It all started with the sun

If you’ve been around long enough, you’re probably going to be accused of “plagiarism.”

Not so long ago, the Book Twitter main character of the day was a woman accusing another woman of stealing her idea: specifically, stealing the fact that the MC of her book could control the sun and its magic. It led to a bunch of lovely jokes about copyrighting the sun, but also to some important discussions about the nature of ideas and what can and cannot be stolen.

People are wild about their ideas. Someone bookmarks their pitch contest pitch and they’re suddenly freaking out that their precious idea will be stolen. Authors in the midst of a WIP will see a PM announcement for a similar premise and throw their WIP in the trash.

Say it with me

The thing is, you can’t copyright an idea.

Let’s look at that again.

You can’t copyright an idea.

An idea is just a premise. It’s a brief snippet. It’s a starting point.

It’s great!

This shouldn’t scare you. The thing is, the idea is just the starting point. The 60 to 100 thousand words you use after is unique to you.

Now, I’m not saying people never steal other people’s books, or that it can’t be done. If too many elements line up, it starts looking identical. But be careful what you take as an element! “They both have magical swords” is not as compelling evidence as “They both have swords named Steve.” Don’t believe me? Just look at this comparison chart of LOTR, Star Wars, and Harry Potter.

The more you abstract the elements, the easier it is for two books to seem identical.

Or, check out this tweet from author Adam Sass.

Don’t believe me?

Let’s play a game.

Lord of the Rings, right?

Nope. I was talking about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Obviously Dracula.

Except when it’s Carmilla.

Okay that’s Harry Potter.

Except I’m talking about Legendborn. Or The Iron Gauntlet. Or even Red Rising.

The point is…

An idea is just an idea. The more specific and fleshed out the idea, sure, the easier it is to copy. But even if you hand someone a paragraph pitch, they’re never going to write the same book as you.

So protect your ideas, by all means.

But maybe do some soul-searching before you accuse someone of plagiarism, or try to copyright the sun.

Thank you for reading C.J. Subko Books. This post is public so feel free to share it.