I don't know (yet) if it's the same in the publishing world, but I can speak about the software development world: You have a significant number of people who consider themselves "idea guys". This typically translates to "I hate actual work/I'm not competent enough to actually execute what I'm imagining/I'm a prima donna" or some such. I love hearing "I'm more of an idea guy" when I'm interviewing job candidates. Makes my decision that much easier :)
Nat On Sat, Jul 28, 2012 at 6:06 PM, Ray Chiang <[email protected]> wrote: > On 7/28/2012 12:35 PM, Paddyjack wrote: > >> On Sat, Jul 28, 2012 at 11:06 AM, Raymond Feist >> <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> >>> On Jul 28, 2012, at 10:52 AM, Paddyjack <[email protected]> >>> wrote: >>> >>>> >>>> A weird idea struck me this morning and I thought you may have >>>> some ideas about this. Let's say John has this great idea for a >>>> book but can't even write an Happy Birthday card correctly.... >>>> can he sell the idea to a publisher, or even directly to a writer >>>> so that it would be written by someone else who knows how to do >>>> it? It seems to happen for movies sometimes, and I was wondering >>>> if it happens also with books? >>>> >>> >>> You're jamming a lot of stuff into one basket. >>> >>> First, ideas can't be copyrighted. Only the unique expression >>> thereof, so whatever John might dream up, he'd have to be pretty >>> convinced it was something special. >>> >> > As a followup to this, I have a question. For those of you who have gone > through the production (scripts) or publication process (books, gaming > material, etc.), I'd be curious to gather up a few opinions (Rip? REF?) > about why so many people seem to place so much value on the idea (or > refining the idea) rather than the execution. Ignorance or obscurity of > process? High levels of optimism? > > -Ray > > -- Sent from my Crappy Laptop (tm) using a poor excuse for a web browser.
