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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/38104
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/38104
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

If publishing rights are yours, then they're yours, and you can reprint the story as you like.

Yes, it's possible some publishers will be uninterested (or less interested) in a story that's been published freely. On the other hand, the internet is a large and wild place -- it's unlikely that publishing your own short stories will be seen as losing considerable audience for some hypothetical future publisher. Either almost nobody will have read them, or (unlikely, but possible:) they'll have gained some following, in which case printing them brings them to a wider audience.

I've seen many authors choose to reprint their own stories on their own websites -- including award-winning authors such as [Ken Liu](https://kenliu.name/stories/single-bit-error/), [Sarah Pinsker](http://www.sarahpinsker.com/our_lady_of_the_open_road/), and more. It's something to give some thought to, but sometimes, even if this _does_ prevent you from reprinting the story elsewhere, having a good "fiction portfolio" on your site is worth losing that hypothetical opportunity.

Do bear in mind that plenty of short fiction is published free online to begin with! (This is certainly true in fantasy, SF, and horror, where many of the most popular venues are free; YMMV by genre.) Some of them get reprinted anyway (albeit probably not online...).

Original score: 4