Anyone who goes online can see my writing once it’s posted. Does anyone have a problem with putting their whole novel online? I like the feedback from other writers and I know I would have a case against anyone who tried to steal my work and try to sell it as their own but still… I would rather not have to go through that hassle. Thoughts anyone? Am I just being paranoid?

I think you’re being paranoid. The chances that someone is going to rip off your novel are slim to none, considering all the other writing that is floating out there on the web. I wouldn’t worry about it, unless your novel is really that good.

You can also mark your item Private. That would prevent the item from being seen other than yourself and anyone who reviewed it (and Urbis themselves of course). It will still show up for reviewing, but not anywhere else outside of Urbis.

You have dated documentation that your novel existed before the other person used your idea. If your idea is unique, you shouldn’t have a problem proving that you wrote it. Everything I write is personal to the extreme. There is a particular voice, a particular style, and no vampires. Anyone who steals it better disguise it well.

The issue is Moot if you use the Private function. It is just that simple.

That’s true. ( I just wanted the forum board to have DCAllen all over it. Like hellbunny.)

Squarehopper is more prolific on these forums than I am.

I can do what Weaver did…. Delete all my posts :p

What?!? I just realized I’ve been neglecting one of my favorite Urbis buddies. I need to hunt him down and… er… tell him I miss him.

Napalm, the odds of someone stealing work is very slim. Let’s face it, if we were that good we wouldn’t be here. Publishing is a difficult venture so even if it is brilliant, someone isn’t likely to steal it, because having a good manuscript is only half the battle. And if they were too lazy to write it, the re-editing after finding a publisher or agent will probably kill them. Around Christmas last year I was chatting up a young MD/cancer researcher/writer at a book signing who wrote her first SF novel. From the galley proofs to release was over a year, as even after the final edit, the book had to wait its turn in the queue to be actually printed. It was about a 6 year process for her from first draft to having the product in her hands.

Writing is less “what” you say, but “how” you say it. As Nancy P. says to her bro, Cartman…er…Trainwreck…it’s about voice, and that comes from the writer. Either you have voice or you don’t.

A story idea is easy…and in any case not protectable under copyright law, so why worry about that? Let the marketing arm of the publisher deal with that at the time they’re ready to release the book. I once thought I’d write a short thriller involving text messages, and put it together last summer, published in October and reprinted by another magazine in January. Well hell, didn’t you know it…someone did a movie like that about the same time I was accepted for publication. I thought I had an original idea. Well, no, the screenplay for the movie probably predated me by two years! So, there you go. Ideas mean nothing! First to publish does.

I worry more about smaller works…short fiction and poetry. There is so much out there that many will not consider previously published works…and some places consider anything previously posted on the internet (no matter where) as previously published. A quick search online will find these works. Thus, why I write under a pseudonym in online workshops, take pieces down regularly, and block them, if I can, from being found by online searches. ;-)

Here’s another interesting thing. What you’ll find is most writers are a helpful bunch, willing to help you out but not really caring enough about your work to steal it. Writers are self-involved: they are focused on their own stories. It doesn’t do anything for them…even if they think it’s good…because it isn’t their “style”. Style is a pretty personal thing. Only “you” write like “you”.

So, don’t worry. It’s all good. ;-)

P.S. If someone thought my drafts were good enough to steal, I would be flattered. But I know, and you know, the road to publication is long. A stolen draft gives them nothing.

Okay, so I’m paranoid. I’ll have to work on that. Thanks, though… everyone.