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Would it be okay to do this?
Hi, I'm just wondering if anyone could help me with this. I have a short story I'm about to submit to a womag publication, having tailored it to the magazine, but I was also thinking of entering it in my writers' group story comp. The competition is only open to members, so is quite small, and winning entries are not published - there is a modest cash prize. I know that submitting the same story to more than one publication at the same time is not on, but as far as I can tell, this is different as the competition is a small private one, not to be compared to an open one or a publication. Ideally I would write a different story for the competition, but this story I've got is the right wordcount, under 1500 words, which I usually find hard to keep to (my stories normally come in at 2500 - 3000 words). Although I don't think there are any major problems with submitting it to the magazine and the competition, I just can't work out if it's ethical - hence asking others for advice!
Comments
Good luck with both.
Has the story actually been published by virtue of it being circulated to members of the writing group? I know this isn't a legal forum, but we all know how pernickety some writers can be about rules and protocol. I'd hate to think that helenesme could become embroiled in a stirring pot.
I suppose their could be a slight issue the other way round, if the writing group comp was supposed to be for unpublished things only, but that would assume that the story would be subbed, accepted and published before the comp, which sounds unlikely!
To answer PETs question - having been read by a writing group doesn't count as published. The only way that could be a problem is if the group was an open online one. Eg if it was posted here other than in a private post, then some places might consider that as published.
p.s. edited to add: good luck!
I raise this only as a point of discussion because the idiosyncrasies of what is 'published' and what is not is wide and varied.