Are we publishing?

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   kimberlyslyricsposted 12 years ago

   simple question do you consider given no editor approvals an a green button that says publish now qualifies any hub to be publishing?
   
   Don't freak out on me it's a legitimate question.
   
   Truthfully I waver back and forth in my thoughts on this.
   
   Thank you
   
   

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      Lisa HWposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I think there are different types of publishing, and now that this kind of publishing has been "invented" it's just one more kind of publishing; so, yes, I see it a "publishing".  At the same time, I don't see it as "equal" (at all) to conventional publishing.
      
      To further differentiate it from conventional publishing, or from the question, "Have you ever been published?", there's the thing that this is essentially self-publishing, but beyond that it's also done without a lot of the stuff that authors have to do when self-publishing is really "self".  So I see this as a "smaller" form of even self-publishing.  Maybe the fact that a site like this has the power to say what's published on here means it isn't really even self-publishing (or completely self-publishing) either.
      
      But either way, I do see it as a form of publishing, even if all forms of publishing aren't something I see as equal. 

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         kimberlyslyricsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Thank you Lisa

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      Paragliderposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I've run up against this a few times, especially with poetry. I consider a poem to be published only if it has been submitted to some editorial selection process and accepted.
      Many poetry editors say that all submissions should be previously unpublished. But some take that to mean 'never posted in the public domain' while others use my earlier definition.
      It's a grey area. Especially on Hubpages where the team reserve the right to unpublish for breach of whatever. How can you unpublish what has never been published?

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         kimberlyslyricsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Paraglider thank you
         
         You actually helped me by validating how I have always felt here.  Not negative, just truth, cheers 

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2. 79

   QuestionMasterposted 12 years ago

   No, it's not publishing - publishing requires hard work, editing and time.
   
   I don't consider the majority of Kindle books as publishing either.

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      kimberlyslyricsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      

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3. 62

   Hokeyposted 12 years ago

   Just to make something available to be read by others is not in my opinion publishing. To publish is to perform a series of tasks with the inevitable conclusion as to bring the person reading the text feel involved. Thatswhat I like to think anyway. I love stories.

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      kimberlyslyricsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Well said Hokey but all I consistantly hear is
      
      I published today
      
      I have published 200 hubs
      
      I am a published writer
      
      I publish when I feel like it
      
      I publish fiction
      
      Just hit the green I published button and ta da your published
      
      you get my point
      
      I have done it myself
      
      At minimum if we had an approval process to be published by editors and not hubs pulled by moderators after 4 weeks when it is starting to gain weight I would feel differently.
      
      Look yes I am ranting but I don't care at the end of the day what you call what we do as long as we can do it, just wish it was legit cause so much would change and I do love it here.
      
      whew
      
      ok

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         SomewayOuttaHereposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         ...mornin' KL...later....gotta go make some dough...

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            kimberlyslyricsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            I feel that

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         MickeySrposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         KImberly,
         
         Does it seem to you that perhaps 'writer' is something others should recognize you to be or that some time of being published and well received evidences you to be - rather than something anyone can simply announce themselves to be? Sometimes when I see someone list themselves as 'a writer' I think really, or do you mean like how some of the kids on American Idol would call themselves 'singers'? Like, you just want to be so you imagine that you are? I love to write, I am delighted with favorable reviews, I won an award - but it doesn't seem, I don't know, appropriate or attractive (?), for me to assert myself to be a writer . . . if others say "you're a good writer" I'm delighted, but I don't know that, simply because I do it and enjoy it, I can reasonably announce myself to be 'a writer'.

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            tobusinessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            I agree with MickeySr, in the conventional sense of the word, i think you are published when your work is placed into the public arena and is validated by people who are prepared to spend their hard earned cash to buy it. I love writing, but that does not make me a writer, however, if you all went out and bought my stuff who knows.....

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   Randy Godwinposted 12 years ago

   I've sold both creative writing and travel articles to sites which then published them or now offer the CW stories for sale on Kindle and AudioBooks. How should I consider these sales--Published or self-published.  Inquiring minds want to know! 

