Another thief on Amazon: Summer Rose

[Ada Stuart]

It might be worthwhile to check this author on Amazon. I just received an email from one of my readers, informing me that my book had been copied and published as a 5-book series. Looks like she made a lot of sales too. I just hate when that happens...

The strange thing is that my book was already published on Amazon in 2019 (with title 'Stuck With You'). Don't they check the content before publishing?

And she has a ton of books for sale, so you might find one of yours too.

Anyway, here is the info you need:
Author: Summer Rose
Book she stole from me: Craving Lena’s Curves: Heartbreak Leads to True Love — A Steamy BBW Forbidden Romance (The Allure of Curvy Women and the Hot Guys Who Want Them Book 1)

Strangely enough, a few years ago, this happened to another one of my books ('Lessons in Love'). And the author called herself 'Rose Belle'. Guess it's the same person. Now that makes me feel stalked...

 

[KeithD]

Don't they check the content before publishing?

No, they don't. Not any more than Literotica does, and Amazon is a thousand times larger business than Literotica in processing works through.

 

[Ada Stuart]

Looks like they have removed the first book in the series. Only 4 more to go

 

[KeithD]

Looks like they have removed the first book in the series. Only 4 more to go

Glad you're getting a response on removal. I presume you let Amazon know the content was already published there by you and that has helped getting the stolen work removed(?)

That's how it works with my stories. They've nearly all already been published to Amazon and when my publisher finds pirated copies, he points out the earlier versions to Amazon, which is the best possible proof for Amazon that the work recently published was stolen.

 

[Ada Stuart]

Glad you're getting a response on removal. I presume you let Amazon know the content was already published there by you and that has helped getting the stolen work removed(?)

That's how it works with my stories. They've nearly all already been published to Amazon and when my publisher finds pirated copies, he points out the earlier versions to Amazon, which is the best possible proof for Amazon that the work recently published was stolen.

Yes, I added the link to my story that was published on Amazon so that made them remove the first one. But for the books 2-5 Amazon claimed that they were not able to compare the stolen copy with mine, and they asked me to file another complaint where I attached text snippets for comparison. That also included that I had to buy those books, which was out of the question.

So as long as you split the book into a series you're obviously off the hook.

Anyway, the books are gone now. I contacted the author on her website and she replied this morning. She bought the book from a ghost writer/freelancer at Upwork and she reported it back to them. Hopefully she will do a more thorough check the next time she buys a story off their shelf.

 

[Rustyoznail]

Author? She bought the stories from a freelancer! Should have gone direct to the source.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

She's a really fast writer and editor, she has published things every 3 to 6 days since May of 2021.

 

[KeithD]

I'd take Summer's story with a ton of rocksalt, but congrats on getting some action from Amazon.

 

[Ada Stuart]

Author? She bought the stories from a freelancer! Should have gone direct to the source.

Agreed Maybe I should send her a bill, eh? Or volunteer as her ghostwriter? Nah...lol

I'd take Summer's story with a ton of rocksalt, but congrats on getting some action from Amazon.

Thanks, KeithD And you were right about it being easier to take down a story that was already on Amazon. But it looks like she is very good with the publishing part of the writing business. I'm considering breaking my next story into a series - and of course, adding a great cover and giving away free copies of the first book in the series. Would be interesting to see if it works.

 

[Starscream_UK]

I've got a horrible feeling I had some dealings with her during the whole Trestle Press scam in 2012. There's something awfully familiar about that pen name and her profile blurb...

 

[Bramblethorn]

I'd take Summer's story with a ton of rocksalt, but congrats on getting some action from Amazon.

Yep, and even if it's true, it's not much of an excuse.

Ghostwriters plagiarising has been a known issue for years. Cristiane Serruya in particular got a lot of coverage. For a GW charging dirt-cheap Fiverr/Upwork rates, it's the obvious path to an easy paycheque.

An author who pays dirt-cheap Upwork/Fiverr rates for ghostwriting and not bothering to check for plagiarism is like buying a fifty-dollar TV off the back of a truck and not asking questions: if they didn't know it was stolen, it's because they didn't want to know.

 

[Ada Stuart]

Yep, and even if it's true, it's not much of an excuse.

Ghostwriters plagiarising has been a known issue for years. Cristiane Serruya in particular got a lot of coverage. For a GW charging dirt-cheap Fiverr/Upwork rates, it's the obvious path to an easy paycheque.

An author who pays dirt-cheap Upwork/Fiverr rates for ghostwriting and not bothering to check for plagiarism is like buying a fifty-dollar TV off the back of a truck and not asking questions: if they didn't know it was stolen, it's because they didn't want to know.

Oops, you're right about that. And even if I did manage to stop her, it still took 6 months after the first one was published. And we all know that books often sell best in the beginning.

Sign, there's no way to win, is there?

 

[Bramblethorn]

Oops, you're right about that. And even if I did manage to stop her, it still took 6 months after the first one was published. And we all know that books often sell best in the beginning.

Sign, there's no way to win, is there?

Well, if you get them taken down at least they lose some royalties.

I'll occasionally stick a copyright trap in the middle of a story, "if you're reading this somewhere other than Lite rot ica dot com it's been stolen" kind of thing. Easy to spot and remove if they actually read the whole story through carefully, but that's too much like work for most pirates.

 

[Smuttyandfun]

I've had a few of my stories show up on Wattpad. I emailed the people who'd submitted them and told them to take them down. Although they did, I still check around to see if any of my other stories have been stolen.

 

[Smuttyandfun]

Just curious, I wonder how other authors find their stories online. I've tried going on different sites and searching a few of my titles. I've also tired Googling the title with the character names. Is there any other way to check to see if anything's been pirated?

 

[Ada Stuart]

I guess it's impossible to find every illegal copy out there, but sometimes I just search for my pen name and see what appears. The result is so depressing that I rarely do it

Still, the easiest is to use different search generators (Google, DuckDuckGo, Bing) and search for a specific sentence from your story. Often they change the title and the characters' names but leave everything else as it is, so sentences with spelling mistakes work really well

As for Wattpad, I've had more results when I use the Wattpad search engine. Is that how you've discovered yours?

Still, taking them down is another matter. Most sites never answer at all so in those cases I've contacted Google and they remove them from the search results which is quite nice

 

[Smuttyandfun]

Thanks, really appreciate it. I found a few of my more popular stories on Wattpad just by searching the titles. I contacted the people who'd posted them, told them they were copyrighted and that legally they had no right to take credit for them. I also told them that I wanted them taken down or I'd contact the website and report them. They both complied pretty quickly and deleted them. One of them even apologized and said she thought if the story was already posted on Literotica, that she had the right to post it anywhere else she liked.
It really burns me that people have the nerve to outright steal someone else's work. I know some big name authors like Nora Roberts have been plagiarized. There was an 'author' on Amazon, supposedly a lawyer, who used a ghost writer to create her books. All they did was lift portions of popular books from well-known authors, and piece them together. The woman made a lot of money off of someone else's work. Last I heard, the lady was being sued by several authors, claiming she'd stolen their intellectual property. And I think her stories have been taken down by Amazon.
Guess I'll have to check again, just to see if anything turns up.