im such a div can anyone give me some advice please??

[DoesMyHairyBigToeOffendYou]

i've written loads of poems and recently my mum sent 2 of them into our local evening post newspaper and both of them got printed!! loads of people have advised me to get a poetry book published, but im really enjoying just seeing them in the paper for others to enjoy and just for fun!!
to see them in black and white for everyone to see gave me a much needed boost of confidence, and i want to send lots more in!
im a bit worried that because they have been in the paper and on facebook, if i did want to do a book etc, would i be able to use the ones that i ve already sent in? and what if some one really really liked them and stole them from me? so where do i go from here???

sorry if this wastes your time :)

[artifarti]

I'm no expert - I'm sure there are others who know more than me who will be long soon - but I doubt that having them published in your local paper is a problem - the copyright should remain with you. And presumably you put them on your own Facebook page so that's okay. If you send them in to any competitions, check the terms and conditions about copyright; often it stays with you but in some instances (if they publish them on their own website, for example) they may say something like 'copyright reverts to the author after a year.'

If you publish online there's always the risk that someone could steal them. The old-fashioned way was to put your writing in a sealed envleope and post it to yourself so there's a date on it - not sure if that's the best way to do it these days!

There's lots of good advice in the Writers and Artist's Yearbook - your local library should have a copy.

Good luck.

[DoesMyHairyBigToeOffendYou]

thankyou very much :) i felt in a catch 22 but now i know where i'm to look and will be able to get more advice!

thankyou very much :)