Green_Gem
Really Experienced
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2003
- Posts
- 291
I have this problem that’s emerged with one of my stories and I was wondering what the best thing to do would be.
In the last month or so I’ve had two emails from readers about a story that I wrote and published back in 2003. The first one was extremely rude and basically accused me of plagiarizing the story from an excerpt that appeared online of an e-book. The reader mentioned the name of the story (which is different to mine) and the author. I duly Googled it to find it was available on one of the websites that sells erotica. It was copyrighted 2006.
I skimmed through what was available and saw that there were areas where the story was identical, particularly as far as where the dialogue was concerned. In some cases it was almost word for word, the same. The premise for the story was also very very similar, but with some differences in the characters. I really didn’t read all that was available. I had seen enough to realize why the reader had been pissed off especially if he/she had to pay for their story and then discovered mine online, for free.
Following another link I got some background on the author of the story who had a lot to say about herself and her writing abilities and accomplishments, such as having various things published on the internet and writing for the science fiction genre. She then went on to say that in 2004 she began writing in the erotic romance genre and now concentrates solely on those types of stories.
I replied to the reader who sent me the mail and informed him that my story had been submitted and published on Literotica in 2003 and drew his/her attention to the fact that she had only starting erotic romance in the year after I’d published my story, and since this story of hers had only made an appearance in 2006, it was impossible for me to have copied her work.
I told him to be wary of just blaming people indiscriminately in future for something like that before he had his facts 100% correct.
He never replied. Obviously.
What really pissed me off was that this story of hers was something of a bestseller for that month. Anyway I seethed a bit about it and then just let it go. Life goes on and really I don;t stress too much about this stuff.
But then this week I got another letter from another reader with the same concerns but he was much more diplomatic and asked me if I had ever had the story published as an e-book. I replied, and then he replied saying that he’d noticed my story was submitted to Literotica in 2003 but wasn’t sure if I had possibly decided to submit it in a different form for paid publication to this other site and so did not want to make any initial accusations. He then went ballistic about the whole thing and said I should expose her because she was not only getting away with plagiarism but also making money out of it.
I have no clue what it costs for these e-books and how much the actual money aspect might affect readers in terms of feeling “ripped off,” but clearly both of these readers had that “ripped off “ feeling. I certainly don’t want to trash any other author or make a big issue out of this but there is a principle involved here now. I also don’t want to have to get these mails from readers who clearly have the initial feeling that I might have plagiarized someone else’s work. Why there should be the notion that it’s more likely that an author who publishes for free would copy the work of someone who charges and not the other way around, I don’t know but it obviously exists.
So what’s the best route to go? Contact Laurel with my tale of woe? Or… Any other suggestions?
In the last month or so I’ve had two emails from readers about a story that I wrote and published back in 2003. The first one was extremely rude and basically accused me of plagiarizing the story from an excerpt that appeared online of an e-book. The reader mentioned the name of the story (which is different to mine) and the author. I duly Googled it to find it was available on one of the websites that sells erotica. It was copyrighted 2006.
I skimmed through what was available and saw that there were areas where the story was identical, particularly as far as where the dialogue was concerned. In some cases it was almost word for word, the same. The premise for the story was also very very similar, but with some differences in the characters. I really didn’t read all that was available. I had seen enough to realize why the reader had been pissed off especially if he/she had to pay for their story and then discovered mine online, for free.
Following another link I got some background on the author of the story who had a lot to say about herself and her writing abilities and accomplishments, such as having various things published on the internet and writing for the science fiction genre. She then went on to say that in 2004 she began writing in the erotic romance genre and now concentrates solely on those types of stories.
I replied to the reader who sent me the mail and informed him that my story had been submitted and published on Literotica in 2003 and drew his/her attention to the fact that she had only starting erotic romance in the year after I’d published my story, and since this story of hers had only made an appearance in 2006, it was impossible for me to have copied her work.
I told him to be wary of just blaming people indiscriminately in future for something like that before he had his facts 100% correct.
He never replied. Obviously.
What really pissed me off was that this story of hers was something of a bestseller for that month. Anyway I seethed a bit about it and then just let it go. Life goes on and really I don;t stress too much about this stuff.
But then this week I got another letter from another reader with the same concerns but he was much more diplomatic and asked me if I had ever had the story published as an e-book. I replied, and then he replied saying that he’d noticed my story was submitted to Literotica in 2003 but wasn’t sure if I had possibly decided to submit it in a different form for paid publication to this other site and so did not want to make any initial accusations. He then went ballistic about the whole thing and said I should expose her because she was not only getting away with plagiarism but also making money out of it.
I have no clue what it costs for these e-books and how much the actual money aspect might affect readers in terms of feeling “ripped off,” but clearly both of these readers had that “ripped off “ feeling. I certainly don’t want to trash any other author or make a big issue out of this but there is a principle involved here now. I also don’t want to have to get these mails from readers who clearly have the initial feeling that I might have plagiarized someone else’s work. Why there should be the notion that it’s more likely that an author who publishes for free would copy the work of someone who charges and not the other way around, I don’t know but it obviously exists.
So what’s the best route to go? Contact Laurel with my tale of woe? Or… Any other suggestions?
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