www.inkthinkerblog.com — Thanks to Eileen for bringing this to my attention. There’s a children’s book editor in NYC who’s working on a YA series she’s writing and wants some brainstorming help in developing the central conflict of the series. I encourage you to check it out and decide whether it’s something you’d like to contribute to…and then I want you to come back here and let me and the other readers know what you decided and how you came to that decision.
See, the thing is, I love helping other writers. I love getting help from other writers. But for some reason it feels different on the Internet than it does at Borders Cafe with my writing group. So, I’m on the fence. Not that I have a brilliant idea that I’m sitting on or anything, so not so sure how relevant it is, but it made me stop and think, and I’m just wondering if I’m the only one who was like, “Hey, good idea! …but maybe not.”
If there are any lawyers waiting in the wings, I’d be very interested to know how this works from a legal standpoint. Editrix, as the editor/writer calls herself (love it!), is very upfront that providing credit for the ideas isn’t really going to work well in this situation, and politely (and funnily) requests that others not take her premise and write their own book. Well not stealing her idea is just good manners, but I don’t know if legally she can use others ideas. I mean, they’re giving them to her with the understanding that she’s looking for ideas for her book, so the intention is clear, but could that come back to bite her?
As Absolute Write Water Cooler member Jaws, a lawyer, pointed out in his (?) response to a question about blogging and first rights in the Blogging Forum at AW, even if you state somewhere on your blog that comments become your property, that’s simply not true. Copyright belongs to the person who created the work unless he or she explicitly signs the copyright over to someone else, and “I own your comments” doesn’t really count.
So is Editrix protected from someone coming back in a few weeks/months/years and claiming that she took their idea? How does that work? And how do you feel about it as a writer?
Comment away!
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