Booksite

Will Editors Steal Your Ideas?

Most writing teachers hear this question several times a year. “ I have finished my 200,000 word book and it is great. But I’m afraid to send it to an editor for fear he will steal it. How do I protect my work?”

Talk about paranoia. I still wonder where this fear comes from. In the many years I have been involved in this business, I have seen this happen only one time. And the assistant editor didn’t get away with it. The publisher fired him the minute my student pointed this out.

This is so rare I wouldn’t worry about it. The minute your material comes out of your computer you have a common law copyright. If you are concerned, you can formally copyright it with the copyright office at the Library of Congress. I have never done this. I rely on my publisher to take the copyright out in my name when the book is published. This is always in the contract.

It is not unusual for similar ideas to show up at a publisher’s office almost simultaneously. This is often triggered by news events which everyone is exposed to. On the other hand this can be uncanny. In one case an article on tigers from one part of the country arrived at the publishers office. Two weeks later great pictures of these same albino tigers came in from the other side of the country. This happens more often than you would think possible.

The problem is mostly in the author’s mind. An author will come up with a general idea, send a version to a publisher and scream if a book on the same general subject comes out in the next five years. One author sent his non-fiction book on punishment in schools to ten publishing houses. When a book on this subject was published two month later, the author threatened to sue everybody. The truth is that it takes at least a year after the manuscript is submitted before the book can be published (the exceptions of course are the instant books).

I also had a student who came up with the idea of The Sex Weight Off Diet Book. He sent it around and didn’t get one go ahead. In fact he sent it around twice. Several years later a book came out with a similar title. He was so sure that they stole his idea that he sued. The fact was that he had never submitted his book to the publisher who brought out a similar title.

You can always place a copyright © symbol at the top of the first page with your name and the year copyrighted. Of course, you no longer need this. You have common law copyright the minute you write the material.

Duane Newcomb