A topic floating around the web these days is whether or not to post your (unpublished) work online — on your website or elsewhere. If you’d like to read the topics in full, Chuck Sambuchino, of the Guide to Literary Agents blog is in the “No Way” corner, while Jane Friedman from Writer Unboxed is in the “What are you waiting for?” corner.
Where do you stand?
Since I can’t claim to be more knowledgeable than either Mr. Sambuchino or Ms. Friedman, let’s take a look at their points.
Ms. Friedman’s PROs for putting your work out there include:
- test marketing your writing,
- building an audience,
- and getting feedback.
Mr. Sambuchino’s CONs really boils down to one point, but it’s a pretty weighty one:
- Writers steal stuff. You can’t copyright a concept or idea, and someone else can grab it in a heartbeat if they so choose.
Their posts seem to have a slightly different focus on what “your work” qualifies as, in regards to this topic. Sambuchino focuses on your fiction summary, your high concepts as most important to keep off the web. But ultimately,the point that both make is to establish WHY you are putting your work–whatever it is– out there for the world to see. What is your objective?
For feedback, critique groups are wonderful — and I have found that the best groups are one built of trust, which to me implies a measure of control in who is included in that group. I belong to a critique group that is closed, you have to apply to become a member, and I trust my CPs — and the rest of the group – implicitly. Could you say that about an online website where hundreds of writers can peruse to their heart’s content? Your work is your heart… so as much as you wouldn’t drop your physical being into the middle of a dangerous neighborhood, be wary of where you place your work as well. The chances of getting quality feedback from posting your chapters on your website is pretty small.
Specifically on Sambuchino’s point about your high concepts and novel summaries: Let’s say you do post your blurbs and your high concept tagline and even a sample of your first chapter of an unpublished novel on your website. What is the reason to do so? Just to fill up the page? When the flipside (albeit an extreme flipside) is that someone might steal that concept, steal that blurb and write your idea themself, which one weighs as more important? Sure, we can say that it probably doesn’t happen. Writers are honorable. They don’t steal things. We’d like to believe that’s true. But we’re also writers…we’re well acquainted with the desperate and dishonest choices people make. You need to decide if you’re willing to extend an honor system to a whole lot of people you don’t know.
And to follow through on the idea, if everyone now takes their blurbs off their site, what the heck do you put in their place? What IS safe to put on your site? The books page suddenly became very empty. Here are some suggestions about content you can put on there:
- Contest wins and finals: Go nuts. List any finals or honors your unpubbed work has been given.
- Music Soundtrack: Many authors build music play lists to go along with their book. Find a list of 5 to 10 songs that match the emotions in your book and build a soundtrack.
- Free short stories. If you want to offer content on your site that gives a flavor of your work, write a short story that you can post on your site for free. The idea and concept isn’t copyrighted, but the story is. Maybe even post it in installments.
- Research articles: For each story, look at something specific you had to learn about or research, such as professions or other things, and write an article about what you learned. Chances are if you found the information helpful, someone else will too.
- Short essays/blog posts.
Ultimately, look at your website as a place for its own content. Be creative in what you put on your site, write content specifically for your site, to share your voice and personality. There are lot of options and I’m sure our readers have plenty more suggestions.
What are your thoughts? What are your PROs and CONs in this question? What do you put on your site and why? Has either of these viewpoints changed what you’ll do going forward?
3 comments
I’ve seen a lot of discussion about the pros and cons of putting unpubbed work on your website. Me, I’m of the belief that I don’t want to tempt fate. I do have a short story on my site, but it is one I won’t be taking any further. I got lucky. About the time I was getting my site up and running, I sold a book. So I could post information about that. Lavada Dee gave me a great tip, though. She suggested adding hobby information to your site, especially if you need content. It brings in more than just readers. I haven’t gotten around to doing that yet, but I like the idea.
Thanks for the post!
Good food for thought. I haven’t posted more than excerpts which I feel I have to have. I might post a short story in the future but I’d rather sell it than post it for free. In the beginning I worried about content and a new website is almost always a little sparse or least in comparison to later when it grows up.
I’m a pantster so I sort of let the website develop like I do the stories. Well maybe it’s more like it evolves. I do think it’s a good idea to have something that brings people back. Like Karen Fox’s site where she keeps updated marketing news and a slew of other information. The key is, keep it updated. When I bookmark a site, I consider that site as having reached it’s audience.
Okay aback to the redesign of mine.
Yes, I’ve posted unpubbed work on my blog (not the website–that is for excerpts of published books). I haven’t posted anything near a whole chapter’s worth, and nothing that would give away any of my storyline secrets. I do it simply for the purpose of sharing with my readers.
It might be different if I shared a more substantial exceprt (which is the reason I don’t), but honestly, if someone is going to try to write a whole book from stealing something out of a snippet the equivalent of about three paragraphs, then I see it as me acting as inspiration–there’s no way that either of our stories are going to come out even relatively similar in the end.