If the article never made it to press, am I still published??

[tjdee]

A while ago I wrote a story for a "first issue" of a small print magazine. I was paid for it, the editor/publisher said he'd send me an issue when it came...never happened. Contacted him once, was told again it was coming...didn't. To this day I don't know if the magazine ever made it to print.

Can I can still send that as a "published clip" when I only have the Word doc I sent the editor?

[DavidDvorkin]

1. That's an awkward one

Unfortunately, I don't think you can referred to the piece as having being published. Strictly speaking, it wasn't.

However, you can certainly say that the piece was accepted for publication.

[tjdee]

2. I figured that--

It was my first paid nonfiction article, and I should have handled the entire thing differently.

Thanks!

[Wickerman]

3. Call it In Press

For a few years - after a couple it won't matter any more - it might still pop up :shrug:

[MissBrooks]

4. Two sides to the story..

If you were paid, you can say you are a "professional writer".

If it wasn't published, you cannot say you were published.

PS.. check on-line to see if it's out there somewhere... google yourself

[tjdee]

5. Woohoo! Professional Writer tjdee!!

I like the sound of that indeed.
Will google, never thought of that....

[Liberty Belle]

6. Googling myself is how I found out a newspaper stole my work.

They'd resold it everywhere but didn't pay. Around 500 articles. Did some more checking, found stuff of my friends. So we got together and tracked down almost every writer in their archives, too.
Then I called NWU and got a class action lawsuit going. Luckily I'd paid to register my copyrights.

All writers should google themselves. You'll be amazed what turns up!

Also, pay up to register your works with the Copyright Bureau.
If you don't, you can't sue for monetary damages, believe it or not. If you register the works within 3 months of first publication, you're entitled to many times more in statutory damages--much higher than if you register long after the fact.

You can register a whole year's worth of works at one time for only about $32, but the smarter thing is to register every 3 months--so you are "timely" registered to get the big bucks if someone infringes.

Voice of experience here, folks!

[shimmergal]

7. You _can_ list it as a credit,

saying it was sold to "title-of-magazine." Sending a copy of your Word document is fine: for various reasons writers don't always have actual photocopies of their published work. (If you're computer-challenged like me you can't send one that was published in hard copy electronically anyway.)

[lala_rawraw]

8. You paid for...

The work to be published? That sounds like a scam... what is the publication? I think you should demand your money back.

There are really great pubs out there, but some are scams artists that will rob you blind.