I would like to post a link to a story I have written, and have some of the members of straight dope criticize the work. First, where would this go, IMHO? And second, would my work become property of Chicago Reader by some funky copyright laws? Thanks for the help
If it’s fiction, I’d try Cafe Society. Don’t post your work on the Boards, due to that funky copyright thing. Read the notice at the very bottom of each page for specifics and remember that some publishers are a bit hinky about publishing something that’s already been published in an open forum.
There are a couple of good online critiquing groups (manuscripts are behind password protection, so there’s no question of them being considered “published”, as it’s not an open forum) I could point you to if you’re interested.
(puts on tinfoil hat and concentrates)
Koldanar, your work is genius! Send it off straightaway to a publisher. Don’t ask for advice from some anonymous, bitter natterning nabobs of negativism on the web - off to New York with you.
Arnold, I’m offended by that.
I am not bitter.
Erm, but Arnold, I too am a bitter natterning nabob of negativism, at least concerning my own work 
I just appreciate any criticizm, since I am biased when reviewing my own work ( it never lives up to my expectations )
You never lose the rights to anything of your own that you put on this board, but by placing it on the Reader-owned page you give the Reader the right to have it on the site AND, if they so choose, to reproduce it without paying you anything.
Some of our posts have ended up in Cecil’s books, that’s why we have the notice there.
Now I would be willing to bet that the Reader is really not interested in your short story, so you could link away with no problem as far as they’re concerned. But as has been pointed out some publishers don’t want work that’s already been published in an open forum, so govern yourself accordingly.
But from this end, no problems.
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator
Arnold: I know that came from a politician somewhere, sometime, but it’s origin eludes me right now. Said failure of memory is making me crazy and threatening to spoil the evening for me and a friend. Care to help?
John Carter of Mars, you might have been able to find it with Google if I hadn’t had a lapsus calami! :o
Answer: Spiro Agnew, 1970
And here’s a short biography of the man, by Time magazine.
We’d also be happy to take a look at it for possible inclusion in an upcoming edition of Teemings.
You’re going to run a biography of Spiro Agnew in Teemings!?!? :eek:
If it’s well written, informative and entertaining … sure, why not!
Ah, Spiro Agnew!!! Many thanks, **Arnold **. Much like Mighty Mouse, you arrived in time to save the day. 
and
I don’t doubt that this is true; but will a publisher really go through the trouble of searching every message board/web page on the internet before publishing a short piece? I have a hard time believing that the editors, of say Harpers check out boards such as The Straight Dope before printing every article. I dunno–sounds a bit far-fetched…
Ah, but (1) you would presumably have to list any prior “publication” – and, legally, anything placed here or anywhere else on the open Internet (as opposed to pay-to-enter sites) is “published” in the sense of having been made available to the general public, susceptible of being cited as evidence in a libel suit, etc. You might also have to inform them of the Chicago Reader, Inc., holding non-exclusive copyright on the material. And (2) It would be fairly easy to tailor a Web search for an unusual word sequence found somewhere in the document: “After Moses ate the gerbil, the supernova…” is unlikely to occur in that order on any other Internet page but the item of fiction in which it occurs.
Polycarp–Your first point is a good one that I hadn’t considered. If a publisher required you to disclose everywhere your piece had been “published”, I guess that you would have to point them to a message board such as the SDMB.
But your second point is the one I’ve had a hard time swallowing. If anyone here is in the magazine/publishing field, I wonder if they could tell us if it is standard procedure to scour the Web prior to publishing every piece. I have a sneaking suspicion that if I post an article here, and then submit it to Harpers, there would be a very low chance that they would ever be aware of its appearance on this board. Unless one of the editors is a SDMB regular!
While I dunno about Harper’s, let me note that a major New York editor is one of the Moderators, and at least two regular contributors to national magazines are habitués of SDMB.
With regard to the second point, it was not my intent to suggest that such searches were done regularly, but rather that they would not be that difficult to do. If I were an editor or publisher or on their staffs, prior to writing a check for a significant sum, I would want to verify that the material I was purchasing to publish in a magazine for sale was not readily available for free elsewhere.