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| Photo credit: JJay on Flickr |
It was a fun event, and a great opportunity for writers. If you haven’t participated in a pitch event before, I highly recommend you check it out the next time one comes around.
I noticed, however, that there were a few negative Nancies out there who would pop into the #pitmad stream ever so often and make a snarky remark to the effect of “I’m not sharing my idea so that another writer can steal it and make millions.”
I’m not looking down on these people—in fact, I understand where their fear comes from. When I first started writing, I too shared a fear of having my ideas (or other writings) stolen online. For the longest time I didn’t participate in any sort of competitions or online critiques because my skittishness got the best of me.
But then I started getting more involved in the interwebs, and wrote a lot more, and the ridiculousness of this fear became very apparent to me.
The thing is, sharing your pitch is probably the safest, least-risk inducing way of getting your work noticed. Why? The answer is simple: your idea is just an idea.
I’m not trying to demean your work, but an idea isn’t copyrightable (and if you don’t believe me, the government says so). Truth be told, original ideas don’t exist, and even if your idea somehow defied that rule, it still wouldn’t matter if someone stole it.
Why? Because as anyone who has tried to write a novel before knows, an idea is just an idea. It’s the seed of a novel, but it’s just that. Even if someone stole your completely original, totally brilliant idea, they’d still have to write a book to match up to that brilliance. And hell, maybe they would. Maybe they’d write it better than you did. But their book wouldn’t plagiarize your idea any more than Richelle Mead plagiarized Stephanie Meyers, or Meyers plagiarized Anne Rice, or Rice plagiarized Bram Stoker.
You see, they all wrote books based on a somewhat similar concept, but they wrote their own novels. They each wrote something different, because they each had a different take on a similar idea.
Anyone who has taken a writing class ever knows this very well: if you give a room full of students the same idea to write about, they will all write something different. Will there be similarities? Sure. But does that mean they somehow stole from each other? Does that mean their work shouldn’t be considered their work, or that it shouldn’t be considered original? Of course not.
The thing is, even if someone liked your pitch so much that they decided they wanted to write a book just like it, it wouldn’t matter. You’re already ahead of the game: you have a completed manuscript ready for pitching and they’re just scraping together ideas for a rough draft. And whatever they come up with based off of those 140 characters, I promise you, will be very different from whatever you wrote. And, there’s still the whole matter of getting it published, which, as you already know, isn’t so easy. So.
If you have to worry about something, worry about having your writing stolen if you post online. Worry about someone copying your blog posts and republishing them under their own name. Worry about people pirating your work and selling it for a profit.
But as for someone stealing your ideas? Don’t waste your energy.
What do you think? Feel free to disagree (or agree)! I’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter.
And on another note, there are TWO DAYS left to win a cover design for your e-book! Have you entered?
I’m not looking down on these people—in fact, I understand where their fear comes from. When I first started writing, I too shared a fear of having my ideas (or other writings) stolen online. For the longest time I didn’t participate in any sort of competitions or online critiques because my skittishness got the best of me.
But then I started getting more involved in the interwebs, and wrote a lot more, and the ridiculousness of this fear became very apparent to me.
The thing is, sharing your pitch is probably the safest, least-risk inducing way of getting your work noticed. Why? The answer is simple: your idea is just an idea.
I’m not trying to demean your work, but an idea isn’t copyrightable (and if you don’t believe me, the government says so). Truth be told, original ideas don’t exist, and even if your idea somehow defied that rule, it still wouldn’t matter if someone stole it.
Why? Because as anyone who has tried to write a novel before knows, an idea is just an idea. It’s the seed of a novel, but it’s just that. Even if someone stole your completely original, totally brilliant idea, they’d still have to write a book to match up to that brilliance. And hell, maybe they would. Maybe they’d write it better than you did. But their book wouldn’t plagiarize your idea any more than Richelle Mead plagiarized Stephanie Meyers, or Meyers plagiarized Anne Rice, or Rice plagiarized Bram Stoker.
You see, they all wrote books based on a somewhat similar concept, but they wrote their own novels. They each wrote something different, because they each had a different take on a similar idea.
Anyone who has taken a writing class ever knows this very well: if you give a room full of students the same idea to write about, they will all write something different. Will there be similarities? Sure. But does that mean they somehow stole from each other? Does that mean their work shouldn’t be considered their work, or that it shouldn’t be considered original? Of course not.
The thing is, even if someone liked your pitch so much that they decided they wanted to write a book just like it, it wouldn’t matter. You’re already ahead of the game: you have a completed manuscript ready for pitching and they’re just scraping together ideas for a rough draft. And whatever they come up with based off of those 140 characters, I promise you, will be very different from whatever you wrote. And, there’s still the whole matter of getting it published, which, as you already know, isn’t so easy. So.
