Short stories: what counts as "published"?

[amaldae]

I know this comes up every now and then, but I can never locate the right answer when I need it... So, once again: if a short story is only published on the author's website and is not available for download or a part of a series/anthology, should it be deleted from the database, or does posting it on the first place constitute as publishing?

[rivka, Former Moderator]

That depends. Does it have its own page? Does the author consider it a published work? (If they had a cover made just for the story, that's a sign that they probably do, although lacking a cover doesn't necessarily mean they don't.) If so, it's probably ok.

Was it only ever published somewhere else (like as part of a magazine) and the author's site has a link to it, or a PDF of the page(s) from the magazine? Then probably should not be here. Blog posts that happen to be stories also should not be here.

Unfortunately, there's a lot of in-between cases as well.

[amaldae]

rivka wrote: "Unfortunately, there's a lot of in-between cases as well."

True. I'll have to work on a case-by-case basis, then. Thank you!