If you publish something and revise it, can you submit it again as a new work?

Let's discuss!

Welcome to our weekend conversation!

---

Many of you may recall a woman I introduced you to a few months ago. Her name was Sugar McSpoon.

Sugar was facing a conundrum. She had written a short story and it was published. For Sugar, this was not just any story. It was one of her strongest creations yet. “My Kingdom for a Bowl of Cereal” was a masterpiece! A heartbreaking work of staggering et cetera!

Unfortunately for Sugar, not much happened with the story once it was published. There were no public readings, no social media buzz. There were no anthology nominations. The story was not even published online. It was just printed…and then…nothing.

So I asked all of you: Would it be wrong for Sugar to attempt to re-publish this story and not disclose in her cover letter that the story had been published elsewhere?

It turns out that Lit Mag News readers are an ethical lot indeed. Sugar should be honest! was the general sentiment in the comments. Sugar should not attempt to deceive! Sugar should only submit to magazines that accept reprints! Do not go down that path of crime, Sugar! Walk in the valley of light!

You get the idea. Great and upstanding advice all around.

Well now. It’s a few months later and Sugar has a new situation on her hands. Actually, it is a situation not only experienced by Sugar, but by several others, as this question was posed to me two times just this past week.

B. wrote to me and asked:

How can you tell if a piece…has been tweaked enough to not count as a reprint? Is there a formula, for example, for calculating a certain percentage of the piece that has been altered?