In an e-book discussion group, an author recently posted a brief excerpt of her WIP (work in progress) as well as a blurb of the plot. Later, she said that her editor told her she should never post anything of a WIP on-line, not even a summary. Her editor's reasoning was that some unscrupulous people could steal the writer's ideas or even her text.
Is this a real concern? Now, I've heard that you shouldn't post substantial portions of your WIP on-line before publication because that means a substantial portion of the work will be considered published. And what is a substantial portion? :shrug
But ... that's a completely different reason for not posting excerpts, and it doesn't relate to posting summaries. I've never heard editors warn against posting plot summaries! :wha You can't copyright and idea, and just because someone else comes out with a book about surfing Ninja ghosts, that doesn't mean they stole it from you. (Of course, if someone steals your text, that's outright plagiarism and a completely different thing.)
One reason all this puzzled me was because I've read that when authors worry about someone stealing their ideas, that marks them as an amateur. Or does that only apply to authors worrying about editors stealing their ideas? Are we suposed to be worrying about other writers stealing our ideas? I often blog about my novels in progress, but I have yet to see anyone else publishing a book about a gay barbarian and mage meeting in a prison of mages. Or about a counter tenor who is also a mage. :rofl And if they did publish something along those lines, I would love to read it because I'm sure it would be completely different from my stories.
Also, some of the posts I saw implied that you couldn't share the work with a critique group. Yet most critique groups I've belonged to are password-protected, so you have to join the group to be able to read it. Thus it is not supposed to be considered published. Is this correct, or do publishers still consider work posted in a password-protected critique group (such as Critters or FMwriters) to be published?
Is this a real concern? Now, I've heard that you shouldn't post substantial portions of your WIP on-line before publication because that means a substantial portion of the work will be considered published. And what is a substantial portion? :shrug
But ... that's a completely different reason for not posting excerpts, and it doesn't relate to posting summaries. I've never heard editors warn against posting plot summaries! :wha You can't copyright and idea, and just because someone else comes out with a book about surfing Ninja ghosts, that doesn't mean they stole it from you. (Of course, if someone steals your text, that's outright plagiarism and a completely different thing.)
One reason all this puzzled me was because I've read that when authors worry about someone stealing their ideas, that marks them as an amateur. Or does that only apply to authors worrying about editors stealing their ideas? Are we suposed to be worrying about other writers stealing our ideas? I often blog about my novels in progress, but I have yet to see anyone else publishing a book about a gay barbarian and mage meeting in a prison of mages. Or about a counter tenor who is also a mage. :rofl And if they did publish something along those lines, I would love to read it because I'm sure it would be completely different from my stories.
Also, some of the posts I saw implied that you couldn't share the work with a critique group. Yet most critique groups I've belonged to are password-protected, so you have to join the group to be able to read it. Thus it is not supposed to be considered published. Is this correct, or do publishers still consider work posted in a password-protected critique group (such as Critters or FMwriters) to be published?
