Does publishing online ruin your chances of finding a traditional publisher?
TL;DR: nope! (mostly)
A question that I’ve seen crop up repeatedly over the last ten years is whether putting your work online is a bad idea for your long-term writing career. The worry, quite reasonably, is that once the work has been released there’s no longer a chance to publish it in other forms; especially through a traditional publisher.
Most recently it popped up in my serial fiction AMA a few weeks back, from a couple of writers:
“How do you deal with the fact that some traditional publishers don't want work that has already appeared online, or do you not care about this issue?”
Everything I’ve seen and heard in the last decade indicates to me that this isn’t something to be overly concerned about, although it is a nuanced thing and depends a little on what precisely you’re hoping to do with your writing.
Magazines and competitions
These are two areas where you absolutely need to be careful with first-publish rules.
Some competitions are specifically for unpublished work, or will only be interested in work that has been published in a particular form. Most major contests exclude self-published books, for example, which is frustrating but also entirely understandable. From a purely practical standpoint, competitions have to draw lines somewhere to avoid being entirely overwhelmed; opening the floodgates to self-published projects can rapidly swamp a jury or longlist reading group.
Literary magazines such as Granta are very clear about wanting new, unpublished work:
We only publish original material, i.e. first-ever publication. We cannot run a piece that has already appeared on the web or elsewhere in print. We can, however, publish an original translation if the work has previously appeared in another language, but never before in English. Granta submission guidelines
This makes complete sense: for magazines which exist to champion exciting new work, it would diminish the offer if it was all recycled from elsewhere. Particularly in the case of short fiction and non-fiction, it’s a reasonable request. Much like if you pick up a copy of Empire magazine or The Guardian, you wouldn’t expect half of the material to have already popped up elsewhere.
So if you’re aiming to submit to a magazine or contest, check their submission rules early and plan accordingly.
Books and traditional publishing
None of the above applies to longer projects. While editorial decisions will vary from publisher to publisher, and there are undoubtedly some publishers who won’t be interested in previously published material, in general the main motivator is whether they think a book can find an audience and sell some copies.
There are enough examples of self-published books being picked up by traditional publishers and serialised online work making the transition to traditional print for me to conclude that most doors remain open, regardless of how the work has previously appeared.
There are the big, mega-blockbuster examples such as Andy Weir’s The Martian and 50 Shades of Grey by E.L. James. Weir originally published his story in serial form on his blog, then put it out as a cheap Kindle ebook. After doing very well indeed it was picked up by a traditional publisher and re-released, and hit the traditional bestseller lists. Subsequently it was made into a Ridley Scott movie.
Clearly, publishing it on his blog didn’t close any doors. In fact, the reason he self-published it was due to not finding any success with agents and the traditional route. Rather than block him from career options, self-publishing in serial form was the best thing he could have done. E.L. James had a similar path.
There are always one-off crazy success stories, though. The exceptions and the outliers. What’s more useful is to note the steady stream of authors who have followed a similar path, perhaps not with quite so much fanfare. A.E. Warren self-published before having her Tomorrow’s Ancestors trilogy picked up by Del Rey. I remember reading about Taran Matharu, who wrote a daily serial during Nanowrimo over on Wattpad years back and attracted a massive readership very quickly, which soon led to attention from major publishers.
Right here in the newsletter world, the same thing has been happening. Look no further than
whose newsletter has just been turned into a rather gorgeous looking book. Here’s recently celebrating that exact thing:In Valorie’s case, the newsletter was the perfect way to create the material, piece by piece, which has now become A Book.
UPDATE 16/042024: Valorie has clarified that the book contains 16 brand new Unruly Figures, not featured on the newsletter. So while the newsletter was the ‘proof of concept’, the book also contains new material.
Incidentally, Valorie interviewed me way back in 2022, for her On Rejections series. Check it out:
There are lots of people in that interview archive who have gone on to be big hitters in the newsletter space.
