But I Was Young and Stupid

One of the things we’re so frequently warned about is to be careful what we put on the Internet because once it’s out there it’s out there for good. So, if you plan to be a NYT bestselling author and don’t want your readers to someday know the story of exploits on a bar top, you might not want to post the story or the photos anywhere online. But for how long will we really have to worry about this?

We live in an age when the Internet is an integral part of our lives. There is rarely a day out of 365 that I don’t log on for some reason, usually it’s to check email and do work, but sometimes it’s just to find a recipe or search for Santa. We are raising children who think it’s normal to video chat with Grandma and see their dance recital photos posted online; they live a much more public life than the one we were used to as children and someday those children will be running the world. I have to think that this stress on being careful about what you post online because it could haunt you 15 years from now might be less and less important as the days go by. After all, if I find drunken spring break pictures of you I don’t judge who you are now based on that. Why would I? I assume that you are no longer feathering your hair and wearing neon leg warmers so I also have to assume you’ve stopped dancing on bars and listening to Milli Vanilli.

I know this has little to do with publishing and I’m not saying you shouldn’t be conscious of what you post, we should always be conscious of what we post, I’m just suggesting that it already doesn’t matter as much as it did five years ago and won’t matter as much five years from now.

Jessica

Posting Your Book Online

I have started my own blog for the purpose of posting a new project as I write it. My plan is to post the entire first draft bit by bit and, hopefully, get some feedback/critiquing along the way. [Someone] alerted me to possible problems. But I wanted to get your take. If I post an entire first draft online, am I killing the chance of a final version ever being published via traditional means?

I think I have done a post on this before, but since it seems I can’t keep track of anything I’m writing anymore, I hope you all feel the same way and don’t mind getting some repeat information now and again. What I can tell you is that I agree with everything Moonrat said on this subject and would implore you, if you have any concerns, to read her post from May.

I really have nothing additional to add to her genius other than to say I don’t think this is a problem. I’m not sure I would advise you to simply go ahead and post the entire novel at once, but posting a teaser chapter or pieces at a time for critique will be unlikely to do any damage to a future sale or career.

All that being said, if you’re doing this simply for a critique you might be better off joining a critique group rather than asking random strangers who stumble upon your site for their opinion. One reason is I think you can learn just as much by critiquing the work of others as you can from having your own work critiqued.

Jessica