Should I post my writing on Tapastic?

[rajillustration]

Tapas turned off the copy/paste feature on their novels, so that's a help. You can't select any text as you're reading something on here. Honestly, I think that it's just as easy if not easier to steal art than it is to steal an entire novel.

Art you click screen print once and you got their art. In the case of a novel you'd have to physically rewrite the whole thing unless you have a work-around for not being able to select text on Tapas. Art you can upload to a T-shirt website and earn money right away until you finally get caught. Novels you have to go through all the work to gain a following for stolen novels and you will guaranteed get caught before you can earn the 100 subs needed to get ad revenue. Also it's way easier to search for matching text via google than it is to use reverse image search. (when my art gets stolen, they tend to recrop the art anyway so the google image search doesn't work that well)

Long story short, thieves are always out there, but I hope that doesn't keep you from sharing your stories or your art.

[CarltonIsaac]

What if someone more popular steals my story idea? Or my story entirely? How will I prove it? The popular author has more history with writing, and fans who will support them. I wouldn't have that advantage.

Get a legal copyright on your work and mention that on each updated chapter.

[KRWright]

I post my work here. Being honest, it is very unlikely that someone will copy your work word for word somewhere and you cannot trademark or copyright an “idea”. Until a work becomes high value and thus behind a paywall, most people don’t seek to pirate it - and it’s hard to monetise something through an agent etc when it could obviously be copyright claimed by the original artist and cause embarrassment to any company attached.

[ChristodeBoyet]

As @rajillustration said with Tapas having turned off the ability to copy text on novels, it makes it real hard to do it here.

Most other sites for writing generally don't do this. You're safest bet is starting here, building a small audience, and then posting elsewhere. I waited a full year before I even decided to post anywhere else, you don't have do the same thing, but it would totally back any claims that you're the one who originally wrote said story. Since there is such a large discrepancy in the time it would have been written.

Get a legal copyright on your work and mention that on each updated chapter.

This is the internet, friend, copyrights be damned! It's happened in the past with copyrighted works and it still happens. But, they don't get very far because of said original creators being more popular. Most works only get stolen if their massively popular and being massively popular means their easy to find.

[darkone4587]

You should if you have the time to. I can understand the fear of someone stealing your content, but that's a risk everyone takes when posting anything online.
You've just gotta go for it and roll the proverbial dice.

[CarltonIsaac]

This is the internet, friend, copyrights be damned! It's happened in the past with copyrighted works and it still happens.

Legal copyright may not deter piracy, but it guarantees a fighting chance in a legality situation.

But, they don't get very far because of said original creators being more popular. Most works only get stolen if their massively popular and being massively popular means their easy to find.

Are you refuting yourself in the next line here? Then what's the point of your first sentence?

The OP has a natural concern for their work being copied, and acquiring a legal copyright on it is a means of getting protection. What's your beef with that?

And, 'they're' and 'their' don't mean the same thing. For a writer, one should be aware of such things.

[33rdCenturyCaveman]

Plagiarism am problem for any artist. Even if you publish traditional paper books there am still chance of pirate scanning book and uploading PDF. Mebbe even using OCR to digitize text and distribute as ebook.

All me can say is, keep producing, keep producing, and keep control of your intellectual property. Understand what protections am available under law. If you see someone torrenting your IP, ask nicely to take it down. Proceed to legal action if you have to, but usually by this time you big enough to have people handling this. If you am worried about unauthorized translations being sold in foreign markets like China, only recourse am to push own translations into them markets.

Cannot really do much about other artists mining your work for plots, characters, and other ideas. That nature of art. Everyone am riffing off everyone else.

[ChristodeBoyet]

Are you refuting yourself in the next line here? Then what's the point of your first sentence?

No, i'm not refuting myself. It means exactly what it means. It happens and is soon put to a stop. The point of the first sentence is to explain that copyrighted works get stolen whether their copyrighted or not.

The OP has a natural concern for their work being copied, and acquiring a legal copyright on it is a means of getting protection. What's your beef with that?

