WIP Poll Results
Posted by annastan on January 11th, 2010. Filed under: A Closer Look, Polls, Random Fun, WIP.Thanks to everyone who took part in and commented on the poll last Friday! It was fascinating to hear all the different views about posting your WIPs online. As I expected, there wasn’t one clear consensus, but there were definitely some interesting trends.
Here are the results:
Though putting together the poll was fun, my favorite part was reading everyone’s comments. Clearly this isn’t an issue with one right answer. Here’s an overview of the pros and cons people mentioned.
Pros
-The social aspect of sharing your work. As John pointed out, sharing parts of your WIP can get people excited about your writing while you’re working toward the goal of publication. Cheryl gave a great example of this: reading her friend’s NaNo excerpts made her excited to read the final version of the book.
-It can help you get some feedback on your writing. John did point out that he got more encouragement than useful feedback on improving his work, but encouragement is always nice, right?
-Potential exposure to agents/editors. As Beth mentioned in the comments, a sample chapter on her website supplemented her query letter and helped her land an agent. (Yay!)
Cons
-Revealing too much. As Andrea pointed out, there are some people who “firmly believe in Julia Cameron’s zip-the-lip theory” about sharing WIPs.
-Danger of “self-publishing.” As Cynthia noted, shorter projects such as picture books pretty much can’t be shared online without it being considered a form of publishing. Writers whose work is longer have a bit more freedom in this department.
-Interfering with the submission process. There were a couple of you who mentioned that agents/editors might not look fondly on having work on your website because it no longer feels “fresh” when it’s on submission. This is definitely something to talk about with your agent.
And that’s about it. Thanks again for all your thoughtful comments! It certainly made me think more about the different reasons for and against sharing work online. Putting your work up for others to see can certainly help spread the word about your writing and help you connect with potential readers, but it’s important to also be aware of the possible negative impact that sharing your work can have, especially if you hope to have it published someday.
Make sure to stop by tomorrow for a guest post on writing historical fiction by YA author Alisa Libby.
