Blog Posts as "Books"

[Krystal109]

I know fanfictions are allowed, but what about blog posts.

Fore example:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13...

this is a blogpost that after some searching through the authors website/blog I found here: http://www.largeprimenumbers.com/news...

Should this really be allowed as "published"? I mean if everything that a person blogs can be considered a "book" then there is a lot of trash that is going to be added.

The issue I have is that right now the entries for all of this "authors" work is basically empty listings with a title.

[❂ Murder by Death]

I don't think it should be a book, but I'm a purist. :)

[Krystal109]

I agree, but I would like for rivka and the supers to chime in. If this isn't considered a book they need to be deleted and the author needs to be taken off the GR's program.

I think a line needs to be drawn somewhere on "online publication" and a BLOG is not publication. Otherwise, I could post a poem on livejournal, facebook, or myspace and go, "Look I am an author".

[Beth]

My understanding is that it is considered "published," albeit online. I had one similar, that was all of three pages long, published only on the author's blog. But the verdict is that it *was* a published story, and stayed.

[Krystal109]

So basically we are saying that anything that people post online can be considered "books" and allowed on GR's.

Hell if we allow that crap then I find it funny we barely allow comics and magazines... they are closer to complete works than the everyday drivel you read on people's blogs.

I understand it if stuff is posted on a website designed to share your "work" like many fanfiction websites or personal websites dedicated to PURE WRITING, but a personal blog that is full of other stuff like LOL Cat pictures, youtube videos, etc should not count.

I mean seriously... where is the line?


EDIT: We are just asking for every moron who has a blog to write a paragraph of nonesense, post it on here, and then make themselves a GR's author. Is that really what GR's is about now?

[Iben]

Krystal109 wrote: "So basically we are saying that anything that people post online can be considered "books" and allowed on GR's.

Hell if we allow that crap then I find it funny we barely allow comics and magazines..."

Awesomeness, I'm an author!!!

*ahem* Actually I totally agree, blog posts shouldn't be counted as published pieces of work. That's just silly

[rivka, Former Moderator]

It seems a bit silly, but how is it different than an ebook published as a single sub-page of a website?

[Cait]

Wow, that seems unnecessarily inflammatory. Even if we decide that this doesn't constitute a publication of these stories, there's no need to call it drivel or nonsense.

[Krystal109]

I'm not saying THIS is Cait and I haven't read it to say that it is or isn't. I am saying that anyone can say... hey I posted something on the "interwebs" so now I am an author.

I think it is just too broad.

As for the ebooks of the 1 page, at least ebooks are downloadable and available on other websites. I don't have to sift through 100+ posts of your band, LOL Cats, what you ate for dinner, etc to find it.

I'm not saying this kind of writing shouldn't be allowed, I am just saying the source from which it comes needs to be more "credible".

Like I said, I think some amendment should be added. For example, the website must be dedicated to literary writing (such as poetry, fanfiction, short stories, etc). Another option is that if you work is not published on a website such as that, you would need to upload a PDF/ebook on GR's of the text so that it is accessible to people (and therefore published on a "credible" website).

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Krystal109 wrote: "As for the ebooks of the 1 page, at least ebooks are downloadable and available on other websites."

Not all ebooks are downloadable. We have long accepted those posted on author sites, as long as they are identified as a book, or short story, or whatever. This is so identified.

[Krystal109]

Okay, "many" are. The ones that aren't are commonly posted on literary websites.

As stated that is an "author website". This goes along with the website being dedicated to literature... not blogging anything that comes to your head.

[Andrea]

About this... I was wondering, what is the original publication date for a story published online by chapters? (like on fictionpress.com, for example)

Is it the publication date for the first or last chapter or could it be something else?

[rivka, Former Moderator]

I'd say last chapter. That's what we do with Dickens, for instance.

[Beth]

I ran across a short story, recently, published on an author's website...not a small-time author, either...and I had to play hide and seek to find it, amongst her blogs of what she ate, where she went, and so on...so it does happen.