previously published material -

[Julie B. K.]

Hi Alan:

As far as your question about other methods of self-publishing ...

I like to participate in some of the haiku groups on Twitter like #haikuchallenge.  I've assumed that anything I post to Twitter is published (I know some publications don't mind, but many do).  So, I opted to collect all of my Twitter poems and put them in a blog, just for safe keeping.  Many of them are just rough outlines of things I might like to polish out later (like the snow at dawn poem) but I wanted to collect them because I figured I'd lose track of them otherwise and I figured since they were published anyway, I might as well reprint them.

As for prior publications - I know that if you've previously published a piece in a journal and it gets reprinted, the second publisher usually mentions the first.  If you publish with a third publisher (I haven't done that yet!), do they reference both previous publications or just the first one?

Thanks --

Julie B. K.
(jublke)

[Gael Bage]

Julie, an interesting question, I don't know perhaps some more experienced poets here may be able to give you an answer

[cat]

Hello, Julie,

I don't know as there's a hard-and-fast rule -- but I would give the poem's entire publishing history when I submitted it and let the editor handle it the way his/her publication does the listing.

cat

[AlanSummers]

Cat's reply is good. :-)

I tend to show all publication credits even if an editor only shows the first credit.

[Lorin]

I think you've probably got all of the answers you need, Gael, and I might be repeating what others have said.

"If a collection of haiku is displayed as with others in a public gallery, does this count as being previously publiished please ?" - Gael

If your question is in relation to the 'first rights' clause that many poetry (including haiku) journals have, then I would say that this wouldn't always count as 'previously published'. It would depend on the editor/ managing editor of the particular journal. Caveats, though: only if displayed for a limited time in a specific place, if not printed on a catalogue or other promotion material and if not posted on the gallery's or whatever's website.

If you wanted to submit haiku that had been exhibited anywhere but not printed for distribution in any form or displayed on a website, what I'd advise you to do is include 'full disclosure' within your submission & cover letter, eg: 'exhibited at Mary's Gallery, St. Ambrose's Girl's College Open Day, Melbourne Botanical Gardens Tree Poem exhibition' etc., followed by date of the exhibition's opening and closing...eg. 4th March -- 20th April. 2009 , or the like, and add something like 'not previously published in any form in print or online'.

That would allow the journal's editor or managing editor to decide for themselves whether the spirit of the first rights policy would be contravened by considering your work. Such policies are not in place to make things hard for honest people. They are in place to attempt to prevent the recycling of 'old' poems,  poems published in books, chapbooks, anthologies etc. or posted on the internet in a place where the general public has access, eg via google or large audiences such as facebook and also to try to prevent 'simultaneous submissions' which could eventuate in the same work appearing in different journals.

In the event that you wanted to acknowledge (in your own chapbook for instance) work that has been exhibited or performed, but not published , it'd be good to say 'appeared in the such & such exhibition',' performed at such & such festival' plus dates, rather than 'published in'....

Performance on radio or tv is another matter, and is archived, so such work is definitely considered published. Reading your haiku around your local poetry traps or a haiku meeting or festival etc.  isn't considered to be published, unless the performance is being recorded in any way, in which case it is considered published.

- Lorin

[Lorin]

ps, missed this:

"Oh, so does published include self-published ?"

Most definitely, it does. What does 'published' mean? It means made available to the general public.

Julie's 'twitter' has a large enough audience to be considered 'general public'. Storing your work on a blog is also self-publishing. If the blog can be found by google, and the poems can be read there, of course the general public have access. You need to decide what's most important to you, getting 'hits' on your blog or having unpublished work you can legitimately submit to journals. What journal would want to publish as 'first publication' a poem that is already available to the general public on your blog?

Also, when a poem is republished, such as selected for an anthology, it's the place of first publication which is acknowledged/ credited in any subsequent publication.

It's a matter of using reason. If you put your unpublished haiku on a handmade Christmas card and send it to a few friends and family, well, strictly speaking, it's published, but I doubt very much if most editors would be very concerned about that. Full disclosure within your submission is always the best way to go.

- Lorin

[Gael Bage]

interesting , thank you for sharing that Lorin. :)