Someone might steal my idea!, by Ben Jeapes

I was taken aback when a potential client asked me to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement before discussing their planned novel any further. But I signed, because I wanted their custom and I wasn’t going to let an unimportant bit of paper get in the way.

Hold on, you say – unimportant? You mean you don’t intend to abide by it?

I absolutely intend to abide by it … for the simple reason I had no intention of stealing their, or anyone’s, ideas in the first place.

NDAs do have their place – in technology, in industry, in any place where there’s a lot of sensitive information that could cause harm, or make or lose a lot of money, depending whose hands it’s in. This extends to books when the book might be, say, a whistleblowing exposé or the biography of someone significant.

Novels, not so much. Here’s why.

Someone might steal my idea!

Define ‘steal’. Someone might very well pick up your idea and run with it – and that’s great! That’s how writing develops. I’ve often been inspired by someone’s idea to write something of my own – which then develops it in an entirely different direction, with an end result where only I can see the join. I have added to the genre, not plundered it. (And, dare I say it, sometimes improved it … That has often been my intention, anyway!)

That’s just inspiration. Someone might steal my exact idea!

Why?

If an agent or a publisher thinks your idea, as is, could make a huge amount of money then why would they steal it from you and give it to someone else to write? Why not just get you to write it and cut out the middleman?

But, let’s be frank: I’m no one, just a beginner. No one will read my book, but in the hands of a more marketable author it could be a bestseller!

And those more marketable authors – read: experienced, been around the block, know what they’re doing – are incapable of coming up with good ideas of their own? How do you think they became marketable? 

And if you don’t think you're that good then why are you wasting the publisher’s time anyway?  

The simple fact is that most publishers are not thieves the same way most people are not thieves. Nor do they appreciate the implication. “Thou shalt not bear false witness” also covers false accusation when you should know better. Do you enjoy being viewed as a potential thief? Nor does anyone else.

Anything you write down is automatically protected by copyright. That isn’t protecting the idea but it does protect the words you use, your style, your imagery. And that is where you are exercising the creativity that God has given you. So, cross idea theft off the list of things to worry about and concentrate on making yourself the artist God intends you to be.

Ben Jeapes took up writing in the mistaken belief that it would be easier than a real job (it isn’t). Hence, as well as being the author of 5 novels and co-author of many more, he has also been a journal editor, book publisher, and technical writer. www.benjeapes.com