Imposters Among Us
I recently read about this blatant thievery and it bugged me enough to speak out to anyone who offers free reads on their web sites.
For the most part I've stayed away from the discussions on indie versus traditional publishing. In my opinion both are excellent means of getting published, but they each come with their own baggage.
Author, SKS Perry was robbed and Amazon (as of yet) hasn't taken the appropriate measures to stop the thief who stole his work. It never occurred to me that something like this could happen. It just goes to prove there is scum everywhere.
As a recap, here's what happened: SKS Perry took some good advice and self-published his novel on Amazon. He'd been giving his novel away for free, so why not make a little money on it?
Evidently, some scumbag thought so too, and published it as well, with the proceeds going directly to him. By the time Perry decided to publish it, he'd found it already existed on Amazon. His friends are pointing him in the right direction, contacting Amazon, sending a DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) letter and making phone calls.
As of this writing, Amazon still offers the other guy's pirated copy on there web site, but at least they're allowing Perry to publish his rightfully-owned novel. (How nice of them.)
This is why I am so dead set against posting free books on blogs and web sites. I think it's all kinds of wonderful that you want to share, but all it takes is one blackheart yahoo to steal from you and pretend to be you.
For the record, I'm not fond of posting unpublished excerpts either, but that's for different reasons.
It's not safe out there, people. If you're going to self-publish, don't put it on your web site for free without publishing it first via Smashwords, Amazon, or B&N. And if you're good enough, you don't have to give it away for free.
Comments
Mason
Thoughts in Progress
Thanks for the link Bernadine.
Mason: It surprised me too, and I'm generally of the cynical persuasion.
Sherri: I just can't get over the idea someone would have the nerve to try such a thing--and succeed. It'll be interesting to see if Amazon gives Perry the funds that should have gone to him.
people piss me off
Marianne: Knock on wood, I've always had good luck with Amazon customer service. Other than the fact it won't let me post Amazon reviews, I can't complain. But this is major. I would think they'd jump on this.
Sarah: I hope they can resolve this without lawyers, but yeah, he'd be on speed dial right now, my finger hovering over the button.
Nancy
N. R. Williams, The Treasures of Carmelidrium.
Angelina: How awful for that author. I can understand why she turned her back on publishing. Justice is slow, if not impossible to achieve. Shame on that person for stealing from a peer.
This is also why I never post complete novels on OWSFF
Sometimes our priorities are in the wrong place.
Ref: OWW
Exactly. I've never posted a whole novel. Nor will I excerpt my work-in-progress--but that's because I'm afraid people will feel obligated to say nice things.
I'd rather they say nice things when it's published. :grin:
I have a couple of short (a page or two, max.) excerpts on my site but would never post more than that. Maybe once the book is released I'd put out more with a VERY clear copyright notice :)
Shame on the thief (who needs a scary letter from a lawyer at the very least) and on Amazon for moving so slowly and "letting" him sell his own work (rolls eyes). I hope Mr. Perry gets this resolved soon.
Ref: ...a scary letter from a lawyer...
Or a very scary rottweiler. I have one of those. :)
It happened when the poor food writer had her piece published on a rip-off foodie website here in western MA.
I'd even do it myself - but I don't want to be an officious interloper ;-)
@Barbara: I hope the thief gets caught soon.
petemorin: I remember that. In this case, the thief used the author's actual name, but had the funds sent to *him*. I imagine only Amazon knows who he really is. That's why it's important they act quickly.
And this is why I rarely post more than a few paragraphs of anything and that only after it's been published.
Charlie: It goes back to building a better mousetrap. The more advanced technology gets, the harder we have to work to keep the bad guys at bay.
Thanks for letting us know, Maria. I'm definitely going to check out Perry's book--and pay HIM for it.
Thank you for saying so, though. I don't feel so alone now. :)
I also am going to tweet a link to this post today since missed coming by yesterday, more folks need to get on the ball about this one as it is actually worth taking notice of!
I could be wrong but I believe this same thing happened to Zoe Winters with her novella Kept over a year ago. In fact, I think there were two copies on Amazon at one point as well. Not 100% sure about that but I think I remember reading a post about it.
Ellie: I bookmarked DMCA should I ever need it.
Jackie: You're a good soul, Jackie.
Sondrae: Did it? I didn't know that.
Suzanne: I know people tend to reincarnate themselves with new identities. But what a way to live for so tiny a profit.
Anyway, I am your newest follower. Please stop by my blog to follow me too! Thanks. :)
-Sandra from http://sandrathenookworm.blogspot.com
Angela: I hope none of us ever need to use that link.
Shelley: The sad thing is someone is always trying to think of some way to make money off of us.
Sandra: Welcome! I've already added myself to your follower list and put you on my reader.
I'm so glad you caught that person stealing from you. I wonder if it set her straight.
I'd like to thank people like you, Maria, for posting my predicament here and making it public. The support from the writing community has been terrific, and the only thing that got me through all this.
Hope your post garnered him some extra sales.
I'm so sorry this happened to you. To your credit, you handled it well.
Cate: I don't know what universe people are from where they think stealing is okay. If we could keep people from accessing our sites anonymously, it would probably prevent a big portion of pirating. At least we'd know who they were and out them.
If anyone else has problems you can report the thief to the web abuse section of homeland security. Here's the link: hppt://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx
I stopped by for the FF and I'm glad it did. Thanks for sharing this Maria!
Judith
www.judithleger.blogspot.com
www.judithleger.weebly.com
I'm hopping through from FF. You can follow back at Coffee Table Reviews
The bar is always open here. :)
http://writerekelly.blogspot.com/
I agree with you completely about protecting our work. I publish my work first to make sure people know it's mine, never offer anything for free and never print excerpts. I wouldn't want anyone stealing my concept for a book after they've read my exerpt.
Julie: I see so many people posting unpublished excerpts and I often wonder if some unscrupulous person ever thinks of exploiting them.
Now I know.
Thank you!
Kim Van Sickler
http://swaggerwriters.blogspot.com/
@Jamie
@Sophia
@Kim
Nice to see so many new faces. Welcome! Glad the post was useful.