Will i stay or will i go: your advice wanted

Hey all,

this place seems most suitable to post. as many of you old timers know (i'm talking about pre-NM/EC twilight fans) Seraphyn who is now trying to become a published writer pulled all her FF stuff off the net.

Now i'm wondering would you do the same?

Now, i wasn't that bothered because i'm not near any sort of published stage, but i recently got an email asking me could someone use one of my poems for their english coursework. i told them no very nicely but i don't know if they went and used it or not.

now i'm wondering should i email the site and let them know, and ask them to pull my stuff? (its the invite only - pel's site)

and should i also pull my stuff from fanfic.net (which i wouldn't mind too much - they are basically dead there)

any ideas/advice?

Really--that choice is up to you. What I did though for myself when I have put up a short story that got published in a magazine--I did go and pull everything down from online and when I get closer to trying to publish any of my novels, I'm going to do the same to everywhere I've put anything on it. More of a peace of mind setting. One thing I think--don't quote me on this because it may not be true--is that if an agent or a publisher googled your name for any reason and one of your stories came up, Fanfiction or not, it may hinder your chances of getting published.

I'd pull the stuff...maybe not immediately, but at some point, definitely. That person was at least polite enough to ask you if they could use your stuff. What if someone else uses it without asking?

I also discovered that there is a 'fanhistory.com/wiki/' which basically records and creates an account for you if you use ff.net. its a great idea but for those of us who want to be published someday it might be a bit of a hindrance, but you can totally delete your own page.

as soon as i have time i'm going to.

thanks for advice

Hum not sure, I don't post things online anymore if I plan to publish I just write more stuff. I know that's not much help. I had a problem recently when I was trying to publish my book of poems because I had tried to self publish at a site and changed my mine. I sold one copy to my brother and when I tried to submit it to the same small publisher that did my novel they considered it previously published because of the self publish site. I was livid because I didn't see how it could be considered that with one sale and no ISBN number even on it yet. Things can get real sticky with the publishing industry.

Wow i thought when there are no iSBN you would be ok!

The whole publishing on internet thing seems to be another ;unknown' area in publishing that i think needs some sort of clarification. i mean, when people in the industry aren't sure, how can we be?

I know right? Yeah I think the reason I had the problem may have been because the original site is the most popular self publishing site lulu.com, I just couldn't get my head around the rejection. Not having an ISBN number and for the time it was available it was through that one site. I learned my lesson. Now I am working with wordclay and well let's just say I won't recommend them either unless you read everything pretty closely. It's a long story but I would try to find another site still if I ever self publish again. I only did it because my father is getting older and he has wanted to see his writing in print forever. Oh well, Lord Willing he and I will write together again and hopefully find another better deal.