Do story excerpts posted online qualify as published material?

Tanatra

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I have some fiction writing aspirations, and although my priority at this point is finishing my manuscript(s), during my breaks from writing I’ve been researching publishing options and story marketing. A few forum searches here yielded some very informative posts from members, and this particularly fantastic source of information:


https://kathytemean.wordpress.com/2019/07/31/2019-2020-key-book-publishing-paths-by-jane-friedman/


It was through that weblink I came to discover Wattpad. *


My (perhaps overly pessimistic) impression is that trade publishers won’t spend a dime on marketing for debut authors, so I’d need to invest considerable time/effort into building an audience regardless of the publishing avenue I pursue. I believe sharing story excerpts is a great method for doing so – and Wattpad a useful platform for finding & expanding an audience – but I also understand most agents,publishers, and even writing contests won’t accept any previously published material.


Posting an entire novel on a social reading site is one thing, but will story fragments like teaser chapters disqualify the whole body of work as well? Taken to the strictest interpretation, anything posted in the SYW section of this forum may also fall under the same consideration.


Please let me know if teasers posted online for marketing and/or developmental purposes are grounds for rejecting manuscripts, thank you.


*Wattpad seems to be a fairly new, yet quite disruptive force in the industry, and I’m interested in learning more about just how impactful it really is. However, at the same time I don’t want to distract too much from the question which prompted this topic.
 

Maryn

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I suspect that answering that might constitute giving legal advice, which we don't do here because it puts the site owners in jeopardy.

But I do know that because SYW is behind a password, writing posted there specifically does not count, in the legal sense, as having been published. Let me hunt the FAQ... Ah, there it is: https://absolutewrite.com/forums/sh...-My-First-Publication-Rights-If-I-Post-In-SYW

I rarely visit WattPad, and I can't remember if anyone can read there or if you need to be a member and log in. I do know that over a period of years I've seen lots of writers whose work was highly praised at WattPad post it at a more professional site--not necessarily here--and become very upset when people fail to love it because the quality of the writing is poor, the story derivative, whatever its flaws were. My impression is that WattPad has younger, less well-read readers and writers who don't yet have the ability to judge quality.

I would not post teasers or sample chapters there, partly for that reason and partly because I doubt it would result in sales. That's not why WattPad exists, and it might even violate their rules for use.

Maryn, usually not this discouraging
 

Marissa D

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From my understanding, Wattpad readers are there looking for free reading material: they don't tend to convert to becoming paying readers, so I'm not sure it's particularly useful as an audience builder.

Also...trade publishers assign promotional dollars to books they think will earn them a return, whether written by a debut author or a multi-published one. (Whether they're usually right is a different question. ;) ) So yes, I think your impression is overly pessimistic.
 
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LJD

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My understanding is that short excerpts are generally fine, HOWEVER, I wouldn't bother.

1) Wattpad seems to skew toward younger readers who can't afford to buy books. I had stories that did very well on Wattpad under my first penname (one was on the featured list). Didn't help me sell copies of my small press books at all. I don't expect it will have much benefit for you, though this may depend on genre. What do you write?

2) If you did develop a Wattpad following, you might post a couple chapters of your soon-to-be-released book (with publisher's permission). The final version, with the final cover. Your book will be edited, and what you post online won't end up being the final version...I wouldn't want earlier drafts of my book floating around online. In SYW, at least it's password protected, and you're only posting a pretty short section.

3) Publishers do sign and promote debut authors. Do all authors have great experiences with their publishers? No. But, yeah, I do think you are being rather pessimistic.

ETA: If you do really want to establish a following on Wattpad, I think it'll work much better if you publish complete stories. (Not necessarily novel-length; mine were all novelettes.) Not sure just uploading brief excerpts from 1-2 books on Wattpad will generate much of a following.
 
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lizmonster

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There's a lot of misconceptions here. I'm going to correct the ones I'm pretty confident of and leave it to others to handle the rest.

My (perhaps overly pessimistic) impression is that trade publishers won’t spend a dime on marketing for debut authors, so I’d need to invest considerable time/effort into building an audience regardless of the publishing avenue I pursue.

As a general rule, trade publishers love debut authors. Everybody wants to be the one to discover the Next Big Thing. You're more likely to get a decent marketing budget with your first one than with subsequent books (unless your first one takes off).

Posting an entire novel on a social reading site is one thing, but will story fragments like teaser chapters disqualify the whole body of work as well?

This may be an agent-by-agent thing. Personally, I wouldn't risk it. If it's public on the web, it's published, and I don't think I'd want to publish a part of something I wanted to query.

Taken to the strictest interpretation, anything posted in the SYW section of this forum may also fall under the same consideration.

As others have pointed out, SYW is password-protected and not indexed by Google.

*Wattpad seems to be a fairly new, yet quite disruptive force in the industry, and I’m interested in learning more about just how impactful it really is.

Wattpad was founded in 2006, and is indeed a fabulous web site for what it is, but I don't think you could say it's been disruptive. A small handful of writers who've accumulated a large number of views there have scored publishing contracts, but AFAIK that's not where it's been most useful to people.
 

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Posting an entire novel on a social reading site is one thing, but will story fragments like teaser chapters disqualify the whole body of work as well? Taken to the strictest interpretation, anything posted in the SYW section of this forum may also fall under the same consideration.

This is inaccurate. Please read the FAQ: Am I Using Up My First Publication Rights If I Post In SYW?

There is absolutely nothing new or disruptive about WattPad. It's a display site. They are as old as the Web. They can be fun, but they aren't really innovative, disruptive, or a fast track to much of anything related to trade publishing.
 

Tanatra

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usually not this discouraging

So yes, I think your impression is overly pessimistic.

But, yeah, I do think you are being rather pessimistic.

There's a lot of misconceptions here.

This is inaccurate.

Thank you so much everyone. Calling out & correcting my pessimism goes a long way towards breaking down that collection of subconscious barriers known as writer's block.

I actually had quite a few reservations about Wattpad which I omitted from my OP for the sake of brevity, and you've all confirmed many of them. Wattpad strikes me as the YouTube of creative writing, and although they really seem to be pushing their writer services and publication options these days, the odds of any of that resulting in a truly worthwhile book deal seem about as likely as getting struck by lightning during a shark attack. I think I'll pass on Wattpad for now. Thank you all again.

 
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