Fan fiction in the making ? (Photo credit: Kalexanderson)
I had a comment on my latest blog entry this morning, asking my thoughts about publishing fiction online. This isn’t self publishing – you don’t do book sales and you don’t need an IBSN; rather, you find a blog or a fiction website and publish a story, novel or whatever on that.
Well, this got me thinking, not least because I have already done that. I’ve written before about earlier novels which will never be published; well, one of those is online, albeit under another name. You see, that novel was fan fiction, which is not something I talk about much in the writing community.
Publishing online is a great way of getting feedback on your work from total strangers and giving you an idea of the range of people your writing may reach. Fan fiction probably has a lead over original fiction here, though, in that if someone wants to read fan fiction they don’t have much choice but to scour the Internet. If they want to read original fiction, they can get a cheap book or a freebie from Amazon, or go to the library. However, there are a lot of fiction websites out there and people do read and review the stories on them, so I very much doubt it’s a waste of time. You can build up a fan base with a novel published online, and gauge whether your writing is good enough to try to take that next step – write something for publication offline, that people can buy.
There are a couple of things to bear in mind, though. If it’s a book you are thinking, however remotely, of getting published in the future (other than self published), then it would be my advice not to do it. A book that has been previously published online is not something most publishers would be interested in. Sure, there are exceptions (Fifty Shades of Grey, which was pulled from the Internet before it was published externally, springs to mind) but generally it’s not a goer.
Also, think very carefully about where you want to put it online. If it was me, I’d be looking at one of the many fiction websites that specialise in this sort of thing. These websites attract people who are looking to read fiction online and would therefore probably get you more of an audience than, say, doing chapters serially on a blog, which may flounder unseen in cyberspace for months or even years. You could well get more comments/reviews on a fiction site, simply because more people who are inclined to read online would find it. If you’re not familiar with fiction websites there are a lot out there – wattpad.com and figment.com come to mind, and there’s also gluttonyfiction.com, though that focuses more on fan fiction than original. There is an original fiction section there, though, so it might be worth looking at. (Disclaimer: I have had bad experiences with both Wattpad and Figment, though I know other people who have had nothing but positive experiences with them so perhaps I just got them on a bad day. I have never used Gluttony. Any other sites I haven’t mentioned are omitted simply because I don’t know of them or can’t think of them just at the moment.) There is a downside, though: online publishing leaves you much more open to plagiarism, which I have experienced. Just be prepared to Google your story title or opening line occasionally to make sure that no one has published it elsewhere under their own name.
So, would I publish online? Sure! But not if it was something I wanted to take further. If it was just to be an online story, it’s a great way of getting feedback and finding out where your writing is at. It’s also an excellent method of connecting with people who like your work, and who may buy it in the future given the opportunity. But I would be very wary about publishing anything that I may want to publish externally at a later date, and I would be very aware of the possibility of being plagiarised.
What do other people think? Publishing online or not? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Related articles
- The Case for Fiction That’s Free (theatlanticwire.com)
- Margaret Atwood: why Wattpad works (guardian.co.uk)
- In defence of Fifty Shades of Grey (newstatesman.com)
An interesting and helpful post. I wasn’t aware of all of those fiction sites.
It raises the question: ‘what is publishing?’. An ISBN isn’t always necessary (eg, Smashwords). And many self-published works are available for free, so the desire for payment can’t define it. Perhaps the distinction between (self-)publishing and what you’re describing is that publishing aims to provide copies of the work to readers. Even then, people can still make their own copies of works they see on the internet (as you note), so it’s rather subtle!
Thanks, Peter! From what I understand, agents and publishers consider anything on the internet, whether it’s at Wattpad or whatever, as published works, so whatever their attitude is to previously published material applies. This is the reason I’ve not put any excerpts from my novel on this blog, for example, as I don’t want that to count against me when it’s done and I want to sell it. I believe it counts as a type of self-publishing, because there has been no third-party validation of its quality.
