Ask Sally #12 - Putting your work online

A question from Emerging Writer

I had a short story published recently and someone asked me where it could be found online. The publication doesn't have my story online. I am wary of putting the story out there on the world wide web. Am I being paranoid or careful?

Given the recent scandal of a well known author's work being plagiarised (discussed in my blog here and here) I don't think we can be too paranoid about our online work, even though people used to laugh if a newbie writer worried about their work being plagiarised. After all, who'd want to steal from a new writer? But if it can happen to David Gemmell, it can happen to us, and lesser known authors might have more problems proving ownership.

I've also known instances when fanfiction writers stole each others' work (and then we get into the woolly area of whom the work belonged to in the first place). I've also known a fanfiction writer take a novel, based on a well-known romantic film, and simply change the names of the two main characters to those of her favourite boyband member and herself (and she won a fanfiction award for that!) Another fanfiction writer, hailed as a genius was found to have taken most of his or her prose from various sources such as Monty Python, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and any number or British comedies and comedians. What was surprising about each of these examples is that there could be no monetary gain in what the plagiarists did, so one has to ask 'why?' I imagine they were doing it for the kudos.

So I'd say you were being careful.

If you do want to showcase some of your work, the best way to do it is to set up either a webpage or blog, over which you have complete control, then only put up work that has already been published, assuming you still have the rights to show it. Presumably you will then have a copy of the print publication to prove that this work was always yours, and if you're using a blog, it will be dated. You might also put a note above the work, saying 'Published in (for example) The Weekly News, August 11th 2007, so that anyone reading it knows that there is proof of publication.

It's also wise to put somewhere on the blog or website a copyright notice, similar to the one at the bottom of my page, which states clearly that none of your work, in whole or in part, can be used without your express permission. This won't stop the peskiest plagiariser, but it might deter them a little.

Bear in mind that if you do put work online, it's usually considered published, so you may not be able to submit it anywhere else, which is why it's best to only showcase already published work.

But it's entirely up to you. There's no rule that says you must put your work online, so if you're not comfortable doing that, don't do it. It's your work and your choice.

As an addendum, in some cases, for example in a competition or a publication that does have an online version, you might not have a choice about your work appearing online, but you still then have the proof that the work belongs to you and an editor to back it up.