Join for FREE | Take the Tour Lost Password?
[x]

deviantART

 
:iconfailing-at-flight:

Artist's Comments


I wanna know what dA is doing to help protect the writers of the community when it comes to "first rights" issues. First rights is what many publications (an increasing number of them, too, these days) ask for when you send a piece of work is sent to them for publication.

What this means is that your work cannot have been published ---anywhere-- and that means ---on the net too--- including your dA page.

Some are really anal about it, and if you're caught sending submissions that've been on the net, they'll never touch your work again. Many, however, are quite okay with workshopping sites like Gazebo or PFFA.

But dA is generally viewed as either a personal website or a vanity site (depending on who you talk to) and does not count as a workshop site. Ohnoes!

Which is baloney, because workshopping stuff is a huge deal here. All the same, for those publications who don't like work put up --anywhere-- it's all too easy to do a Google on some lines from it and check to see if it's been "published" before.

One solution is to simply stop posting your work on dA (an option a LOT of people are taking, I have noticed).

Another, perhaps more satisfying for the community, is for dA to implement an option for our work to be unsearchable.

Now, I know it's not really hard at all to set up an anti-search option for a forum or website. I can only imagine it's a much more vast operation for a big site like this.

But I truly think it will help bring back some of those great writers who aren't posting, and encourage others to join. It'll help YOU by making your workshopped material safe for publishing, without risk of it being rejected for having been posted here.

And it'll help show the world (and the people here) that deviantART isn't just a kiddly pool for writers. That successful writers don't need to leave, or stop posting. And that dA itself really does care about the future careers of its clients.

I know there's been noises made about it, and I am wondering what the status is on that. I think, too, that it's an idea that EVERY WRITER on this site should think about. You might not be ready to publish now, or might not give a crap as far as your own work goes. But please find it in yourself to give a damn about the writers in your community who DO want to be successful in the big ol' world beyond devianART.

Support the quest for an anti-search option.

- =salshep

Google logo used to demonstrate the point. I'm not submitting this as art or any kind of creative work, so I don't think using it should be a problem, but we'll see.

Just a note to anyone who sees this stamp: I'd appreciate it if you took a look at my art if you like this :)

Comments


love 0 0 joy 1 1 wow 0 0 mad 0 0 sad 0 0 fear 0 0 neutral 0 0
:iconsalshep:
This is full of win.

--
unknown command error: sleep
:iconfailing-at-flight:
Thanks.

--
Do you realize where he thinks he comes from?
:iconabcat:
I like this idea, but surely the problem is not with the site itself, but with the publishers. The 'first rights' issue is a great crock of steaming mauve frogshit, and the publishers who practise it should be boycotted, by writers and readers alike, until they change.

Why should we have to weasel behind a binary curtain of programming to workshop our literature and test the water? We shouldn't.
:iconfailing-at-flight:
I pretty much agree with you, but why not make this an option? That's all this stamp is really about at its core.

Salshep had a bit of a point in defending the practice to an extent though:
"
And I can prety much understand why publishers, particularly of the better print and online journals, would ask for exclusive first rights-- like, what would be the point of printing a poem that everyone's already read? What I don't understand is how a lit community of nine years and of this scale doesn't already protect those workshopping their stuff here. But owel, better late than never, right?"


Thanks for taking a look.

--
Do you realize where he thinks he comes from?
:iconabcat:
No probs. Thanks for the response.

The issue still irks me as the crossover in readership between the highbrow literary magazines and sites like deviantart is surely going to be neglibible. Even regulars on Gazebo and Pffa would surely be delighted rather than annoyed to find a poem they had seen worshopped published in print.

Even if I dislike the idea of such a compromise, I still think it is a good idea for the meantime.
:iconrandomspyder:
Though not much of a writer myself, I support this.
Good luck, dA writers!

--
...and Spyder, using the Mecha Cat Army, begins to conquer your brain...
randomspyderDOTcom=ArtWebDesign
:iconfailing-at-flight:
Thanks :)

--
Do you realize where he thinks he comes from?
:iconying-and-yang-inc:
I like this idea. I do intend to publish my written work, but having it be rejected over something like this would be devastating. o_o

--
:star: I moved to a new account! :star:

Please :+devwatch: ~Onyx-Twilight if you want to follow my work. I'd appreciate it if you did. :meow:

My sister *Freya03 is taking commissions: [link]
:iconfailing-at-flight:
Yeah.

Thanks for taking a look and favoriting it.

--
Do you realize where he thinks he comes from?
:iconying-and-yang-inc:
You're welcome, spreading the word is what it's all about.

--
:star: I moved to a new account! :star:

Please :+devwatch: ~Onyx-Twilight if you want to follow my work. I'd appreciate it if you did. :meow:

My sister *Freya03 is taking commissions: [link]

Details

March 28
43.8 KB
43.8 KB
99×56

Statistics

61
62 [who?]
853 (2 today)
11 (0 today)

Site Map