What to Do When Your Pitch Gets Stolen

In the 1985 young adult novel “I’ll Take Manhattan,” 15-year-old Amanda gets burned when she shares an idea with a powerful person who profits off it without her permission. Amanda quickly learns that she was naive to share her ideas with someone in her industry.

But if you’re a freelancer pitching a story to a publication, it’s not naive to share your idea — it’s simply how the industry works…