How often as writers do we suffer the pain of seeing an idea we had thought of suddenly launched as someone else's bestseller?
I commonly get asked at writing festivals how authors can be sure that ideas they submit to publishers and agents won't just be pinched and developed by someone else. My answer is that while you can't be entirely sure, in truth we are all responding to the same ether - of ideas and influences - and it's perfectly possible for two people to come up with the same thought at the same time - and one find a publisher first. Most publishers and agents have enough good combinations of author and material submitted to them, without needing to plunder ideas with a transfer value.
I have to draft the next bit carefully. I don't want to sound smug, just convey my growing excitement. I don't know if, like me, you are glued to the second series of A History of the World in 100 Objects, which has recently returned to Radio 4, written and presented by the director of the British Museum, Neil Macgregor? Apparently it's a massive success, with huge numbers of people hitting the website to see what the objects look like.
And the reason for my excitement? Surely all these people listening and looking are going to be thinking about how they too would like to work in a museum or gallery (or maybe that it's a good option for their children). And meanwhile, I have just published a book on the subject.
I must rapidly confess that the book was not my idea. I have often felt that being a publisher requires a lot of altruism. The idea for the book came from A&C Black's commissioning editor for reference, Lisa Carden. She wrote the initial proposal, commissioned me to write it and someone else to produce the elegant cover, persuaded her colleagues to invest in it, and having instructed the copyeditor, promptly went off on maternity leave.
My hope is that right now, at home with her new daughter Lucy, she is listening too - and having similarly excited thoughts that now working in a museum or gallery looks such an exciting career option, we have produced the perfect guide to getting started. A felicitous case of commeth the hour, commeth the man(ual).
All best, Alison
Alison Baverstock is the author of Marketing your book, an author’s guide (A&C Black) and is course leader of the MA Publishing at Kingston University.
She is speaking at the Writers' & Artists' Insider Guide to How to Get Published conference on Saturday 19 June. Places are limited so early booking is advised »
Her latest book, How to Get a Job in a Museum or Art Gallery (A&C Black), is out now.
And in addition to all things that have been written before on the topic, I must touch a small matter of point of view.
There seems to be a vampire craze lately and people have been writing and publishing books that deal with vampires, werewolves and other creatures, but they are all in different situations and deal with them in different ways (I hope, at least, not having read them all, but that seems to be the case from what I know).
There is always a possibility that a person will think of something that someone else thought of some time ago (think of the law suit on JK Rowling because Harry went to the bath to think of a solution for that dragon's egg) but the point is to incorporate it well into your story and make it a believable experience to the reader. And remember, you live only so long, you don't have time to read all the books that have ever been written/published.
I think I've written too much. Again. Sorry, admin.
Congrats, Alison!
There's always going to be the worry that someone else will come up with a similar idea to yourself (since there are so many people in the world now), but you just have to get on with writing and hope that you'll get published (that's my opinion, anyhow).