Sturgeon's Law

...for a journal to say they wouldn't publish poems that had been posted to online workshops, given that:

• Those poems are drafts that are almost always changed by the time they go out seeking publication.
• Good online workshops are search-engine-resistant.
• Good online workshops flush their old drafts after a fairly short amount of time.
  
• Most online workshops at least allow the poet to go back and delete the draft prior to submission or publication.
  
• Regardless of the limitless potential audience of the Internet, most online workshops have an actual audience well under 100.
• Most online workshop denizens are prone to posting about when and where their work is appearing, which will increase the profile of the journal, not hurt it.

I understand the desire to print(/upload) previously unpublished material: it's the desire for a scoop, and it also helps more non-name poets get published. But a "no online workshops" or "no blog drafts" rule doesn't fit that desire, plus is silly and unenforceable.

Seems to me a better rule would be "nothing I can find by Googling." This would allow posting and subsequent deletion of drafts on blogs, and posting to online workshops, but prevent "permanent" posting on personal websites and other such things the editors might not like. I've even printed a few Googlable poems in The Eleventh Muse because they were good poems--can't say that it hurt the journal's reputation or sales.

Labels: poetry, publication, workshops