Do I Own My Story? Ask Anne The Pro Writer

(www.thegoldenpencil.com)

Dear Anne:

I have a question about fiction submissions and copyrights.

Several years back, I wrote a few stories that won short fiction awards and were published in my college’s literary journals. Now I am thinking of sending them out to other publications for reprinting. The problem is that I want to edit and rewrite (to a degree) these stories. Does that affect the fact that they have already been published?

Once I publish something in a literary journal, does that mean I can’t rewrite it and sell it again, even if it is to a ‘accepts previously published material’ publication? Because, then wouldn’t it be inaccurate to say that the story was published when it was a different version that was previously published in the first place?

I hope this makes sense. I was thinking of mentioning that “a previous version of this story was published in a…” Is that enough? Or, should I not edit the story at all and send it the way that it was published so many years ago?

Trisha

Dear Trisha,

Thanks for asking, I think! I say it that way because I am not a lawyer; I’m not even pretending to be one!

You’re really asking what rights you sold or gave away when you agreed to let the collage magazine or literary magazine publish your stories. If you still have a copy you may be able to find some information in their masthead.

Assuming the magazine has “first rights” (not a reasonable assumption exactly since it’s a college publication) that means you gave them the right to publish your story the first time. “All rights” would mean they own the stories completely. There are all sorts of rights.

But, you say you want to rewrite the stories. At some point in the editing process they will become new stories. The problem is there’s no magic number or percentage to tell you just when that happens.

I’d probably rewrite etc., then in my cover letter say something like “based on my original stories that won awards in college.”

I’d do that because I’d want to claim the award when I was pitching the stories. If they hadn’t won an award and I was just reworking them I’d probably say nothing.

Yeah, I know, this isn’t totally helpful. That’s because copyright isn’t always black and white.

And for those of you thinking of giving stories away to your college or other publication, retain the copyright. Then you won’t have this problem down the road.

You might also find Copyrights and Wrongs for Freelance Writers helpful.

Do you have a question about freelance writing? Ask Anne, The Writing Pro – that’s me ;) Ask in the comments or send an email and put Q&A in the subject line so I can sort it out from spam and I’ll do my best. Meanwhile, you’ll find some Q&A’s here:

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