Electronic vs. print rights

I believe (but am not sure) most places consider published electronically to be published thus making it a reprint even if you never sold first print rights. The question is not in what form it was originally published but whether it was made available to the public at large. This is the reason so many places say that if made something publicly available on a web site (I mean freely where you posted yourself) then it is considered published even though no editor ever made a formal publishing commitment to you.

That said, you could always try sending it elsewhere and just mention in the cover letter that it was previously published electronically on such and such a site but first print rights are still for sale. The worst they could do is to tell you that they don't want it. Or you could query first and explain the situation and see what they say. . .

Eric

Rights

First rights really aren't about legalities, at least to editors. To an editor, first rights mean a story has already been seen by enough readers to mean some of his own readers may have read the story before he publishes it, so, yes, electronic rights nearly always are considered as first rights by editors.

Editors only want to pay for first rights if they can be sure their own readers have not previously read the story. So an editor may well, and nearly always doesn't, consider electronic publishing as first rights. They may even consider a story posted on a personal website as one that's lost first rights.

Or they may not. The only right thing to do is be honest about the history of any story, and let the editor make up his own mind.

If you want your story...

to earn its keep then you sell all your print rights first before you approach an online market.

I think pdr means to get it published in print before letting it be published online.
I've got a story like this. It was published online at a small site that ended up going under. I really think the story deserves to be in print and I am sorry that I went with online publication first.
Most publishers that I've found want first rights.
Live and learn, right?

Sigh!

I must pop up on this board every couple of months to say:

Sell your short story in print first. Sell the 1st Rights to magazines in the US, the UK, Canada (if you haven't sold N Am rights to the US but only US 1st Rights), New Zealand, Oz-Australia, South Africa, the EU English language markets and in translation.

There are also anthology and recording as in talking-books rights you can sell.
Then you let the Blind Assoc people have your story for their talking books - that's your charity giveaway.

Then find an online paying market.


Now JR will appear and shout me down, but I do this regularly and without deceiving any editors.

pdr said:

I must pop up on this board every couple of months to say:

Sell your short story in print first. Sell the 1st Rights to magazines in the US, the UK, Canada (if you haven't sold N Am rights to the US but only US 1st Rights), New Zealand, Oz-Australia, South Africa, the EU English language markets and in translation.

There are also anthology and recording as in talking-books rights you can sell.
Then you let the Blind Assoc people have your story for their talking books - that's your charity giveaway.

Then find an online paying market.


Now JR will appear and shout me down, but I do this regularly and without deceiving any editors.

Click to expand...

No, this is just about the approach I take. Though some tiny few online markets are getting big enough, and pay enough, to make them serious contenders for first rights. It's about money, and if you can get enough money from an online site, then letting them have first rights is fine. There are just so darned few online markets that pay enough to matter.

But I don't do charity for serious rights. Audio rights sell, and the blind can buy audio books from the same place I do, which is B&N.