Is this Eligible for Publication?

Alvah · Apr 16, 2008

Last week I submitted a poem to a poetry contest held by the
U.S. radio program A Prairie Home Companion. I was not
one of the finalists, so I assume that only Garrison Keillor and his staff
ever saw the poem, for that contest.

However, the next day I sent the poem to another private writers list
for criticism.

Does submitting a poem online to a national contest like that make the poem undesirable to publishers? What about my sending the poem to that private writers list? The same question applies to short stories. Do publishers such as the ones found at Duotrope want writing work only
if it hasn't been sent to a contest or sent to an online list?

If a person submits something At AW to the Share Your Work forum,
does that make the story or poem ineligible for publication?

Thanks,

KTC · Apr 16, 2008

Send it elsewhere. You can submit it to 10 contests if you wish... or submit it for consideration anywhere.

As for the AW question... Some publications will say in their guidelines "previously unpublished... including online" So... they mean they don't want something that has been posted online. I say that's iffy, though. The SYW is password protected...not pubic domain...but public domain...sort of.

IceCreamEmpress · Apr 17, 2008

Posting something online is not necessarily "publishing" it. Putting an excerpt on the SYW boards is definitely not "publishing" it--it's a virtual workshop with password-protected boards. It's really the equivalent of making photocopies of your work and passing them out to workshop members, which doesn't count as "publication" either.

Submission to a contest is definitely not "publishing" something. Some contests and magazines do have guidelines that say "no simultaneous submissions" though--that means you can't send them something that's out with someone else.

And many contests and magazines have "no multiple submissions" guidelines, which means that you should send them one submission at a time (either one piece, or one group of pieces for poetry or flash fiction).

Is this Eligible for Publication?

Alvah

Life is what you make of it.

KTC

Stand in the Place Where You Live

IceCreamEmpress

Hapless Virago