I'm considering setting up a blog for snippets of my written work however I'm concerned as to my work being stolen! Is a blog a good idea to get your name out or is it pointless?
I'm considering setting up a blog for snippets of my written work however I'm concerned as to my work being stolen! Is a blog a good idea to get your name out or is it pointless?
I've always found blogging extremely helpful - especially once I fell in with a crowd of other writer bloggers and felt part of a community. It helps in a practical sense because it gives you a presence online for editors / agents / readers to find. It's also a good place (I found) for showcasing some work or experimenting. Yes. if you publish short stories on your blog you may expose them to being taken (though not losing copyright) and it can disqualify those stories from competitions (if it counts as first publication), but the pros still outweigh any cons.Go for it, I say
I understand your concern, Victoria - I recently found a piece of my work published on somebody else's blog. To be fair, it was attributed to me and, nicely enough, included as an example of inspirational pieces of writing, but it got me thinking about how easily a less principled person could try to do something more underhand.
However, as I'm sure you know, you own the copyright in your own original writings from the moment you put pen to page (or fingers to keypad). Assuming you use a computer, there will be an electronic date trail of what you wrote when. Blogging is just an extension of this and maybe even a safety net.
I'm also in the process of creating a blog but I am absolutely not going to use it to publish extracts of my novel or my WIP. Like Helen, it's more a place to muse about writing (or books, in my case) and, in so doing - I hope! - showcase it. It does have links to some previously published short stories, poems and articles but nothing that couldn't be found anyway.
Hi Victoria. It is a concern, absolutely but I think the exposure a blog can bring you is invaluable in the current publishing market. I blog through WordPress and use it more as a platform to muse about writing in general - when I do get published (either through an agent or self-publish) I'll use the site to link to where people can purchase the books. I've found it a great exercise in keeping my creative juices flowing as I challenge myself to post once a week, plus I'm in the process of submitting to agents so it's another little hook I can use to (hopefully) catch their interest. Wordpress also has a help section that deals with the steps you can take if you feel your work has been stolen - maybe it's worth a look before you decide?