What counts as publishing?
October 14, 2017 10:18 AM Subscribe
Some journals and magazines pay for the first North American serial rights to a piece, with the understanding that that piece hasn’t been published anywhere before. Does being having a writer's piece broadcast on a radio show count as it being published for the purposes of print publishing?
I have a radio show, one segment of which consists of 5 minute poetry and prose readings submitted by writers. I have an open call to writers groups for people to submit their recordings mostly done using recording apps on their phones.
I have been asked whether, if a piece is recorded and broadcast on my show, the writers can still seek publication for that piece in something like a journal or magazine that typically pays to publish pieces for the first time. i.e. Does being broadcast on my show count as being published for the purposes of print publishing?
I have no idea and can't find anything via google that gives me a clue. I don't want to mess up these people's chance of fame just so they can get their work the radio!
Anyone closer to this subject know the answer?
I have a radio show, one segment of which consists of 5 minute poetry and prose readings submitted by writers. I have an open call to writers groups for people to submit their recordings mostly done using recording apps on their phones.
I have been asked whether, if a piece is recorded and broadcast on my show, the writers can still seek publication for that piece in something like a journal or magazine that typically pays to publish pieces for the first time. i.e. Does being broadcast on my show count as being published for the purposes of print publishing?
I have no idea and can't find anything via google that gives me a clue. I don't want to mess up these people's chance of fame just so they can get their work the radio!
Anyone closer to this subject know the answer?
Best answer: There is no general answer to this question. Different journals will have different policies. Just as an example, if you go to the Bellevue Literary Review site, they don’t mention spoken word “publication,” but they do specify that they consider publication in blogs on a case-by-case basis. They ask authors to “be honest.” In other words, even for more common types of publication, this one journal doesn’t always have hard and fast rules.
As a writer who sometimes publishes in small journals, I would consider this my problem and not yours, though it’s cool that you’re concerned about it.
posted by FencingGal at 1:37 PM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
As a writer who sometimes publishes in small journals, I would consider this my problem and not yours, though it’s cool that you’re concerned about it.
posted by FencingGal at 1:37 PM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I've been on both sides of this in the publishing equation. As a writer, and as the (one-time, long ago) editor of a small magazine, I wouldn't consider this publication. That said, if your station publishes transcripts of their broadcasts, it could complicate things since many magazines consider something that's appeared on the web--even if it's explicitly not considered publishing, like if I post the unfinished draft of a poem on my [imaginary] blog before submitting it--to be published.
My sense is also that first serial rights can encompass quite a lot, and may vary depending on the venue. I'm 100% sure I could send work that's been featured on the radio to a hundred different small journals without their minding. But if it was accepted at The New Yorker, say, or another of a very small handful of prominent magazines that publish a few pages of poetry/fiction but are part of the broader publishing world, and for whom the legal stakes of "what publishing means" are higher, I would be sure to clarify. I can't quite articulate why I suspect the situation would be different--but I do think TNY would be persnickety about this, whereas 99% of small press venues would not. (And the 1% that would, would be due to really particular personality quirks of the editor, not because of a cohesive definition of publishing, or because of anything in particular that they're doing that's different from the other 99%.)
posted by tapir-whorf at 12:23 AM on October 15, 2017
My sense is also that first serial rights can encompass quite a lot, and may vary depending on the venue. I'm 100% sure I could send work that's been featured on the radio to a hundred different small journals without their minding. But if it was accepted at The New Yorker, say, or another of a very small handful of prominent magazines that publish a few pages of poetry/fiction but are part of the broader publishing world, and for whom the legal stakes of "what publishing means" are higher, I would be sure to clarify. I can't quite articulate why I suspect the situation would be different--but I do think TNY would be persnickety about this, whereas 99% of small press venues would not. (And the 1% that would, would be due to really particular personality quirks of the editor, not because of a cohesive definition of publishing, or because of anything in particular that they're doing that's different from the other 99%.)
posted by tapir-whorf at 12:23 AM on October 15, 2017
Response by poster: Fantastically informative answers all round!
posted by merocet at 4:16 PM on October 25, 2017
posted by merocet at 4:16 PM on October 25, 2017
This thread is closed to new comments.
In the United States, publication is defined as:
the distribution of copies or phonorecords of a work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending. The offering to distribute copies or phonorecords to a group of people for purposes of further distribution, public performance, or public display, constitutes publication. A public performance or display of a work does not of itself constitute publication.
That seems right to me. Further, consider how songs are handled. The rights to the song itself and the rights to a particular performance of that song are two separate things. If you want to include band a's recording of song b in a TV show, you need two distinct licenses. This is why you get a lot of soundalike bands in TV soundtracks, and why WKRP in Cincinnati got so screwed up when released on video.
So I would think that a spoken performance of a written work is a distinct thing from the written work, and even if performing the work on the radio did count as publishing, you would be publishing something different from the written work.
Of course I'm not an IP lawyer. I'm just sitting around work on a Saturday afternoon waiting for something to happen so I can do what I need to do.
posted by Naberius at 1:05 PM on October 14, 2017