A Warning for Aspiring Writers
If you are seeking a publisher for your literary work, do NOT publish more than 10,000 words anywhere permanent.
Thanks to @thewritersblock and @rhondak, I was given some news about publishing a book that I thought prudent to share.
The blockchain is a permanent storage location, every edit to every post ever made is saved in the system, regardless of what is visible from the front-end. This means that publishers can find your work, even if it's not immediately visible. If you hold out hope of publishing your literary works, then do NOT post them to the blockchain.
Additionally, if you self-publish through Amazon, Amazon can find your content being produced for free and price match it. To make sure that you are absolutely safe if you hope to publish, DO NOT post more than 10,000 words anywhere permanent.
What does that mean for Incorruptible?
Understandably, this means that I'm going to be cutting the release of Incorruptible on this platform short and focusing on other short-stories from the world. I am still toying with the idea of releasing it on my website at http://incorruptiblebook.com/ and I'm still finishing the $50 Amazon Giftcard Giveaway that I'm doing, but once I reach 10,000 words I'm going to be halting the posting schedule here on Steemit.
I'm sorry for that inconvenience but I'm glad that I found out well before I shot myself in the foot, because I am hoping to publish Incorruptible once it's finished.
I hope this information was helpful to you, and please share it to help prevent other writers from making the mistake I almost did.
I'll see you on Friday for the next release.
Cheers,
~ Mako
It's important for all of us to remember that blockchain technology is still brand new. Amazon is aware of it, but I don't think they've put any policies in place pertaining to it specifically. The 10,000-word guideline is publishing standard, typically, before they consider a work to be unpublishable as a first edition. This isn't a hard and fast rule, but it should certainly influence decisions.
It's entirely possible that Amazon could eventually deem everything on the blockchain to be "published" regardless of word count. We'll just have to wait until the first big issue arises and see how they handle it. I, for one, do NOT want to be that first big issue.
I was just going to say that this isn't necessarily true, but I see @rhondak already mentioned this isn't a hard and fast rule. I know my sister got her first book deal on a book that she had posted all the chapters on her blog, and that didn't seem to impact anything.
If you don't know, Jane Friedman is one of the leading authorities on mainstream publishing. I concur with her assessment here. Mileage may vary, but blogging a novel is not a risk I want to take, or one I want any of our Steemhouse authors to take. Our acquisitions editors would very likely reject any novel that already appears in its entirety on the blockchain, or anywhere else.
https://www.janefriedman.com/please-dont-blog-your-book/
yeah certainly not any reason to take a risk on it. Thanks for the link
An insightful post and comments. I am sorry to hear I won't be able to read the entire novel here. However, once it is published, I would likely buy it. Keep us posted as to your progress beyond 10,000!
I absolutely will! I'll definitely keep blogging about the progress and how it's going.
Thanks for the support!
~ Mako
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After reading your "about me" I realized you would be millionaire thanks to me! Ahahaha I confess my english sucks!
You're too kind haha. I just know a thing or two about language is all.
~ Mako