More specifically, I was on a panel at the Primadonna Festival in the UK back in 2019 alongside Lisa Milton from Harper Collins, Helen Thomas from Hachette and children’s writer-illustrator Mandy Stanley. The point of the panel was to provide a cross-section of publishing options for the audience. At the time I was writing entirely on Wattpad, and was representing that angle.
That the festival programmed that panel back in 2019 was and still is fantastic. Even better, there was no judgement or hierarchy from the panellists or audience, just lots of enthusiasm and mutual interest.
The question inevitably came up about whether publishing online, or self-publishing, spoils your chances of being published traditionally. The answer from both Lisa and Helen was a clear ‘no’. If a book was good and fit what the publisher was looking for, it didn’t matter if the author had previously published it in independent form1.
But why doesn’t it matter?
There is a logic to it:
A traditionally published book will always find a new and different audience to an online serial or a self-published book. These are all different audiences, albeit with some overlap. A lot of people who buy books from a physical bookshop will never read an online serial, for example. Therefore there’s still a big market to tap.
If a book has already demonstrated success in indie form, the traditional publisher can look at that as free market research. The author has already proven that there is an audience for the work. With the bigger resources of a major publisher, there should be plenty more customers to find.
The book is already complete! It’s likely been proofed and edited and even beta tested by readers on a blog, or newsletter, or other platform. The publisher knows that they’re not going to have months of trying to wrangle an awkward writer into finishing their manuscript.
The author has already demonstrated their capacity to complete a major project, with nothing more than their own motivation. If there’s potential for a series or sequels or subsequent books, it’s all very encouraging. The publisher can get a good measure of who the writer is.
If the story already had some success in the indie world, that normally means that the author will have built up a decent online presence. Back in the day that would have meant social channels like Twitter and Facebook. These days it might mean a large newsletter list, or TikTok following, or YouTube channel. This is all very useful for a traditional publisher.
If a book has had significant success already in an indie context, such as with extreme cases like The Martian, publishers are playing catch up: of course they’re going to want to get involved, for fear of being left out of the zeitgeist.
In other words, why wouldn’t a traditional publisher pick up and re-package a book that’s had niche, indie success, and bring it to their own market? It’s probably a safer bet than signing a completely new and unproven writer who has yet to be tested in front of an actual readership.
Simultaneous publishing
There’s an interesting thing happening in publishing at the moment. The
book is one example: the turnaround from newsletter to book has been fairly quick (though it might not feel it to Valorie!). The Martian had quite a long journey from manuscript, through online serial, to self-published, to trad.It’s even faster elsewhere. In comics land,
has been publishing her creator-owned comics on her newsletter . The Cull and Black Cloak are both fantastic and can be read by subscribers…but they’re also available to buy in traditional print form from Image Comics. These releases have happened very close to each other and it’s exciting to see. The comics world — at least in the creator-owned space and with the likes of Image — is ahead of the game here, recognising that there are different audiences, and taking a very reader-friendly and author-friendly stance.I’ve not yet heard of a novel being simultaneously serialised and released by a major publisher, though with an increasing number of high profile writers diving into newsletter writing it’s perhaps only a matter of time. What is interesting to see, though, is writers switching between traditional and self-publishing on a per-project basis, depending on the nature of the work and the audience expectations. There’s far less stigma associated with self-publishing, and less starry-eyed expectation with trad publishing.
has talked about how his newsletter has freed him up to write whatever he wants, in the process discovering that audiences respond very positively when authors embrace their inner weirdness.As always, there are exceptions to be found in all cases. The main point to take away from all this is that there are so many options for writers as I scribble this in 2024. Multiple effective ways to find and communicate with readers.
Writing is always exceedingly challenging. Publishing effectively is always difficult, regardless of how you go about it. But finding your tribe, and getting your words into the world, has never been easier.
Enough of my witterings: what’s been your experience?
As long as the author hasn’t signed away any rights, of course.
In the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries it was common for novels to be published first as magazine serials and then in book form if it was felt to merit publication in that form. I suspect and hope that process will repeat itself for online publication now.
My favorite authors all were serial writers: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Alexandre Dumas, O'Henry