Rights on abctales.

Right - continuing the theme - a story of mine recently came Highly Commended (4th) in a competition. Now, can I enter it into other competitions? Can I send it to a mag to be published? Can I post it on here? Where do I stand? Do I have to get permission from the people who ran the competition - do they have the First British serial Rights? Jen

Blimey, what a lot of questions, Jennifer! Firstly, did they publish it? If not, you're perfectly free to enter it in other comps, as far as I know. Yes, you can send it to another mag. As for posting it on here, as I've said before, different eds have different policies re electronic publishing - always best to give 'em a call first and ask. FSR's only come into play if they've published the piece and, even then, you can still send it to other mags offering Second Serial Rights, although (as I've also said before - becoming a bit of a bore, I am) there aren't many eds who'll take SSR's, unless a piece is either exceptional (in their view, natch), or precisely what they're looking for at the time.

What about entering the same story into other competitions - rules often mention that it shouldn't have been previously published - but nothing about winning prizes in other comps.

Usually, you can enter the same story in several competitions simultaneously but, if you win, you must immediately withdraw it from the others (as, naturally, they want to be the first to publish it). Having won a competition with a particular story I don't think, in fairness, you should enter it in another (although you could submit it for publication in another mag, offering SSR's, after it's been published as a competition winner). At best it's unethical and at worst, you may get blacklisted. There again, best, I always think, to check with the eds.

We've had this a number of times. There isn't a definite answer, but if you want to be absolutely safe, the work shouldn't have appeared anywhere else. The purpose of the rule in competitions, is that if they then want to publish your winning entry, they might have difficulties if the copyright is jointly owned by another publisher. In relation to abc- if your work won the contest, you ought to take it straight off the site, and you'll then have no difficulties. Only if abc have paid you for the right to print it do you lose the right to publish it elsewhere. Hope this helps.

Nice, concise and correct, Andrew. As you said, we've had this discussion a few times in the past and my advice has always been - if in the slightest doubt, give the ed of the mag a call and ask... I think you'll find, though, that most mags consider stuff 'published' on the Net as being...er...published and therefore ineligible for competitions unless, as Andrew says, you remove it from the site first. I do have a quibble though, Andrew, about your point re ABC (or whoever) paying for the right to print. If you're offering First British/American/Canadian/whatever Serial Rights, I don't think whether you're paid for a piece or not, makes any difference. The point is, you've offered them the 'right' to publish it first. You can then, of course, hawk it elsewhere, offering Second Serial Rights, although almost no-one (or at least very few) will be interested in second rights unless it's an exceptionally excellent piece. Well, blathered on a bit there then. Most unlike me. Must've been the 3 weeks in Blighty wot did it. Hope it helps, though...