?
I'm thinking it would, but I'm not completly sure.

Are the members here honorable writers and readers?

[pyan]

I suggest that you read the stickies at the top of the "Critiques" forum, TOCO - especially the Guidelines.

This bit seems relevant to your query...

Originally Posted by LMA

It might be best not to post very long excerpts or full short stories here if you think you might want to submit them for publication in future. It is possible that publishers would not look favorably at publishing a work that has already appeared in substantial part or in total on the Internet.

By only posting a section of your work, it seems unlikely that anyone would copy it.

But I think it's safe to say that members posting plagiarised work would not be looked on kindly by The Management, and I'd like to think that Chronners wouldn't stoop so low: however, we have very little control over any guests that might do so.

Keep it short, don't post entire stories, and you should be OK...

[Teresa Edgerton]

Moved from Critiques to Aspiring Writers, since it is a question up for discussion, not a piece of writing up for critique.

[Keeper]

I too am not totally feeling safe about posting any of my work on the internet. Much less a site I don't control. However, just as pyan has suggested, if you do not post everything to the story, I doubt someone would go through a ton of trouble trying to repost it. But you never can tell about some people. Sometimes they are incredibly motivated to steal from others, while other times they like it, they want it, but are far to lazy to do anything with it.

Ultimately, are you okay with someone trying to say they wrote your work? If not, then don't post anything you don't feel safe about. The writing comes from you, not them. Eventually they will be found to be a fake, and you can still write amazing stories.

[Commonmind]

My mentality is, if someone needs to steal your work for recognition they don't have the talent nor the skill to become published on their own, couple that with the fact that it takes quite a bit of footwork to get published (and a lot of luck as well) and the likelihood that your stolen work ever ends up in the hands of someone that counts is pretty darn slim. I'd venture to say that you'd have a better chance of getting struck by lightning than to see your hard work on store shelves, with someone else being credited for penning the manuscript. Take that for what it's worth (and with a grain of salt, while you're at it)...

[jenna]

That is why I only ever post excerpts that I don't really care about, just little snippets I've written. I wouldn't post a short story that I was trying to get published or anything.

If you want to get a serious project critiqued, best to post a request on the board for people to help you via email I think..

[Keeper]

Originally Posted by jenna

If you want to get a serious project critiqued, best to post a request on the board for people to help you via email I think..

This is also a very good suggestion TUCO.