My dearest underwhere,

Did I actually say that?

Each time a reader opens your story (or part of your story) you score a hit! Multi chapter stories posted over time tend to have a larger readership number for that reason.
You can always stick a copyright notice in at the end or even as a revision of previously posted works. Its helpful if you think someone might lift your story word for word and try to pass it off as their own.

Publishers frown on trying to charge people for something that you've given away for free. Even then, say you've posted the first three chapters of a ten chapter saga, they may well give that a thumbs up if they are getting the exclusive on the whole story. e-publishers who invest much less in publishing a story tend to be laxer in these matters.

Paper publishers (the monsters bent on destroying old growth checkered owl habitats) might ask that you withdraw any free e-published versions of the story. That led to a dust up a few years back when ownership changed. the former owner Jinn had no problem pulling an old story pretty much at the authors request. New ownership, not so much. A number of fairly respected writers stopped posting. A direct question to Tiger might help you here, but you're more likely to get a response from Torq.

The best rule of thumb might be, if you hope to sell it, don't give it away. This is especially true if (like me) you hope to desecrate paper when you grow up.

Ms. King is quite right about pen names, sometimes I feel a distinct need to shorten mine to M. Lews, though savvy perverts are not fooled.

Yours
Mad Lews