Save your work from online copy cats....

[junipercayenne]

1. Change original names of charcters, places, ect, when posting online.

2. Only post part of your story and not the end. If someone wants to send it to a publisher, they'll need to match you voice and create a new ending which will be a lot of work. (This especially helps if your ending has a strange twist no one else would ever think of.)

3. Send your most valvued work in a personal message, but only to a user you REALLY trust.

4. If your work has an official copyright, make it known.

5.....

If anyone has more ideas, please mention it.

[junipercayenne]

So....

[junipercayenne]

Newsflash! Go to copyright.gov (no www.) for more info.

[straycatcher20040]

5. Make up different work just for this board.
6. Say that someone else made it and sign your friend's (or your - although that's risky) name.

[nyx]

If you post your work on fictionpress.com, it is immediately copyrighted under your username in their database. Others can't steal it because their IP address won't match the one you used to create/use your FP account.

[conversesneaker]

If you made something up( like a name, or a place or a certain type of magic) never say what it is. The word magic/name/place will do just fine.
Also don't put the story up word for word, that makes it too easy. A summary will work.