If you have to worry about something, worry about having your writing stolen if you post online. Worry about someone copying your blog posts and republishing them under their own name. Worry about people pirating your work and selling it for a profit.
But as for someone stealing your ideas? Don’t waste your energy.
What do you think? Feel free to disagree (or agree)! I’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter.
And on another note, there are TWO DAYS left to win a cover design for your e-book! Have you entered?
19 comments:
Exactly. Thank you for stating what I was trying to with subtext. I absolutely agree.
Awesome post, Ava. This is such an Inception moment, lol. "The dreamer can always remember the genesis of the idea. True inspiration is impossible to fake." It's not the idea that matters, but what you do with it. Completely agree. You can have the most brilliant idea, but unless you execute it brilliantly, no one's gonna care. And the best part is that it can be brilliantly executed in many different ways. I've never seen someone else's idea and wanted to write it out. The idea has to be yours alone. Only by investing your very soul, time, and energy in it can it becomes something worth buying.
Thank you, Margaret! You're completely right about very rarely wanting to write another's idea--it's why receiving pitches from friends and family ("oh, this would be a great book idea--you should write it!") never works. At the very least, you'll want to hybridize it with your own ideas, in which case it won't be a so-called stolen idea anymore, anyway.
I agree! The Winklevoss twins disagree however....
Wellll, that's a little different. I'm not talking about ideas for inventions or innovative websites. Ideas for novels don't work quite the same way.
I had this fear for a while, especially since I've seen books and movies come out with ideas I've thought of before (btw, Power Rangers: Mystic Force was totally my concept; I think my house is bugged) but I got over it.
There is way too much overlap with ideas to let this be a legitimate threat. More likely than not, someone is going to write something very similar to your fabulous book idea, regardless of whether or not you share the idea with anyone.
Good point, Ava. Sometimes people ask me if I'm worried people are going to steal the ideas I put on the internet. I tell them it's so hard to write a book that they're more than welcome to it. Besides, two people could start with the same idea and come out with completely different works. In the end, the benefits of generosity are more than fearful protectionism.
I wholly agree! I participated in PitMad as well and saw some of those comments.
My first thought was: You know what if you can take my 133 words and turn it into 300 pages of rough draft, revise, edit, beta, revise and edit again, query and get an agent and publisher before I can, then you my friend are welcome to my 133 words, because you've earned it!!!
Not to mention, if I'm a writer, IF ANYTHING, I'm looking at these pitches thinking "ok, this is what I shouldn't write about because the market is flooded"
My two cents =)
That's true. I rarely get excited about what someone may even suggest. It has to come from you. Although my friend gave me a book proposal that I later got excited about, so it could happen, but I'm still gonna drag her with me and make sure we write it together ;)
I absolutely agree, Joe. The works will be different no matter what, and if they're both equally good, that's certainly nothing to be upset about.
Great point, Carissa! Pitch events can be a fun and beneficial experience for everyone involved if you go in with the right attitude. If someone is able (and wants to) take a pitch they saw and write their own take on it, then more power to them.
Everyone starts off with some kind of jumping off point, and as you said, that starting point could hypothetically be an external pitch. But in the end you're going to incorporate your own ideas and twist into it, so it really doesn't matter--it'll be yours.
People do steal ideas. They may execute it in a different way, but they steal and cheapen and ruin the freshness of something you may have worked on for years. Pitch your idea to the ditch.
Hmmm, the thing that I think many writers learn from pitch contests, is that 9/10 times their idea isn't as original as they thought it was. Occasionally, yes, you'll come across that one that is very different from what everyone else is pitching, but even if someone did see that unusual idea and write their own spin on it, the person who pitched the idea to begin with has a huge head start on the person only just starting to write.
I do understand the fear behind participating in these kinds of contests, but to me the benefits way outweigh the possibility of someone stealing your idea.
I suppose we'll just have to agree to disagree. :) Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Isabelle!
You're welcome!
How do you feel about sharing musical lyrics. I saw a big time producer tweet about submitting creative writing material to his assistant... I want to, but at the same time am nervous because I have heard artists doing this to each other.
I have absolutely no expertise on the music side of things, so I can't really speak for that, unfortunately. I'm honestly not sure. :/
In most situations I agree with this, but not in all.
Provided the story is different, and the inspiration has already been published, I agree.
But what if a workshopping colleague steals the innovations of fellow workshoppers, during the workshopping and redrafting phase?
Speculative fiction is very innovation-focussed, and when a one speculative fiction workshopper takes another's concept and runs with it, beating the originator to the publishing punch, it does damage. If they incorporate enough of the innovations the originator has worked hard to create, and they do happen to get published first, it could very easily lead to the impression that the originator has copied the thief.
It destroys trust and confidence in the workshopping group.
It may be legal, but is it ethical?
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