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All entries were to be original, unpublished works.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 …
