While the comment "Second, your ideas aren't as valuable as you think they are" is blunt, it's also true. An idea has no inherent value. The vast majority of plot ideas a writer may have are simply variations on stories that have been written before. And a story/plot idea, even a good one, doesn't translate into a good book. The same idea can inspire a work of great importance or a piece of poorly-written tripe, depending upon who is executing the idea and how they approach it. The value is in an individual author's interpretation and execution of an idea. Writers are constantly asking how to protect their ideas if they choose to post them on the Internet, but the reality is, very few ideas are earth-shattering enough that anyone would choose to steal them. And most writers need to feel passionately about an idea to write it. The chance of another writer finding your idea, connecting with it to the point they want to use it, and then actually completing (and publishing) the end result is so low it's honestly silly to worry about it. Even if you gave me biographies of your characters, a plot synopsis, and updates about your progress writing the story, I highly doubt that I could or would produce something very similar to your book. If I even wanted to try. My suggestion is to either wait until the book is done to design a website around it, or else keep the information you post general enough that nobody could really "steal" anything of value. I have writer friends who blog their progress writing their books all the time, but never in a way that actually reveals much at all about what they're actually writing. I'm not sure what you were planning to post regarding your progress, but unless it's your actual first draft, I don't see why it can't be pretty vague. But...stop worrying. Whether or not you find it offensive, it's true that your idea is probably not something many people would ever consider stealing. Not because it's not a good idea, but because it's not their passion to write that idea. And even if someone did, it's doubtful they'd finish it or publish it. I think most competent, dedicated writers are comfortable and confident enough in developing their own ideas that they don't need to scour the Internet for stuff to steal.
And if they want to steal, they'll steal from Twilight and Harry Potter - ideas which have proven themselves to have commercial value.
...there's no way for you to do this, if you make it public in any form, or even share it with one other person... the only way you can, is to not tell anyone about it, period! ...and even if you don't the fact that you came up with the idea means others could, too... this happens more often than most would think... and it's why you'll sometimes see movies come out in the same year that are very similar... ...sorry, but it still would have to be a completed work of fiction for it to be protected by copyright... even if you have a very detailed outline that approximates a completed work, only the exact wording would be protected from use by others, not the concept or any particular plot elements... An ...if not trade mark protected, that only applies if the character appears in a completed work of fiction and if someone else uses the exact same name, physical description, character traits, etc.... ...no... since they are [or will be] excerpts of completed works, they'd be protected as such... ...of course... no one is saying otherwise, that i know of... ...only under the 'fair use' exception and that is strictly for educational and the other narrow uses listed in the statute... one cannot legally use/quote excerpts of copyrighted works without the author's permission, if the work is still under copyright... works in the public domain are free to be used at will... ...it's someone long ago's idea to mail work to yourself so it'll be dated by the post office... and it has no legal standing in the us, though it may have some in the uk... you can check it out for yourself, at the site i provided a link to above...
mammamaia, the term "completed work of fiction" is misleading, since even a rough draft of a chapter is protected by copyright from the moment you put it down on paper - even if the rest of the book will never be written. Use the term "tangible form", or even better, "specific expression", instead.
...the official term is 'fixed form'... i'll use that from now on, to avoid confusion... here's the text from the loc site:
Yeah, copyright comes into play automatically when you have a work fixed in a tangible medium of expression (which means when the embodiment of the work is sufficiently permanent or stable to allow it to be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated for more than a transitory duration of time). Typing it up on paper, or on a computer word processor counts as being 'fixed' in a tangible medium. You don't have to have a complete work for the protection to be there. If you've written five chapters of a twenty-chapter book, then those five chapters are protected. Even if you never finish the other fifteen chapters.
Ideas themselves are not copyrightable. Anything you write however falls under copyright right away....it is yours. END OF. The problem comes with proving it. The only way to lawfully do this with 100% success would be to get a lawyer to sign a contract with a date and a witness signature, which he would probably hold on to. It happens. As for Sashas comments. Someone smart once said ideas are not valuable, ideas happen all the time, anyone can have an idea, there are good and bad ideas. The value is in the insight, how to make the best of the idea, and this insight creates better ideas and more of them.
