EDIT: Full disclosure - I am not disagreeing with the alternative methods, and could easily be overthinking this.
oh. i see what you're saying. i bet he meant the ones published on the main site.
Yes!
yeah. ALL the stories entered in the contest are published. anything we write here, even if it's not a winner which was "published on the home page" is still considered published. if you're posting your story in the contest, fantasy faction basically consumes your first publication rights of that story.
Right, we've had that discussion before, but where it starts to get murky is when real money becomes involved (even for donations).
You published your story on a public forum and people read it - No problem!
You published your story on a public forum, and people read it, and then people pay
real money (not to you, but to F-F) and for paying money, you get an e-book with the story - Tricky!
I think it's when the real money gets involved that you could possibly get into trouble or murky territory from an author's rights standpoint. *I* don't have any objection, and many people who have posted here do not, but that's not to say that other folks wouldn't (and wouldn't be correct in having one).
The reason I'm suggesting we only include the "winner" stories is because they are already published on the F-F main page (which is more "official" - the story was published by F-F, not the author) whereas all the other stories are just published here on the forum, by the author themselves. It's a subtle difference, but one we should consider. And yes, me posting on the forum myself counts as first publication, but it's still not being given away in exchange for money changing hands, and not in the same way as those F-F chooses to publish on the main site (which is said up front).
Basically, I am being super overly cautious.
i would imagine that's why most of the working writers in our forums don't ever enter stories into our contests. folks like cameron, cupiscient, jrtroughton, etc. but, i could be wrong.
anyway.
Tangent: I've often wondered that too! It's never stopped me from submitting, because I write these stories in a couple of hours (two tops) and consider them great writing exercises, but not necessarily work I would ever publish. But I also write really fast. I can see how people who write slower and have actual writing deadlines for paid work might be hesitant to devote time to the writing contest. For me, at least, every story I write for here is written fresh for here, so I'm not losing anything.
my long, boring point is: stories in the contest are already published.
regardless, we'd ABSOLUTELY get permission from all the authors to publish their work in the anthology.
Yes, but as I'm pointing out (just to be cautious) published on public forum for free != published in an e-book that is sent to folks in exchange for real money.
As soon as you involve the exchange of real money for these stories (even donations) I think the ethics of everything get a bit trickier. By only including the story that wins each month, you can much more clearly lay out how the contest works simply by changing the contest description to "If your story wins, it will be published on the Fantasy-Faction website and (with your permission) included in our donation reward anthology".
