I've always wanted to participate in things like this. Never dared to. Now that I have multiple manuscripts near ready, but find myself afraid to share it, I'm tempted to do this so I kick myself out of that fear.
However, there's always a fear nagging in the back om my mind that I will lose the rights to my work and/or might lose out on publishing paths if I distribute a part of my work else where first...
Great question. First up, you definitely won't lose the rights to your work. You own your work unless you sell the full rights to someone (which is not something we often do at all as writers). In terms of publishing paths, that's a bit more vague. Obviously each traditional publishing house is different. Most require your work to be unpublished but are not worried about an excerpt being shared. I would be very surprised if a publishing house turned your story down because you'd shared 3000 words or less. If you're worried, just enter 1000 words and that's much more like sharing an excerpt. It's likely if you got a traditional publishing deal you'd do a fair amount of editing and changing those first 1000 words anyway. Being afraid to share is a very common feeling. It does fade away as you share more and I found personally, I learned and improved each time I shared my writing with an audience. We only know what's going to resonate with people when we get their feedback.
I've always wanted to participate in things like this. Never dared to. Now that I have multiple manuscripts near ready, but find myself afraid to share it, I'm tempted to do this so I kick myself out of that fear.
However, there's always a fear nagging in the back om my mind that I will lose the rights to my work and/or might lose out on publishing paths if I distribute a part of my work else where first...
How does this work with Jotter?
Great question. First up, you definitely won't lose the rights to your work. You own your work unless you sell the full rights to someone (which is not something we often do at all as writers). In terms of publishing paths, that's a bit more vague. Obviously each traditional publishing house is different. Most require your work to be unpublished but are not worried about an excerpt being shared. I would be very surprised if a publishing house turned your story down because you'd shared 3000 words or less. If you're worried, just enter 1000 words and that's much more like sharing an excerpt. It's likely if you got a traditional publishing deal you'd do a fair amount of editing and changing those first 1000 words anyway. Being afraid to share is a very common feeling. It does fade away as you share more and I found personally, I learned and improved each time I shared my writing with an audience. We only know what's going to resonate with people when we get their feedback.