Here are some of the questions we get at KidPub:
Q: Who owns the copyright to my story if I publish it on KidPub?
A: The author owns the copyright. KidPub does not assume any rights to posted stories.
Q: I want to publish my story in a book or magazine. How do I do that?
A: Even if you are a really good writer it can be difficult to get your story
published. Start by going to your local library for a copy of Children's
and Illustrator's Market, which is full of information on how to get started.
There are also magazines such as Stone Soup
that publish stories.
Q: Can you remove my old stories from KidPub?
A: Because KidPub has been online since 1995, many of our authors are now in their twenties
are surprised when they Google their name and see stories written when they were ten! We are able
to remove stories from the KidPub database, just send us an email
with the story title and author's name. It's important to understand that Google and other
search engines keep their own copies of web pages, so even if the story has been removed from the KidPub site, it will probably still appear in a Google search.
Q: Do you edit stories?
A: No, we feel that changing a kid's story makes them feel that maybe their
work isn't good enough for others to read. We like to let our authors be as
creative with words as they want to be.
Q: How long has KidPub been around?
A: We published the very first story, The Drummer Boy by Jacob J,
in February of 1995. We only had a few visitors a week back then, but the site got bigger
and bigger until finally we were receiving over 1,000 new stories every month.
Now well into our twelfth year, we're one of the oldest sites still running on the
web.
Q: Is KidPub used by homeschoolers?
A: Absolutely! Homeshooling is an important part of the education process, and KidPub
offers homeschooled kids a great place to publish their stories. Home schoolers use KidPub as a resource for their writing and language arts curriculum.
Q: How can my school get involved?
A: The KidPub Schools page lets classes have their own separate page to post
their work. You can
get more information by emailing us at schools@kidpub.com.
Q: How many stories do you have?
A: There are just over 49,000 stories in our database, all available online.
Q: Why is posting on KidPub no longer free?
A: After the passage in 1999 of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act
(COPPA) by congress we now must obtain the permission of a parent before a
child can post a story on KidPub. Under the law the only reasonable method
for us to do this is to charge a small fee payable by credit or debit card.
The idea is that most kids don't have their own credit card, so it must be
the parent making the payment. We charge $12.95 for a one-year membership, which
allows for unlimited story posting. The fee also helps us pay for the servers
and bandwidth that KidPub uses.
You can read more about COPPA here.
Q: Where did all of the schools go?
A: You may remember seeing over a thousand schools in our KidPub Schools section.
I'm still trying to figure out how to bring those stories and classes back
without violating the new Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. I have
all of the stories, though, and I hope to have them back up eventually.