stories using established charaters

[Chester Hendrix]

I'd like to post a short story I wrote somewhere here on GR, but am unsure of the best place or what the rules are. I want to put it up simply because I'd like a short sample of my writing I could direct others to - and it's a story involving the character of another author [which means I can't ever sell it]. Any suggestions?

HINT: the story involves Elric by Michael Moorcock. I got his permission to submit it to the WRITERS OF THE FUTURE thing a couple years back, but I hate for it to just sit when I could be using it to showcase my writing style [which may or may not be a good idea - but he liked it!] ;-)

[Brenda]

Consider setting up your own web site or blog to do this. Before you post ANYTHING to Goodreads, or Amazon, or a Yahoo group, CHECK THE RIGHTS. By posting you may be giving up all rights to the work. For a book review most people do not care. But you SO do not want to do this for original fiction.

Setting it up on your own website or blog would completely evade this issue. (Remember that Goodreads can go and change the rules tomorrow if they feel like it, and they don't have to tell you.) And you can post links to the work anywhere you like.

[Chester Hendrix]

Brenda-
For my Elric piece, this is not an issue. Mr. Moorcock was very precise - the story could never be sold. It would strictly be a fan piece [there's actually a long story there I may tell someday, but not soon]. If anyone were to 'borrow' it and put it in an anthology for sale they would be in trouble with Mr. Moorcock, not me. I'll never accept a penny for the story - I was grateful to Mr. Moorcock for sanctioning the story to be submitted to a contest.

I had no idea about the rest of your post. I've noticed a number of folks here posting excerpts from their work on their personal page. I haven't been able to figure out how they do it, hence my question above. Now you've given me something else to think about.

I have a blog that I use as a 'store' for my boardgame creations, but it's very difficult for me to work with. I had hoped to avoid creating a blog for my writing - perhaps I should rethink that...

[Brenda]

I am saying that if you post it here, you may be ceding the rights to it. It may be in the boilerplate you agreed to, when you sign on to GR, something like, "By posting material to GR you give all copyright to the work to GR."
No one much cares about comment posts, or even reviews. But if Goodreads has the rights, then you (and Moorcock) are SOL. You probably do not want to put Moorcock into this position.

[Judy]

You might want to post it either on Wattpad or fanfiction.net. Both those sites offer free fiction posted by writers and fanfiction is allowed.

[Chester Hendrix]

Good point. Sounds like I need to bite the bullet and start a blog. *sigh* Thanks for the clarity, Brenda.

Judy - never heard of those - will check them out!