Chasing Wattpad

Are you giving it away?

I was reading a friends blog yesterday and I came across a piece that she titled "Giving it away for free". It was written by an excellent writer on Wattpad named @MorrighansMuse (Liz Madrid). If you haven't checked her awesome profile page do it. You will not regret it. She wrote an excellent blog on another site about Wattpadders giving away their writing for free and the recent theft of several stories from Wattpad by some Vietnamese website. The last part is not new. I do recall some posting from other writers about some other sites as well that have stolen stories from Wattpad.

Check out her blog. http://lizmadrid.com/2015/05/25/giving-it-away-for-free/

Since I have never really planned to publish anything for profit I am not at all familiar with the laws regarding what we put on the web. I came on to Wattpad with no qualms about posting my writings. I had posted many on Facebook already. I do remember, though, an internet crime training seminar I went to once where the speaker said in no uncertain terms "If you put it on the internet you can't take it back. If you put it on the internet it belongs to everybody. The law might say they can't make any money from it without compensating you, but they sure as hell can give it away for free just like you did." I am sure that since then there have been many laws enacted to control this, but to be honest, I don't know how you could enforce laws like that. When you put it out there it might very well be for the taking.

Back in the day when the internet first came on line there was a big deal about all the information posted on there being free for everyone. Of course there is copyright law to protect you from publishing companies and such making money off of your work. But those were originally enacted so people could not steal your work as their own and profit from it.

But is it stolen if you are giving it away?

My buddy on Wattpad wondered why people do this in the first place. Why put your hard earned work on here for free? Why not write it up and submit it to a publishing company? Are some of you wasting your time here?

Think about it. Some of you really put your heart into your work. And I honestly believe some of you could make a good living off of your writing. Are you even trying? Or does that matter to you?

I'm guessing a lot of you do it the same reason I do. This is a good place to get feedback. I get a lot of good constructive criticism here that I don't think I can get anywhere else. And I am getting if from both readers and quality writers so that is cool.

I don't have an answer to this problem of giving your stuff away and the rampant theft of stories because, well, I am actually giving my stuff away. You have to decide if this place is safe for you and your writing. You have to decide if it is worth it.

Many of you work too damn hard on your craft to not at least ask yourself the question. Are you giving it away?