Can a writer correct their originally published work for a reprint?

A few months ago, a poetry editor published a poem of mine, along with others, on social media, with a spelling error that we didn't catch at the time (I've just caught it, now, when I looked over it, again; it was published as "though," when it should've been "through"). The poetry editor will also be publishing it that way, as part of an anthology. (There wasn't a contract for me to sign, in case anyone was wondering.)

So, if I want to send the poem to a lit mag that publishes and allows reprints, is it possible for me to submit a version with the spelling mistake corrected for the reprint, or am I required to submit it exactly as it was originally published, with the spelling mistake intact?

Old Hack said:

You can make as many changes as you like to your work so long as it's not already typeset. So you're good to go.

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Thanks for replying; I was starting to wonder whether I'd stumped everyone, and no one knew the answer!

I saw in the poetry editor's own published chapbooks that, in his indexes, he acknowledged that some of his poetry was originally published in a different version in lit mags he'd sent them to, so I thought that once the editor publishes the anthology in physical book form, with the mistake in it, that if I sent it to another lit mag after that, I'd have to write to the editor of the second lit mag and explain or give some type of acknowledgement that it wasn't the original that was published (i.e. something to do with first published rights).

I wasn't sure whether it'd be too late to contact the original editor to ask whether it'd be possible to change the version for the chapbook. It kind of feels embarrassing to admit and point out the mistake we missed, as I did obsessively reread my work, over and over, several times, before submitting it, yet still missed that error. But, I guess it's worth a try to ask him whether it's too late to change it before it goes to print.

Oh, darn. The editor informed me that it's too late to correct the error, as the anthology is already being printed.

Polenth said:

When I've sold story reprints, they've always gone through another round of copyedits to find things like typos and spelling mistakes. In cases where I was approached, I've been asked if the published version is my preferred version. One time, a unit of measurement was changed, as it was for educational publication. Little changes happen all the time. It's not expected that you have to keep publishing it as though the original was written in stone.

If it's really major edits, you might reach the point where it's a different piece of work. Small corrections aren't in that category.

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Oh. Okay. Thanks for your help. It's reassuring. I was afraid admitting the error might make me look bad, like an amateur; so, I almost thought about not mentioning it to the editor at all and just submitting a new, corrected version in the future, if a lit mag might want to reprint it.

Harlequin said:

Thanks for posting this. I have a story that was printed by Aurealis which I didn't get to submit or review edits for and I'd like to reprint it elsewhere (with edits!)

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You're welcome. Actually, I have a new, better update. The editor informed me, yesterday (but I just read my email, today), that half of the printed copies have the new, correct version. I wasn't expecting that at all because the editor originally told me it was too late to have it changed. So, that was a nice surprise.

So, I guess it's a lesson for other writers that, even if you might think it's too late to make edits for your work or you feel a little embarrassed, it still doesn't hurt to ask, anyway. Originally, I was planning on letting it go and not mentioning the error to the editor and just changing it for another future lit mag who might be interested in reprinting it.