Will sharing work on AW keep me from being published?

Share Your Work can only be accessed by people who A) have a membership here and B) enter a separate password.

By law, that means that's you're posting on a private site and not open to anyone wandering through the web.

Which means you haven't published it, so all your rights are still yours to sell.

You've covered. No worries.

AW is here to help writers; not hurt them. But before you post work in Share Your Work, please read the stickies.

Actually, I'd suggest the opposite is true. Posting in SYW, taking constructive criticism (and working to GIVE instructive criticism) will improve your work, your writing, and make you a better writer. Logic says that would thereby improve your chances of being published.)

No!
Next question.

that plus a particular agent who posts on Aw, contacted a writer based on a SYW piece and eventually signed her...

Case on point: I posted my prologue on SYW a while ago. I have since been signed to publish the work.

LearningTwoWrite said:

Thanks. I didn't mean to suggest that you could not. I just didn't know. Hope that it was okay to ask.

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'fraid not.

you're banned for 3 months.
























(kiddin)

LearningTwoWrite said:

Thanks. I didn't mean to suggest that you could not. I just didn't know. Hope that it was okay to ask.

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Of course it's okay. Do read the stickies and FAQs, though. Questions like these have almost always been asked - and answered - before.

Will reading someone elses book keep you from being published...

Think on it...

LearningTwoWrite said:

If I put writing on share your work, do you think that a publisher might see some of it and say that since he found some of it online that she wouldn't publish it?

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No one will see it. An excerpt on a password protected site is fine. It does not equal "publication" and editors all know this.

I'm an editor myself and assure you that we have better things to do than cruise critique forums to take names. We're too freaking busy. I'm only here on my lunch break because I'm addicted to my craft.

Does Absolute Write own the content? Would that ownership keep me from getting published?

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No and no.

Relax.

AW is like no other board on the whole Net. It's writers respecting other writers. There are many pros in the industry who drop in (I'm one of those) to do a little "payback" to help others.

No one will steal your work. They're too busy working on their own stories.

When you've had your work up for a week or so and comments stop, let the moderator know to delete that thread. We're all friends here.

Paul said:

that plus a particular agent who posts on Aw, contacted a writer based on a SYW piece and eventually signed her...

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There are also several agents who DON'T post, but who are members, who trawl through SYW and have contacted members via private message about things posted there.

Share Your Work is an amazing resource, and thankfully one that's secure enough that it can do what it's designed to, which is help writers improve their craft.

Gillhoughly said:

When you've had your work up for a week or so and comments stop, let the moderator know to delete that thread. We're all friends here.

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Huh. I didn't know that, Gill. Thank you.