Marketing by posting excerpts online - publication rights problem?

Potentially, yes. It's hard to say for certain.

This isn't exactly a rights issue. It's more a "have you exhausted your readership" issue.

Posting excerpts like that isn't going to help you market a book which you don't even have a contract for yet. It's far too soon, any readers you interest will have lost that interest once your book appears on the shelves, and you risk making people assume that the book is old and they've already read it by stretching out their attention like this. So it's not really a wise move.

It's fine to get critiques, so long as you do it through a reputable site which protects works from being made available to searches. When you post work for critique here at AW it won't show up when people search for it on Google, because it's hidden behind passwords. So that won't be a problem. If you've put your work up on blogs and chat boards which don't use that same protection then yep, it might be a problem--especially if you've put a third of the book online. Because the book will probably be edited the earlier versions won't be a true reflection of the book and again, might put people off. And lots of publishers aren't going to like that because why would anyone buy something they can read much of online?

Your best bet, I think, is to remove what you can, and if and when you attract the attention of an agent or publisher, tell them what you've done and where everything is. Be completely honest and upfront, and hope for the best.

Old Hack has the right of it here (as is so often the case).

Was it posted on a publicly accessible forum that guests can read without signing up/having to enter a password? If yes, then that would generally be considered published. The other thing is that you say it was an early draft - how much has it changed since then? If it's been extensively revised then you are in a much better position, but if it still has the exact same plot, scenes and characters then that's not great.

Hi Old Hack, and MartinV and All!

What if one publishes a small excerpt of their novel through a literary quarterly? Isn't that a good idea? I'm thinking of a small excerpt that is like a short story in a way and is 1,200 words. Wouldn't that bring possible attention of agents to represent MartinV or in my case too? Also, I enter the word search of "Literary Quarterlies" here, hoping to find good ones to send my excerpt to and do not get relevant forums. Are there threads you or anyone know of, or where there would be a list and the types of novels they would publish excerpts from? Also MartinV I read that publishing online is a death knell to agents, but more so with your whole novel and don't know where the borderline is to that. I think posting such a large excerpt of 1/3rd would be better to avoid. I bet you have good stand-alone short excerpts you could publish and would think that would be okay, like I hope to do. Hope I helped in some way. Carpe Diem!

Winfred said:

What if one publishes a small excerpt of their novel through a literary quarterly? Isn't that a good idea? I'm thinking of a small excerpt that is like a short story in a way and is 1,200 words. Wouldn't that bring possible attention of agents to represent MartinV or in my case too?

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If your work is a literary work then it might help, assuming it's a high-end literary journal that you're published in, which is very difficult to achieve. But almost certainly you'll still have to query in the usual way.

If you're published in one of the many literary journals which exist but which don't have a stellar reputation, it probably won't help at all.

Also, I enter the word search of "Literary Quarterlies" here, hoping to find good ones to send my excerpt to and do not get relevant forums. Are there threads you or anyone know of, or where there would be a list and the types of novels they would publish excerpts from?

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Not all literary journals are quarterlies.

Not all literary journals publish excerpts of novels. They tend to want either complete stories, or excerpts from novels by established, very well-known writers.

If you browse around the various rooms here you should find somewhere to help but I doubt there's going to be a list anywhere, as titles come and go, details change, and different publications have different tastes and requirements. You're going to need to buy a few copies of the journals you're interested in to see if your work might fit, by the way.

Also MartinV I read that publishing online is a death knell to agents, but more so with your whole novel and don't know where the borderline is to that. I think posting such a large excerpt of 1/3rd would be better to avoid. I bet you have good stand-alone short excerpts you could publish and would think that would be okay, like I hope to do. Hope I helped in some way. Carpe Diem!

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Online publishing isn't an issue. Publishing a lot of a book anywhere makes it impossible to sell first rights, as those rights have already gone.