Hi Jenn! I’m curious if you have any insight as to whether an author sharing some of their story elements online before querying hurts their chance of getting an agent or publisher? Not necessarily the whole story with spoilers, maybe drawings, character sheets, little comics or worldbuilding elements, stuff like that. Would a publisher like that because it’s a gauge for interest, or would that make them more likely to turn the story down because it’s not- I don’t want to say the word ‘virgin’, but a virgin book. Or would it not matter because people recycle work and change their minds all the time. I was just wondering if you’ve ever come across this sort of thing happening. I say this as I’m sitting on a pile of original characters who I want to casually yap about, but also want to be able to get their stories published and am assuming the worst just to be safe. It’d be really nice if you could clear this up for me. Thank you!

Your instinct is correct: IMO, you should definitely NOT post the whole story online, or even large parts of it. However, if you want to share little snippets of things, world building things, research you are doing, sketches, just *random behind the scenes stuff*, "teasers", or whatever -- I see no problem with that. Go for it. Some people on some forums will say you shouldn't post whole stories online because of something called "first publication rights" -- the idea being, the agent/publi...