Monday, September 14, 2009

Sharing is Caring

First off, I'm really hyped up right now, and my Starbucks double shot energy drink is only partially responsible. I've been sending off my queries in batches, about 10 at a time, spaced about 3 weeks apart. And yes, I still have pending queries from round 1 & 2. About 20 total, but they're only at 4 weeks, and most agents say 4-8 weeks, so I'm not stressing.

So I sent off Round 3 Friday evening, and yesterday I received a request for a full! Woo hoo, of course I was super excited, especially because I had included sample pages with the query, so the agent saw my opening pages and LIKED THEM AND WANTED MORE.

I opened my mail today and I had another request. Also for a full. Also from a query which included the first five pages. Needless to say, I'm very excited right now. I'm going to (1) finish this post, (2) do a quick read-through, then I'm (3) sending 'em off! Then I'll (4) promptly freak out. But it's very important I do these steps in that particular order. Very important.

Moving on, today's topic: Sharing your work. How much do you share? Do you post full chapters on your blog? Do you put your entire story up for critique on a public critique group like Critique Circle? Or are you all about keeping your work private? You don't speak of the plot at all, you don't post excerpts, heck you don't even share the title or character names because you fear someone else might snatch them up.

Me? I think I fall somewhere in the middle. I'll gladly tell you my title (UNTOUCHED) because I love it. I'll tell you my character names, the basic plot, and I'll post excerpts (not a lot, and nothing too spoiler-y, but cruise through my blog posts and you'll come across quite a few excerpts.)

See, I'm a big believer in the uniqueness of individuals and that everyone has a unique perception. I've posted my query on here before, and I've posted query/pitches for projects that I've barely started. But no, I'm not so worried about someone stealing my idea. Because so many aspects of it are uniquely mine, that no one else would ever come up with. And I keep those private.

I actually have a theory, but I don't think it would ever be tested because it would involve a lot of work. But I believe that two people could take the exact same query and write two completely totally different novels based off said somewhat-specific query.

Last week I posted a query/pitch of my latest idea The Temper. But I'm not worried about someone stealing my plot or my idea, because I left out all the funniest, best, cutest parts. I left out all the unique little twists. I left out all the parts that make it mine.

Those are the parts that I will not share. Generialities? Sure, I'll give you generalities up the wazoo. But not the specifics. The specifics are where the magic is. And the magic is all mine. :)

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Questions for you!

How much do you share?

Do you ever worry about people stealing your ideas/title/names/plot?

6 comments:

  1. Congrats!!

    I tend to share a medium amount. I share titles, general plot, and snippets, but as you said, nothing too involved. Some stories I guard quite viciously until they're complete and things are moving on them, but usually I post as I go. It helps motivate me.

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  2. Congrats on the requests! I'm still (not so) patiently waiting on the fulls/partials I have out.

    And as for sharing info on the web, I do it very sparingly--a few paragraphs or a query letter. That's it. I just don't trust the internet enough to put more than that out there.

    For critiquing, i have an online critique group that I share my full work with, but it's a small group and the files are password protected, so not publicly posted.

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  3. Yea, congratulations, and all good things. I'm so happy for you, all hyped up with you!

    I stopped by to read a bit and see if you had anything on the sidebar I need to check and click. This is waaaaay better.

    Have a great Tuesday!

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  4. So far I haven't shared any part of my novel on the web. A couple of people know the title, but that's it. I'm not particularly worried about copycats or people stealing my work, I just like keeping it to myself until it's done. I probably won't post my first five pages or my query letter online, but would happily share either with future beta readers :)

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  5. I share a lot (like whole MS's) with people I trust. It takes time to build that trust, so I don't share in public places. Or if I do, it's only a few pages.

    Congrats on all the requests!

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