Thank you everyone! I am soaking in all the wisdom and experience, and I feel much clearer now, so glad I found this awesome place. One thing that I am very concerned about though, is copyright, how have you all handled that? Cos where I am, plagiarism and pirating ideas is a real thing.
Ideas cannot by copyright, and rightly so.
Stephen King proved you could take the same basic premise and write 2 totally different novels from it.
Any given idea will get combined with other things inside the head of who hears it, and what then springs forth will be unique.
The only thing that matters is the finished story, and that has copyright.
Plagiarism isn't a big thing, and when it happens, it's big news. You can't be worried about it happening, and the fear of having their book stolen before it gets published is a new author thing that simply doesn't happen. Editors and proofreaders are professionals who care about their reputations. And you shouldn't be letting anyone else read your book before publication.
Piracy is a thing, but the vast majority of pirate sites are phish schemes, and they don't have your book, just a copy of the sample. Those pirate sites which are real are frequented by people who will never buy your book in any case, so you've not lost anything when they download it. And you never know, someone they talk to about it might even buy it from a legit source.
Piracy is whack-a-mole, and not worth worrying about. Especially since most of the sites don't actually have a real copy of the book.
Get your book finished, professionally edited, professionally proofread, and then get it out there. Once it's out there, the copyright is established where it can be clearly seen.
