Hey guys,

Music to write by: “Starlight“ by Muse

Welcome to the second in my two-part series focusing on Writing.com. As I have already addressed the positives, in this post you’ll get to see just how far into the seething abyss of hatred I can sink (well, maybe not seething, gurgling perhaps). If you think this post is a little one sided, feel free to read the more upbeat post here.

Writing.com only works because writers post their work online to get critiqued, but here’s where we run into one of the more thorny legal issues that any writer needs to be aware of. If you post your work at Writing.com, many editors won’t buy it. This is because when you publish your work at Writing.com, you have to grant them non-exclusive rights to publish your work (or they wouldn’t be able to display it). Thus, your First North American Serial Rights are considered sold. Why? Because they’re called First North American Serial Rights (also known as First World Serial Rights). Your story has already been published, albeit non-exclusively, at Writing.com, so you cannot sell “First” rights.

One of Writing.com’s moderators writes:

Does posting my work on a Web site like Writing.com affect my ability to sell the work later?

Yes. Anything posted to Writing.com may be considered “published.” By publishing on Writing.com, you have granted Writing.com free, unrestricted, and non-exclusive electronic (storage and display) rights to the uploaded content. This is necessary to protect Writing.com, and it is a perfectly reasonable requirement.

Now, clearly, you cannot turn around and sell exclusive electronic rights to another publisher, because exclusive rights would infringe upon the rights you’ve already granted to Writing.com. These rights cannot be taken back by deleting the item or limiting the access to it. But what about other rights?

You retain most of those, and can sell them – if you can find a buyer. You can also sell non-exclusive electronic rights and derivative rights – again, if you can find a buyer. You cannot sell “all rights” because – remember – you have given away “non-exclusive electronic rights,” and that is a subset of “all rights.”

The problem, of course, is “if you can find a buyer.” Many publishers insist on buying “all rights.” Most want “previously unpublished” work. But what you consider “published” and what they consider “published” may be two different things. And it’s always best to be honest, because you can destroy any chances of selling your work to them or to their colleagues in the publishing field if word gets out that you’re trying to pass off “published” work as “unpublished.” Worse yet, you could land yourself in legal hot water by trying to sell rights you no longer own.

She confesses that she’s not a lawyer, but she does cite several legal sources. The full article is highly recommended reading as it applies to ANY site where you publish your work (even your personal website).

Another downside is that the site is only really effective for the beginning writer. Why? Well, the site is full of bad writing (Except, of course, for your writing [I heart my readers]). Here’s why: Writers need to sell their work, and when they do, they are not supposed to have it posted elsewhere. When work is good enough to be sold, it comes off the site. Yes, I said it. Nothing that’s good enough to actually get published is on Writing.com. Now there are exceptions, chiefly among the writers that fudge on the legal issues as mentioned above, or with those too afraid of rejection to sub anything. I used to post my trunk stories and stories that had been published but weren’t for the reprint market for one reason or another at the site. Since I’ve gotten good enough to sell my reprint rights I’ve stopped posting even those.

You are much better off reading any of the professional, paying magazines that are available online for free. If you need critiques on your work, form a critique group (More on that in a future post). And, of course, if you REALLY want to read a bunch of crappy writing, you could volunteer to be a slush reader at any of your local fiction zines. In fact, Catherine Knutsson, associate editor of Shimmer Magazine recommended it at NorWesCon as a great way to see what kinds of mistakes writers make and what kind of plots editors see all the time (more on that in an upcoming post).

Because of the anonymous nature of Writing.com, networking opportunities are few and far between. Sure, a lot of people have made friends at Writing.com, but actual editors are few and far between. For networking, you’re much better off finding a highly trafficked writer’s forum, and posting comments on *cough* a couple of your favourite blogs.

The myth of an editor trolling Writing.com and “discovering” your work is a fallacy. Editors have far too much work in their slush piles. You are much more likely to be approached by a shyster than anyone legitimate.

Writing.com was great for me as a beginner, but now I’ve moved on. The simply fact is that I learn more from reading actual, published writing than writing from other beginners. For me, the positives don’t outweigh the (substantial) negatives. Other critique sites abound, but in your charming narrator’s opinion, your best bet for constructive feedback lies in forming a scathingly honest critique group with other writers in your genre (More on how to do that in a future post).

I hope you’ve enjoyed my little series. Everything I written is just my opinion, but hopefully these posts have given you the resources you need to make your own decision about the site. Let me know what you think!