When I was young, I thought I had a billion totally cool and unique writing ideas and that if anyone heard about them before I could bring them to fruition, then I was screwed. My idea would be stolen, twisted into something different and wrong, sold to the masses for millions with nothing going to my own wallet.

Then I became jaded and realized that – you know what – there’s not a lot of originality out there. Most junk is just regurgitated in a different way. Packaged in a different format. Maybe with a new little somethin’ somethin’ added here and there.

Now I am somewhere in between Jadedville and Everyone’s an Idea Thief City.

Most of us know the basics. Everything you write is copyrighted. Technically. Though perhaps not formally.

And perhaps you know about the “poor man’s” copyright of mailing a copy of the writing to one’s self and NEVER opening the package up (unless the legal doomsday arrives).

And then there is going all-out official and registering your work with the U.S. Copyright Office. From another country? The U.S. Copyright Office has copyright relations (hmm…) with other countries around the world, which you can check out in their publication on International Copyright Relations.

Copyright protects actual writings. Not your ideas. Not your systems. Not your methods of operation.

We all have “brilliant” ideas from time to time. And some of us put them into action. Others never get past the pipe dream.

But if you let yourself become overwhelmed with thoughts of “Someone is going to steal my awesomely terrific idea and my world will crumble,” you might be getting ahead of yourself.

Can you protect yourself against an idea thief? To an extent.

1) Once you come up with an idea, keep it to yourself as you research it. Don’t use forums, blogs, etc as a way to bounce your idea off others.

2) When it comes time to bounce that idea off of others, go to those you can trust. Five or fewer people who can give you sound feedback on your idea and perhaps point you in the right direction.

3) WORK on your idea. Stop keeping it locked up in your mind and work on it. Develop it. 

What if you’ve developed your idea? It’s out there, perhaps in the form of an ebook. And it’s selling. And you stumble across a copycat ebook that takes your ideas and rehashes them or repackages them…

Sure, you can contact the person behind the scenes. Threaten legal action and all that. But are you willing to follow through?

Instead, use that copycat in your marketing material to show conclusive proof that your ebook rocks so much, that someone copied it. But it comes nowhere near the real deal.

So I say, if you’ve got an idea – go with it!! Don’t let the fear of stolen ideas keep you frozen in place.