As an MFA candidate, you may think that the most important thing for you as a writer is “being read.” As someone who went down the MFA road in the nineties, and whose thesis formed the basis of my first book, I can tell you that longterm ownership of your creative work is far more important than the immediate satisfaction of being read.

It has come to my attention that some university libraries are requiring graduate students to make their theses available remotely “for educational purposes.” If your university has requested this, fight back and say no. The very purpose of MFA programs in creative writing is to prepare writers for a career in writing. During the course of the program, MFA candidates are expected to produce a “publishable book.” The moment you publish that book online for the benefit of your university library, you have taken away the motive for your future readers to purchase the book. Good luck finding representation with a literary agent, or sending out your book to publishers, or to first-book contests that seek “an unpublished work.”

If you’re an MFA student whose university has pressured you to make your book-length thesis available online, talk to your department head. Professors should be fighting on behalf of their students. I also encourage you to visit the Authors Guild for more information about copyright protection.