: Published on blog but taken down: Still remains previously-published? A whole lot of publishing houses look at works posted on blogs as "previously published". Now, let us say I put something

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It sounds as if you're looking for an authoritative definition of "previously published." There may be such a definition, but I suspect not.

More importantly: I don't think you need one.

Instead, let the publishers decide. When you submit your manuscript, inform them of where and when you previously made your book available to the public, and let them decide. They can use their own definition. Or if your book is sufficiently compelling, they can relax their rules and accept it anyway.

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Would it count as "previously published" if it appeared in your (print) newspaper, but it was three years ago and nobody is likely to still have old copies lying around? This seems like an analogous case.

Your blog post, if it was at any time public, probably is still out there, in the Wayback Machine if nothing else. (And the newspaper might well be in an archive at the local library.) Once published you lose control over propagation.

I am neither a lawyer nor a publisher, but I've seen friends who submit stories for publication (successfully) be extremely careful about not posting them publicly first, even temporarily, even on Internet-based critique sites that aren't locked somehow. It seems to me from all this that "previously published" means "was previously published", not "is still findable from a previous publication". Of course, you should seek clarification of what any particular publisher means by that contractual language.

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Great question, and I don't have a definitive answer. I believe the answer is no (in the book sense), I've been told there is a difference between "previously available" and "published." A good thing to check out would be those books that are actually just compilations of blog entries.

For myself, I would likely put on the copyright page of the book "Parts of this book were originally available on my blog xyz.abc" so that it's clear.

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