Piracy

I am so frustrated right now. My newest book came out last week under my imprint of Emerald Arch Publishing. My book's in Kindle Unlimited and therefore exclusive to Amazon.

BookBub sent out its newsletter announcing it to my followers there. Good thing I follow myself. Look what I noticed in the email.

Say what? iBooks? It's exclusive to Amazon--you can get into lots of trouble with the Zon if you've got a book in KU that can be bought somewhere else. I clicked the link, and this is what I found.

Notice the publisher isn't my imprint.

I saw red!

I managed to find a number for iBooks (that was no easy matter). It took a while because the first person I spoke with wasn't sure what to do. Eventually, I got to someone who was able to register my challenge and sent me an email with a link to submit it officially.

I also had to track down a  number for Amazon to let them know the situation and that I was working on getting that pirated copy down.

And I submitted that url to Blasty to notify Google, Yahoo!, Bing, and the site hosting the infringing content.

I also took to social media to let others know. My book is one of three that were written in this world and released that day. One of them is also on iBooks under that publisher, so at least now she knows and can take action too.

I then took the afternoon off and came home to submit the copyright for that and three other books that I'd been meaning to but hadn't gotten around to. FYI--your work might be "copyrighted" as soon as you write it, but if you ever need to challenge it in court you'll need it official with the Library of Congress. I found this out when Rachel Ann Nunes began her (unfinished) journey against plagiarism.

Resources:

Submit a Copyright

How to Submit a Copyright Under a Penname

Indie Author Self-Defense: Piracy, Plagiarism, and Impersonation (Part 1 of 3)

Rachel Ann Nunes Lawsuit

I'll keep you updated.

Reality vs Fiction ... And Some Fun

This whole thing is beyond enough. I'm firmly convinced that if I tried to write this as fiction, few would believe it.

I've posted several times about this plagiarism issue. Having been kind of behind the scenes as the story has unfolded, it's been a sad and fascinating journey.

As a further update to the drama, Rachel Nunes (the author who was plagiarized) reported that she had been in contact by Army veteran Chase Weston about the article he wrote that Rushton also plagiarized (you can see details in John Dopp's post here).

The Westons were appalled to discover what had happened. Mrs. Weston wrote an open letter to Tiffanie Rushton and asked Rachel to post it (you can see it here). It's heartbreaking to read.

And if that wasn't bad enough ...

Last week I posted an update that included a list of plagiarist Tiffanie Rushton's sock puppet names. You can find the post here. Someone who appeared to be a parent of one of Rushton's students posted in the comments that the names of the sock puppets were children from Rushton's class!

I notified Rachel, and they were able to check the school's yearbook and, sure enough, they were. At the request of that parent in a subsequent post, I redacted the surnames of the students. John Dopp, when he found out about it, did the same on his post.

I understand that Rushton--finally--has been put on administrative leave by her school district. Once again, a plea to everyone not to attack the woman. It's in the hands of the court now. Others could be taking action against her too.

I hope this raises some discussions at family dinner tables about plagiarism and identity theft.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

On a happier note, I spent the weekend at the iWriteNetwork writing retreat. Something fun that we did was do the "beats" from Blake Snyder's Save the Cat while we watched the movie Iron Man.

View from the front

Kitchen and One Gathering Area

Hot Tub and Grill - Yum!

Gathering on First Night

Almost the entire group.

What did you do this weekend?

Plagiarism Update

Dang, here I go posting an extra time during the week. Again!

As horrifying as last week was with the plagiarism that was followed by cyberbullying against the victim, this week has been so heartening to see people rally behind Rachel Nunes (you can read her story here).

NY Times bestselling author David Farland, who has met Rachel at a few writing conferences, suggested to her that she start up a litigation fundraiser so she could go after this person. He talked about it Monday on his Kick in the Pants post (click here to read it), and he put his money where his mouth was by donating $500. Click here for the direct link to donate.

Litigation of any kind is expensive. Plagiarism litigation can be especially so. If you can help share the word, it would help a lot. Even donations of $5 can help--if there are a lot of them.

This isn't just Rachel's battle. It's a fight for all authors.

Here's a sample of Rachel's book and the plagiarized ARC.

Rachel's original work.

Sam Taylor Mullen's Plagiarized ARC.

And here's a screen capture of the attacks against Rachel's other books on Amazon (some are under Rachel's pen name. These were all done by one person the day the plagiarism came to light.

In response to these attacks, author Candace C. Bowen created a Facebook group, Author Against Plagiarism and Cyberbullying. She's been keeping followers up to date and posting some interesting articles about the issue.

Plagiarism - The Story Continues

Since I've been following this drama as it has unfolded, I thought I would share Rachel Nunes's side of the story.

Click here.

Please read it. And watch your back. They've vicious.

ETA: One of the reviewers who outed the plagiarist has been being attacked, so she's posting side-by-side pictures of Rachel's original and Sam's stolen version.  You decide.

Click here and here.

August 2014 IWSG

Click here to find out more and to see a list of other IWSG blogs.

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

I'm really bugged about something that happened this week to an author acquaintance of mine. This lady has been quite successful and has many books to her credit. She's made a career as a traditionally published author and now is branching into indie publishing.

She was contacted by someone who said they had been given an ARC to read and review. The book was scheduled to come out in August. The person said the book was almost identical to one of the author's books that had been released about fifteen years ago. Now, the author writes clean romances, and this book even had a religious element. In the ARC, the character names had been changed and the religious scenes replaced with graphic sex scenes. But it was HER book.

As you can imagine, the author was appalled.

She asked if the person would email her a copy of the ARC. The person who had contacted her declined, but did ask the plagiarist P about the striking similarities. P said she had collaborated with my friend.

Um, no.

Then my friend contacted P, and she went all defensive. Said a mistake had been made, and she would pull the book. But she also went sobbing on FB about it, and now her fans are attacking my friend.

Like she has done something wrong by protesting the theft of her intellectual property.

It blows me away. It disgusts me.

I cannot fathom the sense of violation I would feel if someone stole my creative work and passed it off as their own. If they twisted these characters, who had lived in my mind and heart for years, into mockeries of what they were.

Please be careful, both with your own work and with other people's. Please. 

ETA: P has been outed big time by one of the reviewers who took the effort to read the original book.