Posting your stories on other sites in addition to Lit

[flawed_ethics]

What is the policy of posting your own works on other sites before posting them on Lit? I frequent Fetlife and intended to post my latest work there first for feedback before posting here. However, I don’t want to create waves or make the submission reviewers do extra work if they see the story posted there as well (even though it’s the same author handle and my profile there includes a link to my work here).

Is it bad form? Does it gum up the submission process? Just curious. I’m just about done proofreading them again and eager to post!

 

[ElectricBlue]

What is the policy of posting your own works on other sites before posting them on Lit? I frequent Fetlife and intended to post my latest work there first for feedback before posting here. However, I don’t want to create waves or make the submission reviewers do extra work if they see the story posted there as well (even though it’s the same author handle and my profile there includes a link to my work here).

Is it bad form? Does it gum up the submission process? Just curious. I’m just about done proofreading them again and eager to post!

You own the copyright, you can post wherever you like, and whatever sequence you like.

What the site does NOT permit are links to those other sites except in your profile, signature block, and the thread "Books from Literotica Authors" - but only if you have content here. That is, you can't use the Forums for off-site promotion.

Also, you cannot publish "teasers" here, and say, to read the rest of it, go over there --------> Especially not if "there" is behind a paywall.

Lit is a publishing platform, one of many. All you have to do is abide by this site's content policies (refer to the FAQs) and the site's publication policies - again, consult the FAQs. This site doesn't care what you do elsewhere.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

Some of what you're worried about is a nothing burger. You should know by know only Laurel reviews and publishes submissions, and I doubt she actively looks at other sites. Plus there's probably not a high percentage of people here and somewhere else.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Literotica doesn't restrict you from posting on other sites, as long as you're not doing the "teaser" thing EB mentioned.

Some pay sites do have rules that would forbid you from posting the same stories here - the big one I know of is that Amazon's self-publishing requires you to give them the best price, so you can't put a story up there for money and have the same one here for free. But AFAIK they don't go looking for violations, so that only gets enforced if somebody reports it.

If you cross-post a story and the name you're using on that site doesn't match your name here, it's possible that somebody who's seen it on one site might come across it on the other site and think one of them is ripped off from the other. To avoid causing worry or mistaken reports of plagiarism, it may be worth including a note clarifying the situation in that case.

 

[flawed_ethics]

Thanks! No, no offsite bull, teasers or such. I just do not want to create problems is all.

 

[ElectricBlue]

- the big one I know of is that Amazon's self-publishing requires you to give them the best price, so you can't put a story up there for money and have the same one here for free. But AFAIK they don't go looking for violations, so that only gets enforced if somebody reports it.

I've gone into this several times over the years, because it's simply not true. Amazon sells a book, Lit publishes content. They're not the same. When you buy a book through Amazon, you get an ebook or a print book: you get a tangible thing with a cover, an ISBN. It's a discreetly saleable product. Here on Lit, you get a temporary loan of content, but you can't take it away and sell it. Not without breaching copyright, or turning it into a different format.

You can buy my books, which are sold as e-books as well as print books, from Amazon and a bunch of other distributors, who all go away and set their own prices. The same content is here, for free. The difference is, you don't get a book with a cover from Lit, there's no ISBN, the Lit version can't be bought from a book store. Simply put, there's no book.

The other difference, and a lot of people miss this one, is that I'm the publisher, Amazon is merely the distributor, because I own the ISBN for each book. I bought the ISBNs. If you take one of Amazon's free ISBNs, they're the publisher, and you get royalties, but you no longer own the rights. It's theirs. It's a subtlety, but I don't think many people have fully unpacked it.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I've gone into this several times over the years, because it's simply not true. Amazon sells a book, Lit publishes content. They're not the same. When you buy a book through Amazon, you get an ebook or a print book: you get a tangible thing with a cover, an ISBN. It's a discreetly saleable product. Here on Lit, you get a temporary loan of content, but you can't take it away and sell it. Not without breaching copyright, or turning it into a different format.

I may have missed something, given the wide range of different Amazon products, but my understanding was that paying Amazon for an ebook doesn't give you anything you can legally "take away and sell". AFAICT, their line is that they are not "selling" an e-book at all, merely granting you the right to read it. e.g.:

https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201014950

Upon your download or access of Kindle Content and payment of any applicable fees (including applicable taxes), the Content Provider grants you a non-exclusive right to view, use, and display such Kindle Content (for Subscription Content, only as long as you remain an active member of the underlying membership or subscription program), solely through Kindle Software or as otherwise permitted as part of the Service, solely on the number of Supported Devices specified in the Kindle Store, and solely for your personal, non-commercial use. Kindle Content is licensed, not sold, to you by the Content Provider. The Content Provider may include additional terms for use within its Kindle Content. Those terms will also apply, but this Agreement will govern in the event of a conflict. Some Kindle Content, such as interactive or highly formatted content, may not be available to you on all Kindle Software.

Limitations. Unless specifically indicated otherwise, you may not sell, rent, lease, distribute, broadcast, sublicense, or otherwise assign any rights to the Kindle Content or any portion of it to any third party

That said, now I look it seems as if the "general pricing policy" that required users to offer the best price may have been quietly abandoned some time in the last few years.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I may have missed something, given the wide range of different Amazon products, but my understanding was that paying Amazon for an ebook doesn't give you anything you can legally "take away and sell". AFAICT, their line is that they are not "selling" an e-book at all, merely granting you the right to read it. e.g.:

https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201014950


That said, now I look it seems as if the "general pricing policy" that required users to offer the best price may have been quietly abandoned some time in the last few years.

That's Kindle content, which is indeed more restrictive, so much so that I elected not to sell via kindle. Aside from the problem that, at the time, I couldn't publish kindle content here in Australia. That might have changed since.

But kindle isn't the only ebook format. People have bought ebooks through Apple, Barnes and Noble, Lulu. Amazon are only distributing print books for me, but they're bandits. Roughly, if the book costs $10 to print, they take $8, and I get a dollar. It's no wonder Bezos is the rich bastard and I'm not - particularly since Lulu do all the data hosting.

Amazon lie, too. Their seller ads say they have second hand copies for sale, which is complete bullshit.