Hi all,
Just a couple of questions regarding social media:
If articles you've written and submitted without pay appear in a publication i.e a football club's official programme, can you then put them on something like Facebook or would the club own your work?
If you're getting ready to submit to publishers, would posting say a chapter or so on a social media format be a good or bad idea?
Any input would be much appreciated by myself.
Hello Lorraine, Anthony and Louise.
Thank you all for replying to my two questions. To be honest, I'm quite new to social media, but it does seem to be a grey area (as mentioned above). I thought that it might be a good idea to generate some interest in my writing, as I've received quite a few requests (in truth, by friends) to post short stories etc. I've been attempting to contact the Irish Writers' Union on these very matters, but as of yet, it's proving difficult to speak directly with somebody. For now I might play if safe until I have as much information as I can gather. Once again, thank you for all the advice.
Agree entirely with the others. I think people are often far too cavalier with posting their work (or new motorbikes, for that matter!) online. Partly, yes, it's not knowing who is "out there" and partly it's a copyright thing but it also - and I've said this on here before - can massively restrict what you can do with a piece of work in terms of competitions. Agents / publishers are, I think, often less concerned over whether you've posted a chapter of a novel online (although the whole thing might be a different matter) but lots of competitions stipulate that an entry should not have been published anywhere before, including on social media or members' sites such as this (and, really, this is not exactly a members' site given that work posted is visible to anyone). So many people assume that posting something and then taking it down is a loophole and I really don't think it is. However I am a lawyer so perhaps look at rules and regulations in a a lightly different way to other people ;-)
I agree with Lorraine. Nobody tells you how careful you should be and sometimes you find out the hard way and then it's too late. Often I cringe when people put on Facebook a spanking new motorbike they've just received for their birthday, forgetting that ruthless people are out there and may exploit their innocent disclosure. Equally, if you put written work on any website without checking the terms and conditions, you can lose the copyright to a valued piece of work. Even if it's about your own life, it's gone and somebody else has the copyright. Be careful Dan.