Online lit mags

[jzuckerman]

Hi Nathan,
I'm a relatively new writer, focusing on short stories (literary fiction), close to finishing a collection of inter-related stories. I'm not quite up to the querying stage yet, but hopefully will be soon. I've been submitting many of these stories to print versions of literary magazines, with the hope that if a couple of them are picked up, it will help my chances with an agent and/or traditional publisher. Until now, I've shied away from submitting to online mags. My question is this: if I start submitting to online journals, and a story of mine is accepted (and thus "published" on the web, for anyone to see), will that hurt my chances with an agent/publisher with regard to including that story in my collection?
Thanks!
Julie

[Nathan Bransford]

No, it won't as long as you are only granting people a one-time use and you retain all other rights to your story. Be very careful about what you sign! You don't want to tie up the rights.