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[GWL]: Queries and Stolen Ideas

Sheri said:

When I send a story idea I leave it pretty
> vague because I've had ideas "stolen."  I avoid details as much as
> possible until I have the contract.
> 
> I may need to rethink this.

Yes.  Unfortunately, if you keep the story idea vague, there is not 
going to be much reason for an editor to get excited about it.  
Especially if he pays good money for stories, has a list of regulars he 
works with, and isn't familiar with your work.  However, the more you 
spell out the idea, indeed, the more "stealable" it becomes.  

Most "ideas" for stories aren't all that unique, however.  An average 
magazine is lucky to have one really new story in every issue.  The rest 
are reworkings of old themes and old material.  However, these 
reworkings are more likely to be staff-written or written by regulars, 
I've noticed.  When there is a brand new story, a story that breaks new 
ground -- it often is by a freelancer.  So a unique story idea can be 
exactly the thing you need to break into a magazine.  For the major 
magazines, though, the idea alone is not enough.  They will want to see 
enough so that they are convinced that you can do a good job with it.  

(A tip for new writers who might be reading this list -- Newcomers to 
professional writing might look in a magazine, think "I could do as well 
as that," and give it a try.  But actually, the editor won't usually buy 
something "as good as that" from a new writer.  (Not for real money.) It 
is cheaper and easier to get something "as good as that" from staff 
writers.  New writers are usually a nuisance in various ways, and 
usually require extra work and training; and few of them realize it or 
appreciate it very much, either.  So just about everybody would rather 
work with "old hands."  So, to break in, you need to offer something 
much better than the norm for the magazine you are approaching. Or 
something that is distinctly different from what they can get from their 
staff and their regulars, but which is nevertheless right on target for 
their audience.)  

I think ideas do sometimes get "stolen."  However, I think it is much 
rarer than writers tend to think.  How often have you thought of an idea 
or invention, told it to no one, and seen it all over the place a year 
later?  Most "ideas" just aren't all that unique.  Concomittantly, there 
are lots of people in the world.  Many are smart.  Genius and a quarter 
will get you on the subway.  (An expression from the Boston area that 
dates back to when it cost a quarter to get on the subway.)  Many very 
smart people go into writing, editing, and publishing.  

Undoubtedly, some people are dishonest, and some unique story ideas are 
deliberately stolen.  However, I think much of what we might think is 
"stolen" was actually independent creativity.  Even when a "theft" 
really has occurred, I think that at least 90% of the time it is 
accidental.  The editor wasn't compelled by your idea when you mentioned 
it, forgot it and you, and then his brain kicked up the idea later in 
some other context.  We really don't know how our minds work, and we 
usually don't know where most of our ideas come from.  I recall once, 
for example, spending all morning composing a neat tune, and then 
hearing exactly that tune on the radio in a store later in the day.  
What a shock!  Good thing it was just a tune for myself, not anything I 
had gone public with in some major way.  I had probably started with an 
original passage, and little by little modified it so that it was more 
and more similar to something I must have heard once, but had no 
conscious recollection of at all.

So most of us do exercise some precautions with certain ideas.  As I 
mentioned, if I haven't worked with an editor before, I'll develop one 
story idea for him.  But only one.  That is, I'll simultaneously trust 
him fully on the one idea and its development, but minimize damage if 
damage it turns out to be.  Once an editor is working with you, then he 
has every reason to want YOU to do the story ideas you suggest.  Then 
things are more relaxed.  By that time, too, you might not be doing 
queries anyway.  You might just phone the editor and pitch the idea.  Or 
he calls you and asks for a story.  

Carol Deppe
Author of BREED YOUR OWN VEGETABLE VARIETIES:  THE GARDENER'S AND 
FARMER'S GUIDE TO PLANT BREEDING AND SEED SAVING (See table of contents, 
excerpts, & reviews at http://www.chelseagreen.com.)  

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