Help for an Author-to-Be

Hey everyone!

Ok, it's been a long time since I wrote anything, so here's a quick question. Would it be considered plagerism if I took some inspiration from the things on the What Could Have Been page? I mean, it's not like they're gonna appear in canon.

And when it comes to sending one's work to a publisher, is it possible to e-mail it to the publisher's website? Or is it best to print it out and mail it?

Taking ideas from those pages may be kind of...iffy.

How so?

"Took some inspiration" isn't plagiarism; "wrote that exact thing" is (and, of course, using names and such from the original is copyright violation).

As for your second question, you know what I'm going to say.

Ehhhhh. It's all execution.

I tend to happily rip off things, but instead of ripping off, say, character ideas, I rip off tones, or really good systems that I like.

There is nothing wrong with a little idea looting, you just have to make sure you're making it your own, and it's fundamentally different.

Read my stories!

That's usually never a bad thing, as there are plenty of plots that work this way, or plenty of ideas that start this way. Though taking them right off of the page is, to be blunt, wholly uncreative. I wouldn't say it's plagiarism, as there's really no way to hold up anywhere that the author or creator of a work still holds the rights to what they either intended to do or wanted to do, but didn't due to some extenuating circumstance or another *

^{This makes enough common sense, but most copyright law doesn't make common sense. Do extensive research before sending something like that anywhere}

.

Yes; this is exactly what people mean when they say that writers make the best thieves. We steal, yes, and then make it our own.

As for publishing, that depends on the house that you're sending it to. Some like it in email format, some like it printed, some like it with a self-addressed envelope so all they have to do is hand it back to the mailman. Every publishing house, and you can be sure of this, that's worth their salt and accepting submissions will lay out how they like to receive them. If you go against what they want, you're clearly an idiot (or believe that you are one, what with not being able to follow simple directions and all).

With that being said, and with a lot of publishing houses taking electronic submissions, make sure that you also have it in the correct format, and also have it formatted correctly in the correct format. Don't export a Pages document to a Word format and expect it to look exactly the same, or vice versa. Granted, you can still type and write it in whatever format you'd like, but before sending it out, make sure you give the document a solid once over to make sure that the formatting is the way the publishers would want it.

edited 12th Oct '11 11:34:47 AM by Newfable

Most large and many small publishers put their submissions policy right on their website.

Besides, your idea is probably going to mutate while you write, possibly to the point no one will see the connection. My current project had changed quite a bit from the first idea, or at least expanded out.

a great quote from a speaker at http://www.sff.net/odyssey/podcasts.html "I don't know what the book was about until I've finished it."

www.kingdomsofevil.com http://bensen-daniel.deviantart.com/ https://twitter.com/bensen_m

If it's been a while since you wrote anything, I wouldn't hang my hat on this next piece being the one to send to publisher. Use the ideas to do some writing exercises to get your groove back, before jumping into publishing with both feet.

I am a nobody. Nobody is perfect. Therefore, I am perfect.