Book Proposals? Giving Away Your Ideas?

I'm currently working on a non-fiction book that pretty much anyone can write.


I've been reading on here that I should possibly send out a book proposal to agents and publishers before completing the book. Something with possibly the first 5 to 20 pages or so. Then if they are interested, they may give me around 6 months to finish it up or reach a certain deadline.

I like the idea of knowing ahead of time if someone will publish it and possibly even getting advances or paid up front to write it.

My fear though, is that someone will get the brief outline and say they aren't interested and then pursue the book themself. Or inform someone else of the idea. For example, what if I send the idea to an agent and they say no. But then turn around and give the idea to one of their clients.

Technically you can't copyright ideas, so there would be nothing I could do to stop that from occuring. Has anyone ever worried about this when sending out proposals before you've completed a non-fiction book?

Ideas are a dime a dozen or so the saying goes

Even if you wrote the entire book and then queried agents/editors you would still run the risk of someone else having the same basis (idea) for a book you did.

Take the idea of "getting published" there must be at least a dozen books out on the subject, but each has a bit of a different twist on that idea. The following were all released in 2005.

The Making of a Bestseller: Success Stories From Authors and the Editors, Agents and Booksellers Behind Them, (yes this is my book) How the publishing industry works from the perspective of the people at the forefront. Includes interviews with over 50 bestselling authors, editors, agents.......well you get the picture.

78 Reasons Why Your Book May Never Be Published by Pat Walsh. How to get published from the perspective of one editor's experience.

The Resilent Writer by Catherine Wald. The stories of 23 authors and how they overcame rejection on the way to becoming published.

In some ways competition with your idea/book is a good thing. It shows there is a market out there.

Dee