Are there "rules" about discussing your work with others, particularly online?

Question

If you're writing a book that you'd like to have published, is there a rule against discussing it online? I'm thinking specifically about online communities, such as message boards. If you were to post about the book you're writing and the publisher knew of it, would they have a problem with it?

Answer 1

No, you can discuss it all you want. No publisher will get upset with you discussing an idea because even if someone else used it their story would be completely different -- this has been demonstrated many times where a bunch of authors are given the same basic idea and produce completely different stories.

There's no copyright on ideas only on created works i.e. the story itself as you've written it.

Of course, if you described your ideas in detail (down to characters and events) on a work that was commissioned with a publisher then someone wrote a very similar story and that was published before yours they might be peeved. But that's a very unlikely scenario. Or if that happened and yours wasn't commissioned, you might have trouble selling it because someone else already did it.

Other than that, they don't give a d*mn.

Answer 2

First of all, you wouldn't have a publisher before you wrote the book. No publisher is going to take a chance on an unfinished work by a new author.

Secondly, it would be very unwise of you to post information regarding your WIP - Work in Progress online. Anyone on that forum could take your idea and use it. Yes, a publisher would have a problem with that if they owned the rights to the book. A very big problem. Key words - OWN .. RIGHTS ... Get it?

Thirdly, if you post actual material from a book, you are almost guaranteed that no publisher will touch it. More and more, publishers are rejecting material previously posted online. It is just too big of a risk for them and too expensive for them to go through the hassle of checking out the chain of ownership legally. Someone halfway around the world could be submitting the same material to a different publisher and publishers just don't want to get involved in the problems.

Yes, it is true that ideas cannot be copyrighted, although they can be registered at The Writers' Guild, but you aren't a member and cannot be as an unpublished author. Also, the moment you write something, you own it. However, no copyright is worth a lick without a high priced lawyer to defend it.

So my answer to you would be to take the professional route and NOT discuss your WIP with anyone online in any type of forums or anywhere else. It is highly amateur and will earn you a terrible reputation in the publishing industry if someone finds out. And yes, publishers and agents now do use search engines to see if work is published online - just like teachers do with papers.

I would never never never post anything online regarding a WIP and I certainly would never post anything from a manuscript. It would be professional suicide. You might as well kiss the work good-bye. If it has any merit at all, it can and will be plagiarized.
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They're, Their, There - Three Different Words.

Careful or you may wind up in my next novel.

Pax - C

Answer 3

It's really unwise to post something you want to get published. As Persiphone pointed out, publishers do not want to bother tracing ownership. However, works in which you are learning and have no intention of getting published.... that's a different story.

One small correction. You do not have to be a member of the Writers Guild of America to register a manuscript. The fee is $20 for non-members and either $10 or $15 for members. I just did it and I am not a member.

By the way, AFTER a book is published, more publishers will allow you to post the first three chapters on line to attract readers.

Answer 4

There are No Rules, you can discuss your book with anyone. However, I would not suggest it, too many writers may say it their idea or have a similar treatment, write it and send it out

Publisher have looked at people's blogs for new talent and or ideas-for example Julie and Julia. However the blog is not the finished book

I would suggest write your novel, instead of posting it on line--unless you self publish to try to sell for ad ventures (a first chapter, etc). An interesting aside, if your book is just from your on line work, you may need to credit the web site or magazine it first appeared

Good luck either way

Answer 5

definite, I surely have had some situations that made it puzzling to be right here, for diverse motives. bear in concepts that it's not consistently the guy themselves yet in certain situations, the forces behind the topic, that reason the dissension. comprehend the source, earlier the damage and tear is achieved. oftentimes disagreements are over some truly petty stuff. What does it surely count? who's ideal? who's faulty? solid or undesirable, all of it comes out the way God meant, of religion or no longer.