Ask Sally #27 - Using online critique groups and being published

A question from Mickaela

I recently joined an online writers group and have considered submitting some short stories for review and feedback. But will they be deemed as 'previously published'?

I ask because some of the stories are for competitions and others have been written with certain women's mags in mind. I've read the submission requirements for these and they ask for previously unpublished work. I'm a bit confused. I would love to get feedback since I'm working in a vacuum right now and wouldn't want to jeopardise the status of my work being deemed as previously published. (That's still yet a dream of mine!)

Hey, Mickaela that's a darn good dream to have. We were all unpublished at one time, where you are now. So I'll start by wishing you the very best of luck with your writing career. It is hard to work in a vacuum, and I was like that for ten years before I found the Get Writing website and the group of friends with whom I share my work (privately) now.

The problem of online work being considered previously published is one many of us share. In fact, I never put my work on workshop or showcase sites anymore. The fact is that a lot of publishers and competitions will consider a story published if it has been online, and this includes work published on private blogs or websites. It's always wise to carefully check the terms and conditions of any publisher or competition.

However, there are several ways around this. First of all, if you're in a closed critiquing group, in which everyone needs a password to enter and work can't be read by guests, then you should be fine. Your story won't be, or shouldn't be, searchable on any search engine. So check whether your critiquing group does have a closed section. If not, there are a few forums out there with closed groups. I know of three, which are www.writersdock.co.uk which have closed groups especially for critiquing, www.cafedoom.com and www.crittersbar.co.uk. There are others out there and a lot depends on what you're looking for.

There are a lot of showcase sites out there, some of them very good, but the idea is that your work is shown to anyone who enters the site. Your work will almost certainly be considered published if posted on one of these sites.

But, there is even a way around workshopping your stories on open workshop sites. First of all, don't use the real title that you have in mind for the story. That way the title is not searchable. Secondly, you can always delete the story as soon as you've got all the help you need (and it's wise to do this even if you've used a false title, in case someone googles a paragraph or the opening lines).

I should warn you, and this is meant as no detriment to the groups that I've mentioned, that the quality of critique you get in any online group varies. Some believe in tough love, which is basically telling you only the bad points of your story, expecting you to know, by magic, the good bits. I've known groups like this to destroy a person's self-esteem, and even lead to serious writers' block, and there's really no need for it, in my opinion.

Other groups have a kinder but constructive critiquing scheme, and should, if they're doing it right, point out the good things first, pick up on anything negative that might need changing (and remember it's your story so you don't have to change anything), then end on a positive note. As you can tell, this is the method I favour. But you still need to be able to take some criticism, which can be painful when you're first starting out and not sure of yourself anyway. It's very hard to separate yourself from your story but it's something you need to learn to do. At least until you're confident enough to say 'Actually, I like it like that.'

At the bottom of the scale are groups which tell the writers that everything they write is wonderful. This is not much help at all, but it tends to happen because some newer writers can't take any sort of criticism (I know, because I was that writer) and it all ends in a flame war. You won't grow as a writer in a group like this, because people are too afraid to tell the truth, because they've seen the flame wars in other groups.

You can read more about this in my 'Ask Sally' Finding Online Writing Groups.

But the basic answer is that yes, your work will be considered published if it's on a public site, but you should be okay on a closed site.

Good luck!