No need to apologize. I think it’s healthy to challenge assumptions and explore possibilities. But to your point - every major company I’ve ever worked for has required employees to sign a waiver, giving the company rights to any work done while employed by them. P & G, Ralston Purina, and several Universities. There was always a question whether work you did that was private would fall under that waiver and in one case, I believe it did. And if you do any research work as faculty, that doesn’t belong to you either; it’s the property of the University.
I wasn’t aware of the student requirement. My daughter does a lot of creative writing and is a published poet. Several things she’s submitted were written while an undergrad. Maybe the rules were different because there was no online portal or competitions were acceptable. These days, so many kids blog online and may often include something they wrote while in school. I wonder whether it makes a difference if you are not seeking some kind of financial remuneration, although those poetry contests always came with a cash prize.
Also, consider what happened with Karen McDougal, the Playboy model who was the victim of the cash and kill strategy of the National Enquirer. For a wannabe writer, that’s death. My daughter has to be very selective about who she sends her writing to because once she’s paid even $1, she surrenders rights to her writing and can never submit it to another publication. And that story or poem, no matter how good, may never see the light of day. In a writer’s case, it’s not an effort to kill a story but just overly ambitious plans for a publication. The editors may just accept more than they’ll need in order to have a good inventory to choose from.
To be honest, if WTF-ers wanted to move forward with the project and were willing to submit personal reflections, I see no reason to ask them to sign away their rights. I’m sure that if they took it to another publisher and it came out that the reflection had appeared in a book, no editor would touch it. But what are the chances that a personal reflection on life during Trump’s presidency would be in high demand? I’m personally interested in such a project, but it remains to be seen whether the general public would have enough interest. Of course, there’s always self-publishing; I know a bit about it. But that’s another subject for another post!