As for the distinction between posting something online and self publishing, well as you note it’s a fine line. My own thought is that self-publishers (as opposed to vanity publishers, who only want a few copies for family and friends) have their works available for purchase – even if it’s for $0.00 – on sites like Amazon and need to be downloaded, whereas posts on fiction websites are designed to be read online. Having said that, I’m only guessing, so if anyone can shed any light on this, please let me know!
I utterly agree. My comments were ambiguous; a publisher has indeed informed me that any on-line content is considered to be published and therefore potentially damaged goods from their POV. I was mainly responding to your statement ‘this isn’t self publishing’ and the reasons given. By the end of your post, I think you’d even convinced yourself that it IS (self-)publishing!
Lol. Let’s just say I’m confused and leave it at that. I still think there’s a distinction in that most people, when asked if they have self-published, wouldn’t point to their novel-in-progress at Wattpad and say yes, but they would point to their completed novel at Smashwords or Amazon. But maybe it’s an emotional distinction rather than a logical one. Yep, definitely confused.
If publishing online bits of a first book or manuscript, it’s available to all the internet community and search engines. Google alerts is a great way to notify you of piracy. Simply set up a google account and type in key words. There are other ways to get feedback on your work e.g. from the writer community on yahoo forums. A nice post, Emily
Emily, I’d like to add your points are all valid. Anything published on the web is in the public domain. If anyone has a draft manuscript, why not consider joining a manuscript critique forum where you may have the option to keep your work ‘private’ or join a local writer’s group for face-to-face feedback? Worth personally considering too.
Oh, definitely. That’s why I made the point that I would only publish online if I wasn’t going to use that manuscript for anything else. My fan fiction, for example, by its very nature can’t be published traditionally, so that was a no-brainer. (Also, specific fan fiction sites attract not only writers but readers looking for that exact type of story, so you have your readership automatically provided.) I think that if you’re going to publish anything online then you need to be aware of the potential pitfalls, which was one reason I wrote this post. Thanks again
Thanks Alison! I’ve found that Google Alerts is all well and good, but it doesn’t always pick things up so you still have to Google your title or whatever every now and then. Piracy is, unfortunately, very real and it’s happened to a lot of people who post online. That was why I put that warning in. As for other ways of getting feedback, well I love writers forums too, but they have their limits. The main problem is they are populated by writers, who often look for different things than readers do, so the feedback you get from other writers isn’t necessarily the same feedback (or on the same things) that you get from people who just like to read. Let’s just say I see value in both forums.
Thanks for the comment!
The picture to this post is probably the most awesome thing in the world…
But with regards to content: I’ve never used any of those sites, though I think they are an interesting idea – particularly, as you suggest, for getting feedback on work you do not wish to see traditionally published.
I’m still in the mindset that if anyone reads my work anywhere, it is terribly exciting. It seems preposterous that anyone would pay money to read it though. All the same, I don’t post bits of my novels on the web just in case I have the opportunity to have them traditionally published. If I self-publish them then I would do so through Smashwords and/or Amazon simply for the simplicity of format flexibility and access, but I don’t consider publishing to read online any less a form of self publishing – perhaps because I’m such an internet baby and haven’t read a paperback in SO LONG. The difference is really only in format.
Emily, thanks so much for writing about that topic! I’m honored that you took my comment to heart and wrote such a great response to it. It was good to hear your perspective on it. I’ve been doing a little fishing around about this and what you said seems to be backed up by others as well regarding the dangers of posting on the web, the idea that publishers back away from it, plagiarism, etc. There are those very few that have found first timer success in doing this, although there are established authors who already post their works online for free.
I must admit that even with all the factors against it, including what you wrote (which I really do respect) I am still tempted to go against the tide and just go for it on the chance that it gets me attention as a writer. The Dream, as it were. Plus, I am attracted to just going for it if only because the majority of people say not to do it. To me that sounds like a marketing strategy that is not being used. You know, like going into real estate when everyone says not to
Is it really fear then that holds me back from taking this step? Fear that someone will take it, fear that a publisher will not want it later, fear that it won’t amount to anything. Certainly it can also be considered prudent business as well, but when I read the comments above I think they can also be seen as semi-fear based [No offense meant to anyone. Your comments are very sound and well thought out]. So, I guess my real question to myself is, am I more afraid of losing my later chances somehow than of not being read now? [Which again maybe goes back to your earlier blog "Why do we write?"]. Not saying I’m going to go public right away. I am doing what you wrote about and inviting people I know to read what I have so far and let me know what they think. I will continue to do that for now, and keep reading what others have to say about going this route.
