# What would you consider published?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-consider-published/615847
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [March 15, 2012, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-consider-published/615847 "2012-03-15T10:34:37Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Namkcalb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namkcalb)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2012, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-consider-published/615847/1 "2012-03-15T10:34:37Z")
Poll: What would the barest minimum be to consider yourself or others published?
_edit_ excluding scientific journals
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### Author:  [@Silver\_Tyger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Tyger)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2012, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-consider-published/615847/2 "2012-03-15T16:03:41Z")
I’m not sure I agree with the series you’ve put up. ‘Published’ is someone else liked your work enough to pay for it. So I don’t consider self-publishing as published unless you sell a significant number of books (like, _barf_ Eragon). However, an article in a magazine or newspaper - as long as it’s a paid magazine, with actual editors - also counts as published. Some guy’s newsletter or zine out of his home office, that’s distributed free and is all volunteer work, doesn’t count.
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### Author:  [@Kimmy\_Gibbler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimmy_Gibbler)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2012, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-consider-published/615847/3 "2012-03-15T16:13:41Z")
I would say it’s a multifactor analysis with a particular view to the following:
• Was the author paid for the work?
• Is the publication in which the author appeared typically purchased by consumers or supported by ad sales? Or is it given away for free and has few, if any, advertisers?
• Does the publication retain editors? A marketing department? Distribution channels?
• The size of the readership (circulation if a periodical, units sold if a publishing house)
So, like **ST** , I don’t think the list you give in your poll represents an ascending sequence of publishedhood, so to speak. I’m not certain that one could do so, given that there are multiple variables in play.
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### Author:  [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2012, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-consider-published/615847/4 "2012-03-15T16:20:19Z")
I’ve been published out the wazoo, but never in books, so there’s no poll choice for me. But I agree that it’s the paid part that’s important, not the venue as much.
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### Author:  [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2012, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-consider-published/615847/5 "2012-03-15T16:32:45Z")
Side note: publishing is nice, but what really warms my heart is when I’m cited. Somebody actually \*used \*the thing!
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### Author:  [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2012, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-consider-published/615847/6 "2012-03-15T16:47:23Z")
I have a friend who offers the definition for “Author” as : Has made more than $10,000 by selling written words. I think it applies here too, except I would add that of course, an unpaid publication in a peer-reviewed Journal would count.
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2012, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-consider-published/615847/7 "2012-03-15T16:47:36Z")
Having been published as coauthor in a scientific journal, I’m puzzled by your exclusion of journals. Especially when you include newspaper letters to the editor.
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2012, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-consider-published/615847/8 "2012-03-15T17:02:54Z")
> [@TruCelt](#):
>
> I have a friend who offers the definition for “Author” as : Has made more than $10,000 by selling written words.
Over how many decades?
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2012, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-consider-published/615847/9 "2012-03-15T19:16:24Z")
You’re published when someone pays you for your writing and it appears in print/online. (I’m assuming “guest article in a magazine” is the equivalent to “a short story in a magazine.”)
As one of my favorite movie quotes goes, “In short, when someone else says you’re a writer, that’s when you’re a writer… not before.” And that someone else says it by offering you cash.
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### Author:  [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2012, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-consider-published/615847/10 "2012-03-15T20:08:08Z")
My assumption was that the OP figured Journals went without saying, not that they didn’t count.
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### Author:  [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2012, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-consider-published/615847/11 "2012-03-16T01:18:25Z")
In many academic disciplines you are peer reviewed up the wazoo, but do not receive payment (I guess TruCelt has gone here, but it’s not just ‘scientific’ journals)
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### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2012, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-consider-published/615847/12 "2012-03-16T01:47:16Z")
_TV Guide_ printed a letter of mine once. To be exact, they cut everything out of my letter except for one sentence.
So the correct answer is, you’re a writer when someone else edits you beyond all recognition but leaves your name on it.
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2012, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-consider-published/615847/13 "2012-03-16T02:15:07Z")
> [@TruCelt](#):
>
> My assumption was that the OP figured Journals went without saying, not that they didn’t count.
It would put a gloomy spin on “publish or perish” otherwise, I guess.😃
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### Author:  [@Namkcalb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namkcalb)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2012, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-consider-published/615847/14 "2012-03-16T07:25:07Z")
> [@kayaker](#):
>
> Having been published as coauthor in a scientific journal, I’m puzzled by your exclusion of journals. Especially when you include newspaper letters to the editor.
Well, since they require a different skillset to all of the others, I excluded scientific journals… I should have said peer-review journals.
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2012, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-consider-published/615847/15 "2012-03-16T10:47:35Z")
> [@Namkcalb](#):
>
> Well, since they require a different skillset to all of the others, I excluded scientific journals… I should have said peer-review journals.
And the skillset for a newspaper letter writer is. . .
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### Author:  [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2012, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-consider-published/615847/16 "2012-03-16T10:53:34Z")
How about if I’ve received advances for published books, but the royalties and advances aggregate to less than I’d have made working minimum wage for the hours spent writing the books? :smack:
And, although I’ve published in journals (inaccessible via web except pay-per-view), I think the most cited paper I’ve written is a non-refereed on-line paper. :dubious:
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### Author:  [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2012, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-consider-published/615847/17 "2012-03-16T13:05:28Z")
> [@Silver\_Tyger](#):
>
> …Some guy’s newsletter or zine out of his home office, that’s distributed free and is all volunteer work, doesn’t count.
I have to ask why you would say that. I can see if he’s some nut case printing odd stories or some such. However, what about the family historian? The one who does a lot of research but doesn’t care if he makes a penny.
It seems to me that I would say someone who’s been published is the person who has written something that’s been researched if it’s non-fiction, which would include newsletters or even self published books. I’m not so sure about a fiction book since I’ve written the worst novel ever, though wasn’t foolish enough to have it printed.
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### Author:  [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2012, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-consider-published/615847/18 "2012-03-16T13:30:05Z")
Do e-books count? Apparently there are some people making good money on publishing Kindle books.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2012, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-consider-published/615847/19 "2012-03-16T14:35:31Z")
> [@septimus](#):
>
> How about if I’ve received advances for published books, but the royalties and advances aggregate to less than I’d have made working minimum wage for the hours spent writing the books? :smack:
That’s common for most writers. You’re still published.
Oh, and I agree that academic publishing in a peer-reviewed journal is being published. Otherwise, most academics would perish.
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2012, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-consider-published/615847/20 "2012-03-16T14:41:47Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> That’s common for most writers.
It sure as hell is. Unless those MacArthur schmucks cough up some of those Genius Bucks, this next book may have to be my last.
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