October 7, 2015
The Insecure Writer’s Support Group
There you are. It’s a rainy evening. You’ve written over one
thousand words in the current work-in-progress and you’re winding it down for
the day. A little surfing at your favorite online bookseller is in order. You
can download a new book and tottle off to bed to do a little reading.
Not so fast. There is YOUR cover on someone else’s book!
Okay, okay. You know everyone and their sister is buying cover stock from a
rather limited pool. You just have to grin and bear it and remember you bought
that cover stock because the guy is pretty sexy.
So you scroll a few more pages
and then it happens. Holy crap! SOMEONE STOLE YOUR TITLE!!! Well, it’s not exactly your title. Your
title’s The Alpha’s Broken Finger and this - this - this THIEF used The Alpha’s
Broken Toe. And you can't copyright titles and names. But dammit! That’s awfully close. And both stories are about how
his mate saves him. What the heck is
going on?? Is this something serious or did we simply inspire another writer? Haven't we all gotten inspiration from someone else somewhere along the line? Who hasn't read a story and been blown away by a particular turn of a phrase and then had it creep into our usage?
I even had a fellow writer comment on this blog about the fact we both use the word "KEY" in our blog titles as though I stole the word directly from her mind.
I even had a fellow writer comment on this blog about the fact we both use the word "KEY" in our blog titles as though I stole the word directly from her mind.
Plagiarism is a risk we all take when we publish a book.
While I wrote the above tongue-in-cheek, the theft of intellectual property is
no laughing matter. The honest among us have all seen covers and stories so
similar to our own that the hair on our arms raises in alarm, disgust and
anger. It’s not a good feeling. So what do we do about it?
If we accuse another writer of plagiarism and it turns out
to be a weird coincidence, we’ve gained an enemy, one unlikely to ever forget.
And do we want to apply the stigma of plagiarism to someone else who may have
simply had a similar idea? How would we feel if we were unjustly accused of
such a thing?
The serious among us view our work as both creation and
business. There are steps we can take if we’ve been pirated (DMCA letters) or
suspect plagiarism (an attorney versed in the applicable laws). One of the sad truths about this business is
it’s stacked against the author. We do the work of creation and everyone makes
a profit on our backs.
I could let the ugliness of theft stop me from writing, but
I won’t. I could put my money into lawyer fees (and if seriously pissed off I
will). I submit DMCA letters albeit in a lazy fashion. For better or for worse
I’ve accepted the risk because I believe Karma exists.
I know that sooner or later savvy readers will catch on and
avoid suspect “authors.” The problem of deliberate, premeditated theft is so pervasive that even with a
hundred thousand keyboards raised against it, it’s not going to go away. And
that’s not right and that’s not fair.
The best thing I can do is put my energy into writing the
next story and not dwell on the inequities of this business. I could allow it
to discourage me, but I won’t. I do what I do for the honest readers and there
are enough of them left to keep me going. And that will just have to be good
enough until karma kicks butt.
KC Kendricks
