Hi,
I was wondering about what makes a member on this forum a published author or not. For instance, I used to design and edit a literary magazine with two of my homeschooled buddies. We published stories, poems and drawings that we and other members of our homeschooling co-op had writen or drawn and printed them out in a newsletter/kid's magazine format. You can visit the website here. (Please note that I have not updated this website in, um, about a year or more.)

So, my questions is this: I am I considered a published author if my friends and I agree to publish one of my articles in our magazine? I didn't think so, but I just wanted to be sure.

In Christ alone,
~ Elsa/Alaethea

Well, I would at first thought say no. But that depends on how much of a readership you had/have.

I would think that your situation might count as self-publishing, but not "being published" in the standard sense. Since you were part of the "staff" of your homeschool magazine, I don't think it would qualify so much as being published as it would when you submitted your work to another venue and got selected.

I see. That's what I thought.

Thank you!

Just curious... I write for a web mag (my third article is going to be published in March). Does that count?
And would this affect anything later if I ever tried to get a book published? I didn't think it would, but I wondered.

That counts, unless it is self-published.

Most publishing companies (from what I hear) will not accept your novel if it has been published elsewhere for free (blogs, forums, etc.).

I'm not sure what you mean by "self-published", exactly. The editor set the website up herself about a year ago (well, she bought a domain name and did the graphics and stuff, I'm pretty sure), and the writers submit articles every so often (we don't have to write every month), which she posts on the website once a month for each issue.

Okay, thanks.

This is kind of off-topic, but what magazine do you write for, Sapphira?

And back to the topic...
Does winning a story contest and having your story posted online for awhile count?

I will say that counts for me.

Sure. I will give it to you.

link deleted because I don't want it to be too easy for people to figure out who I am and I can't figure out how to just delete this post at the moment...

So, if I post the book I'm writing on my blog, publishers won't accept it, even if it's been edited? Oh dear.

It depends on the blog and the publisher. But generally, yes.

Okay, so I post my poetry and such on a website, where many people have read and commented on my work. Would you consider me a published author then, or no?

Is that your site? Or is it someone else's?

No, it's not mine, it's someone elses.
www.deviantart.com actually.

I looked at it, and couldn't tell if the precheck everything posted on there. Do they choose what gets posted?

Well, yes and no. You can decided what to put on there and who sees it.

Ah, well that sounds more like a communal media sharing site, not really a publisher. Sorry.

What do you say to the following:

Poems in anthologies
Short story in ezine, not my own [I think you already answered that one]
Short story in magazine, unpaid.
Poem in magazine, unpaid
Collection of short stories by a publisher house that used POD

If an unbiased third party selected your written material out of many submissions (some of which were rejected), and then published it in some sort of media, I count that as published, at least for the little question in the profile. I published an article in a magazine, although it was unpaid. You should count.

I'm curious why it matters if we are published or not. Is it just to show credibility or for bragging rights or what? (Not that I would assume anyone on here is trying to brag, though I've been known to do so from time to time )

My two cents would be that being published means you have been paid for your art to be sold by a distributor. Until you get to that point, aren't you just advertising? (i.e. your work was selected to go in a free anthology or on a website to promote your work)

Coolio That's how I defined it too, just making sure

It is just a fun sort of optional profile field. Nothing very special, although it does give a bit of credibility to what you say (some).

Maybe this is off topic (I believe I'm becoming known for that ) but is there another post or a topic where we discuss finding publishers and what to do? Just curious, I'm nowhere near the publishing stage, but I'd like to know what would happen then.

Sorry about the off topic message, this was the closest one I could find to what I was searching for.

We definitely need a thread on that. Go ahead and start one!

I'm not sure what constitutes a published author, but when you take me to Amazon and show me your book...that's when I really fall back in awe and listen to your opinion above my own!

eruheran

I think we have a few of those kinds of people on here. Jill Williamson sells on Amazon I think.

Yeah Jill sells like crazy! Number one for MLP. Reviews from all sorts of places.

I didn't know she was on here! Shows you how little I sign in unfortunately :P

Actually, sorry, got my names mixed up. I was thinking Molly Evangeline. She publishes through amazon though.

So I'm not as crazy as I thought lol

You know what: I recently had the privilege of meeting Jill Williamson in person, and I invited her to join us. Maybe she will.

That would be absolutely awesome.

Don't I know it.

*eruheran falls back in awe* Published authors...

Alright, so from what I've gathered on the thread I would be considered a published Author. I had the same thought pattern as Eruheran. Take me to Amazon and show me your work. Okay, I guess I'll switch my published status.