By the way, I think Alison said that anything on the web is public domain. I do not think that is true. Anything a person creates in any format is owned by that person with the copyright in their name. Certainly, if you publish on a website that says it owns what you put on it, then yes, you give up your ownership of what is on their website. But I would even say that you still own the underlying rights of your original version of the work [I do believe, depends of course on the legal language the website has regarding posting]. Unless there’s something I don’t know, I don’t think you can say that everything is public domain because it’s on the web. I say the above with all respect to Alison.
Sorry for such a long comment. I’m really struggling with this topic.
Thanks again for doing what you do Emily! You’re great!
DC Curtis
DC Curtis, you are 100% correct regarding public domain and copyright. Copyright remains with the author of a text, whether it is posted online or not. As you say, this depends on the site you post it. If you post it on your own site, then full copyright remains with you. if you post it on one of the fiction sites Emily has listed, then I presume they would outline rights and practices in their terms and conditions – from there, once you submit your work you would be, in effect, agreeing to these terms of copyright. If you submit a post as a ‘guest’ on someone’s site, things can become a little blurry, I believe, but rights (other than the right for that single publication) would likely remain with the author unless different rights have been previously agreed upon. In this circumstance you are granting the site rights to publish your piece once, while you retain rights to publish it elsewhere. Of course, some sites will be specific about the rights they wish to retain and they may be more than this.
When you publish a story traditionally, you will sign a contract outlining the rights which you as an author are giving to the publishers. This would include the rights they receive – exclusivity, formats, editions and a sometimes specified amount of time that they retain the rights over the work – and any rights that the author might retain. In all online non traditional publishing, the same is the case but if there is no contract, or agreed upon terms, it is all presumed and, I believe, presumption would normally be that the author retains rights – though this would definitely depend on the circumstances of each case and publication. It is definitely tricky.
On my online fiction site (www.visibilityfiction.com), for example, I specify that all rights remain with the author, but by agreeing to have their story published on my site they are agreeing to grant me, the site, one time electronic publishing rights. Though, due to the nature of my site, I would also specify to authors that I’m happy to remove their work if they wish at any time.
The issue is that once you publish your work anywhere, you have used the first publishing rights and any publication of the work after this is automatically considered a reprint. Many… most.. publishers will not publish reprints.
In all these cases, the work is NOT in the public domain.
(please note, I’m in no way a lawyer, so this could be all incorrect. I’ve just read many articles about this and am also using my experience with signing contracts as a writer, and believe this is accurate. If you are concerned about your rights there are plenty of pieces written by people with actual legal backgrounds out there.). xx
Also, remember, copyright doesn’t stop piracy. The nature of piracy is that it is breaking copyrights.
I just wanted to say that what Alison actually said was that anything published on the web was IN THE public domain. Otherwise, I would have brought that up too. All the websites I listed do indeed give copyright to the author, unless you specify that you want the work to be public domain. Actually, that was one of the issues I had when my work was plagiarised, because the person who reported it labeled it as public domain, which I was never going to accept. So Holly, you’re right in that each site had its terms and conditions, much like your own fiction site. Thanks for bringing it up though
I never said not to publish online,I just wanted to make sure that anyone who does (and who reads my blog) does so fully informed of the risks and pitfalls as well as the benefits. I have a readership base from my fan fiction novel, though they longer I stay away from that community the lower it gets, as I’m no longer engaging them in that forum. That being said, my novel has over 650,000 hits so at least a few will hopefully follow me on this new venture. So yes, it can certainly create a base that you can build from. Best of luck!
Pingback: How to Revolutionize Your Fan Fiction (Part 10) | The Claire Violet Thorpe Express