klavinia New friend
Posts: 1
(12/13/04 3:43 pm) Reply
Contest Question
Hi. I entered an essay contest for Powells bookstore. I placed in the top ten and received $100 worth of books. My essay was "published" on their website along with the other ten.
Here's my question; The contest was limited to 750 words. I wrote a story about my dad during WWII. Writer's Digest is having a contest now and I would really like to elaborate on the story and submit it. But I don't want to get into trouble. Obviously it would be changed significantly. The WD contest is 2,000 words. My question is can I enter this contest even though a part of the story was already published and payed for ? (no contract mind you and no rights sold)
Thanks so much! Lavinia
LindaF New friend
Posts: 19
(12/13/04 3:56 pm) Reply
Go for it!
Lavinia, I say there's no problem with expanding the piece and submitting it to WD. You had no contract, which means the rights to the first piece revert to you. Also, I believe that WD requires that submissions be unpublished; I expect that the differences between your 750 word piece and the 2,000 word WD submission will be vast. If I remember correctly, an article needs to be 10% changed to qualify as a new work (however you can figure that out). Let us know what happens!
Linda
-- Co-author, The Renegade Writer: A Totally Unconventional Guide to Freelance Writing Success tinyurl.com/2459w
Re: Contest Question
Take a look at the contest rules to determine if rights were part of the deal. If not specified, I would say since there was no contract and you weren't paid (winning a contest is NOT pay for work), you retain all rights. However, you will need to tell WD portions of the new article have been previously published when you submit.
On a side note...read contest rules and keep a copy so you know what will happen to your work. There's a lot of low lifes out there.
klavinia New friend
Posts: 2
(12/13/04 5:37 pm) Reply
Re: Contest Question
You're kidding me...only a 10%! That's amazing. I had heard that anything given in exchange for a story was considered payment. I could be wrong though...it happened once before...ha! Lavinia
Email This To a Friend
Topic Commands
Click to receive email notification of replies 
Click to stop receiving email notification of replies