A whole lot of publishing houses look at works posted on blogs as "previously published". Now, let us say I put something on my blog and it is around for some months (or an year or two). One (not-so) fine (a) day I decide to get stuff published. I take down the (let us say) story off from my blog, wait for a few months (hoping that the cached versions will be wiped out) and then submit it to a publishing group.
My question is: does it still count as "previously published"? Ethically, I would say yes but what would be the legal status on it? If no one can see it, does it still remain published?
P.S: I understand that Writers is not a legal advisory group but as writers, what are your opinions from experience (in case a straight forward answer is not possible)?
Answer
Would it count as "previously published" if it appeared in your (print) newspaper, but it was three years ago and nobody is likely to still have old copies lying around? This seems like an analogous case.
Your blog post, if it was at any time public, probably is still out there, in the Wayback Machine if nothing else. (And the newspaper might well be in an archive at the local library.) Once published you lose control over propagation.
I am neither a lawyer nor a publisher, but I've seen friends who submit stories for publication (successfully) be extremely careful about not posting them publicly first, even temporarily, even on Internet-based critique sites that aren't locked somehow. It seems to me from all this that "previously published" means "was previously published", not "is still findable from a previous publication". Of course, you should seek clarification of what any particular publisher means by that contractual language.
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