How to Make Your Book Idea Unstealable

Have you heard that “publishers will steal your ideas”?

Or “you need to get your book out NOW before someone else steals the idea”?

Then . . . you’ve probably heard some pretty effective (and in my opinion, manipulative) marketing from the world of self-publishing.

And though most of this is bullshit — as I’ve said before, publishers won’t steal your ideas — there is a chance that someone else will publish the book you’ve been dreaming of.

But it’s not for the reasons you might think.

Most of the time, would-be authors don’t steal their friends’ ideas or violate NDAs.

Instead — they simply act first. This scenario is way less sexy — and way more common.

Here’s an example. Let’s say Amy and Beth are both experts in Stuff (and are both totally made up). Amy has a brilliant new idea about Stuff that would be perfect for a how-to book. And so does Beth. They both read these articles every week too!

Beth dreams of the day she’ll hit the bestseller list. She writes a Table of Contents, but feels a little stuck because she needs to spend most of her time focused on client work that pays. She starts an email list, but only sends a few emails before letting it wind down. After all, there’s only a handful of…