Actually, folks, this is a very real issue--albeit, rare in this day & age.
Yes, I've had my work, idea, concept, whatever you wanna call it, stolen. What most people don't know is that once in a blue moon, an low-level editor will play dirty in order to get ahead. Yep, shocking. Manuscript is submitted, and rejected with the usual letter of 'not for us at this time'.
Nothing more shocking than, 2 years later, upon opening a book club catalog only to discover a HUGE name romance author has not only written your book--EVERY DETAIL--but even kept the same fricken character names, etc.,
My uncle's a huge author--non-fiction--so I called him, still in denial, telling myself 'no way, this couldn't be, no way, no way, now way!' He confirmed my fear to be real, though, again, rare, and most likely, with my pittance of cash flow at the time, also that I was shit outa luck in trying to take something like this to court. What some dirty editors will do is call an author that they do massive business with (and my wording here in regards to 'massive business' is not the professional position the author actually holds with these publishing houses, but my own quick description), pitch an idea, and the author, if interested, runs with it, agreeing they can have it done in X-amount of months..blah, blah, blah.
As time marches on, this is becoming almost a never happens anymore, for even the starving writer is more savvy about keeping records of everything they write.
Now, NOW I have those huuuuuuge blue Hefty storage bags fillllllled with printed manuscript copies from all the times I've edited....why, in this day & age of computer storage sticks? It's my proof. I'll dump that shit all over the fricken' courtroom.
Yes, I know, some of you will shake your head, argue, swear this is nothing more than a garbage tale. But to those of us that this has happened to, we know. We know there's nothing we can do but be infuriated, frustrated, and then...smarten up, and keep truckin' along. For me, this was 15 years ago. I assume it's just unheard of now?? I can only hope.
My uncle explained that another reason that I wouldn't stand a chance in court is that, the author couldn't be held responsible because they would not have known what was going on, they'd simply accepted a 'job'. I would have had to know the editor's name, and been able to show that, yes, this is the editor that had read my particular manuscript....this is the editor that contacted said author...you get the gist. Impossible because there were too many variables.
SideNote: I'm assuming low level editor. It could be big wig editor. I just don't know. All I DO know is, when you read a description for a book, you KNOW when it was YOUR work...YOUR manuscript...you KNOW.