The OP isn't concerned about their work being copied, they're worried about it being stolen alone. An IP if stolen outright is already something OP has the possibility of dealing with. 'Copying' is something that happens in art and writing constantly and usually nothing can be done about it. I was merely informing OP that a copyright won't stonewall their work from being stolen. No beef, just info, because OP should be informed.

And, 'they're' and 'their' don't mean the same thing. For a writer, one should be aware of such things.

Sorry, I'm a dum dum sometimes. Maybe I need some gum gum.

Oh! Right! 'Their' was used correctly, you just didn't read that last sentence well. I was talking about works and didn't mention a person... Thanks for informing me! So much still to learn.

[Maps]

To be fair, and I want to die because I’m not usually a grammar snob, but it should be “they’re” and not “their”. If I’m looking at the right bit : “...and being massively popular means they are easy to find”.

THAT SAID. I know the difference between these types of words but I will still subconsciously type them wrong when I’m in the zone... or (in)autocorrect does it for me. So I don’t get why we all gotta be on people about it. Especially since a lot of people on this site are second language learners.

[Maps]

Oh. And yes, OP you should post your work. I had some of the same worries about my writing, but I feel it’s more rewarding to go for it. Chances are it won’t get copied or stolen.

[CarltonIsaac]

I was merely informing OP that a copyright won't stonewall their work from being stolen.

That's a given and I've already acknowledged so here -

Legal copyright may not deter piracy, but it guarantees a fighting chance in a legality situation.

What comes across from your info is advising the OP to not bother with copyrighting their material at all and deny themselves a fighting chance to reclaim what is theirs. That's really bad advice.

Oh! Right! 'Their' was used correctly, you just didn't read that last sentence well.

If you think that you used 'their' correctly in your sentence then you need 'a sh*t ton of luck' getting your writing taken seriously.

[CarltonIsaac]

So I don’t get why we all gotta be on people about it. Especially since a lot of people on this site are second language learners.

I agree and like most of what you're saying here except for this part. To be taken seriously as a writer, it is imperative to write in the required standard, irrespective of being a native speaker of the Language of choice being used.

It is always a good practice to help someone improve by showing them the errors they have made. And it is always a bad thing to say doing so makes one a 'grammar snob.'

No editor, proofreader or publisher worth their salt is going to tolerate the incorrect usage of grammar and punctuation.

[Maps]

I get that, in terms of helping people grow in their writing (and kudos to that). But it’s just the forums and I don’t usually take errors on casual platforms as a means to criticize someone’s writing skills as a published author.

No editor, proofreader or publisher worth their salt is going to tolerate the incorrect usage of grammar and punctuation.

Well, hopefully and editor or proofreader can deal with some of that. Isn’t that what they’re hired for?

And, MY GAWD, I’d hope a publisher would not.

[CarltonIsaac]

But it’s just the forums and I don’t usually take errors on casual platforms as a means to criticize someone’s writing skills as a published author.

That's what forms a habit, and leads to extra work and effort keeping that out of more formal writing.

Yes, editors are hired for precisely that, however if the writer is constantly turning in work that needs editing and correcting, and are doubling down on their erroneous ways... any decent publisher should show them the door.
Except if they're 'Asimov, King, Martin' quality and marketability, but anyhow, writers of such calibre wouldn't confuse 'their' with' they're/they are' and 'your' with 'you're/you are'.
And then there's also that constant misplacement of the apostrophe that changes the meaning of entire sentences.

[LovelyOtter]

No, I’m afraid of my work being copied and stolen.

[LovelyOtter]

Thanks for all of the help, everyone! I’ll think on it!

[33rdCenturyCaveman]

True grammar snob am edit entire million-word webnovel for free.

[CarltonIsaac]

True grammar snob am edit entire million-word webnovel for free.

With 'light-speed reading' in your era, it should be barely an hour's job.

[33rdCenturyCaveman]

Me have old-fashioned meat brain only. Still, me do okay.

[LovelyOtter]

That’s good!