Published

 

 

My dear mother is determined to make me famous – or at least to get me published. After I posted the expanded version of Café Nuit last month, she sent me a link to the Canada Writes literary competition for short fiction, personal non-fiction and/or poetry. She thought perhaps Odette and François would be suitable for entry.

 

I thought so, too. The story was written in 2013. Only a few people had read it and no one had paid me for the privilege. The word count was 350 over the maximum, so I had to rework it a bit. I managed to bring it in at 1471 (the requisite was between 1200 and 1500) without damaging the integrity of the piece, and once that was done, I clicked the link to review the rules and regs.

 

All entries were to be original, unpublished works. Since my copyright had not been forfeited for a fee or the piece posted online at someone else’s website, I figured mine would count. Wrong-o.

 

Apparently, a piece that is posted on one’s own personal website is considered “published”.

Gee, maybe I should have been warned when I started the blog. Once a piece is drafted and ready to upload, the go button says “publish”. Should that have been my first hint? I asked the question of the competition experts, who kindly responded with a suggestion that the answer to my question could be found at the included link (no simple “yes” or “no”, but a list of “Nine Mistakes Made by Competition Hopefuls” or words to that effect – my answer was named in mistake #2). So, bugger the competition. I can post my original work at Comfortable Rebellion with confidence that my copyright is intact. Better yet, my mother can tell anyone she likes that her daughter is A PUBLISHED WRITER and it will be true. I may be self-published on a personal web page, but I am published nonetheless.

 

Now … how to make money doing this …