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5. 79

   Uninvited Writerposted 12 years ago

   pub·lish  (pblsh)
   v. pub·lished, pub·lish·ing, pub·lish·es
   v.tr.
   1. To prepare and issue (printed material) for public distribution or sale.
   2. To bring to the public attention; announce. See Synonyms at announce.
   v.intr.
   1. To issue a publication.
   2. To be the writer or author of published works or a work.

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6. 78

   MickeySrposted 12 years ago

   This is a bit of a puzzle for me. Theoretically, I mean, apart from examined evidence and consequences and only as I reason it in my head; there are creative forms that are collaborative and creative forms that are personal . . . film, with actors portraying characters envisioned by a writer and advised by a director, etc, is collaborative - sculpting is personal. Writing, as you are doing it, is certainly personal - if the counsel of an editor is enlisted, is then collaborative? And should it be? Writing seems to me to be the most intimately personal creative process . . . not everyone can paint or sculpt, etc, but everyone can write (in some manner ) - so when you publish something you've written for others to read you are setting, not merely your work before them, you are setting yourself before them. In other words, people can see in a painting or sculpture work they cannot create - but in a book or poem or lyrics or whatever, people need to consider why they should read this . . . like, a guy who loves his wife might look at a poem by a writer celebrating how he loves his wife and wonder why he should read this, he loves his wife as well and he's not asking others to read him writing about it. So, theoretically, I think writing is a most intimate and personal endeavor.
   
   However, in practice; I was asked to take over the task of preparing a church bulletin years ago and I turned it into a journal of sorts. Working with me was a friend who write for The National Historic Society. We worked together as publishers, seeking article contributions and providing themes, etc, and my friend worked as an editor . . . including editing my contributions. It was not at all easy for me to heed his suggestions - I felt that as I was writing I had deliberated over phrasing things as I did or as he would suggest to me, and I chose to phrase it the way I phrased it for a reason. Yet, again and again after publication I could see his point . . . I wasn't always convinced, but very frequently I think he improved my effort.
   
   Now, upon coming to HubPages my understanding was that not any and everything submitted would be published, that there were editors here would would approve and disapprove submissions . . . basically that, unlike blogs, only good (magazine quality) writing would be approved for publication as a hub. Since joining the community here I've read some, only a few, hubs that seem to demonstrate to me that there is no editorial reviewing taking place at all. I understand that this would be a massive undertaking, and perhaps the hubs I have in mind have been long gone by now, I'm not commenting on the quality of work done by whoever edits here and I'm sure there is plenty I could be rightly faulted for by an editor - so I guess what I'm saying is; I don't want anyone telling me just how I should write and express my own personal creative efforts - but I think a few out there would really benefit from the sincere aid of a good editor . . . and some would benefit from being encouraged to try their hand at sculpting.

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      kimberlyslyricsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      brilliant post thank you

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   Uninvited Writerposted 12 years ago

   If you write, you are a writer.

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      MickeySrposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      If you pretend are you an actor? If you prepare food are you a chef? If you sing in the shower are you a singer? Doesn't 'writer' suggest something other than someone who simply writes . . . like, people go to work and write reports, people send notes to family, my wife left a grocery list on my desk, etc - doesn't 'writer' suggest something other than the mere act of jotting down language, like amongst all of us who write things down all the time (everyone on the planet), aren't writers people who are recognized by others as writing something worth reading?

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         kimberlyslyricsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I hear you Mickey 100% but back in the day I was an actor only because I started being one by saying I was one then becoming one almost instantly.
         
         example; I am not ashamed but am not a writer.  I am a messenger of sorts in the way I deliver communications.  I am a messenger because I say I am, know I am and believe I am
         
         But didn't get the accolade
         
         hugs

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         Uninvited Writerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         No. To me a person who gets paid to write, regardless of what others think of their work, is a writer. I'm not talking about being able to write, most of us can write but we are not all writers. Kimberly was talking about those of us who write here.
         
         But, I agree, some people here would be better trying something else. But the people here who put their thoughts to paper (not the scrapers) are writers; full or part-time. I have never bought into the mindset that in order to be considered a writer you must be published professionally and in the right places.

