Today I got a note from an aspiring author, worried about someone stealing a good story idea. I've heard the question many times, and here's what I generally answer:
Your stuff probably isn’t worth stealing.
Not that it’s a bad idea—but it’s an idea that’s probably been explored many times before. Even if you’ve got a good angle on it, how would anyone “steal” it? They’d have to find a known writer with a good sales track record, who would be willing to crank out a novel based on your idea, and then spend thousands to edit, print, distribute, and publicize it. Chances are that, like most novels, it would die within six weeks.
Note that I'm talking about novels. Stealing a good idea for a movie makes sense, because millions are involved, but novels are strictly small change. A good thief never steals anything small.
Publishing is all about making money, not throwing it away. A successful writer wouldn’t go along with the steal, partly out of sheer ego—“My own ideas are better than this one.” And the time it would take to write a rip-off novel would be time taken away from their own projects. On top of that, being exposed as a story thief would ruin the writer’s reputation, and the publisher’s. (Every contract has a clause about legal battles that might result from publication, and the author has to take responsibility with the publisher.)
So honesty is more or less forced on publishers. So send them your pitch, with a good sample of your novel in progress. And if they like the idea, and the writing is competent, and you can tell a good story, they will gamble with an unknown writer. Even if they lose, it's just small change. And if they win, they'll gladly publish every book you write, with lots of publicity.
Just as long as you keep making money for them.
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