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            MickeySrposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            I agree one who is paid to write can reasonably identify himself a 'writer' - but I think there are people who are not paid to write, and may not themselves feel comfortable identifying themselves as a 'writer', but who I personally would reasonably call a 'writer' counting that their writing meets the standards of what others are paid to do, even if they (for whatever reason) are not being paid to write.
            
            I acknowledge though, that I tend to be meticulous about categories and titles, etc - way back when, I used to cause my hippie pals distress when I would make the distinction between 'art' and 'craft' . . . in the 60s it all just became 'arts & crafts'. It seemed (and seems) to me that if a bohemian lifestyle appeals to you so go to craft shows and tool belts and make macrame plant holders and you call yourself an 'artist', then we have to come-up with some other name for what da Vinci and Renoir were doing.
            
            I fiddle with guitar, but when I listen to Kim Simmonds or Steve Cropper, I can't reasonably call myself a guitarist. I like to think this comes from some internal sense of integrity and not some poorly constructed stubbornness, but I don't know. To me, it feels like an insult to John Lee Hooker if I call myself a guitarist,  it seems a slander against Caravaggio for a kid tapping designs unto a belt to call himself an artist, etc.
            
            But, I don't claim to know what I'm talking abut (on this)  - just sharing my own interests. Kimberly, to me, is easily a writer . . . expressing, sharing, touching others with her heart through words - she's a writer, right?

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               Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               I have similar feelings about music, art, and writing.  Although I once made my living playing guitar, when asked by those who didn't know me if I were a musician, I would simply respond  "some people don't think so."
               
               I'm still trying to discover if I am indeed a writer, but it's hard to tell on these type writing sites.

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               Uninvited Writerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               She definitely is a writer...

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      kimberlyslyricsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I swear I want to engrave that on a pen
      
      Even though I still struggle with this unimportant topic you actually helped with your last post so thanks!
      
      XO

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      kimberlyslyricsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      If you are a writer you write

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   Shadesbreathposted 12 years ago

   The dilemma here is one of language (no surprise amongst a community of people who write, but ironic nonetheless). We have ONE word "writer" or one word "published," but we don't have one understanding of what that means. In my opinion, there are three tiers to this problem, and it is the unsuccessful clarification regarding which of them we are interested in defining in any given conversation in which we want to call someone a "writer" or say that they are "published."
   
   1. The basic verb (to write, to publish): As Uninvited Writer pointed out, if you write, you are a writer. By implication, if you publish, you are published. If you jump you are a jumper, etc.
   
   2. The occupational noun: A writer = a person who writes professionally. Publisher = a person who makes his or her living (or its living in the case of the commercial entity) by publishing written works. (The difference between full time/fully self sustained writer and part-time writer muddles this even further).
   
   3. The romantic noun: The writer as artist, or as influencer. Our culture has a dreamy notion of the writer as a particular type of figure. While there are lots of variations on this nuance (tough crack reporter, profound academic thinker, visionary expert, poetic idealist, etc.), they all share in the central "coolness" of the label. The primary differentiation here between what is or is not this type of writer is quality of output.
   
   In my opinion, the bulk of the controversy comes from number 3. People in category number 1 are examined (and examine themselves) in the light of number 2 and 3. You can be both 1 and 2, and yet still not really fit into category 3 (many HP people fall into that category). You can be in 1 and 3, and not 2 (you can think of plenty of great writers who weren't discovered until after they were dead, and I would argue there are likely some HP writers in this number-3 camp as well).
   
   The answer to the OP's question lies in all that. Which is why the conversation about what being published, or what being a writer or an "author" is or is not hasn't been worked out yet. We need new words to capture the nuance of meaning, which is what seems to me MickeySr was getting at with the renaming of people who do crafts as something other than artists.

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   kimberlyslyricsposted 12 years ago

   

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    kimberlyslyricsposted 12 years ago

    I asked myself last night did I just publish and what I suppose made sense to me was to finish that line.  No I do not feel I published but worded as Did I publish a Hub somehow puts things in perspective for me.
    
    Or I am super need of sleep
    
    

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