#WritersAgainstPlagiarism
If you’re not up to date on the #CopyPasteCris, I highly suggest you read Nora Roberts’ post – Plagiarism, Then and Now (link under “What Can We Do?”). Essentially, there’s a bevy of scammers and plagiarizers out there copying and pasting the work, in whole or in part, of elite authors, particularly in the Romance genre. They paste together pieces of a novel and send it out to ghost writers then publish it under their own name and title for $.99 or free, forcing the rest of us to lower our prices to compete.
There’s a great post on the CaffeinatedFae’s blog – #CopyPasteCrisList (link under “What Can We Do?”), listing the authors and novels plagiarized by one scammer, Cristiane Serruya. At the time of the post, 51 books and 34 authors were discovered to have been plagiarized by Serruya. It’s scandalous and it hurts us all.
If, like me, you’re struggling to make a go of your honest writing career, whether self-published or traditionally published, how does it make you feel to know you are competing against a slew of criminals like Serruya? I know how it made me feel – furious. We work damn hard and we shouldn’t be forced to compete with the likes of Serruya. The big online bookstores are allowing these scammers to publish as they’re making a tidy little profit from it as well. They’re not going to stop unless we, as writers and readers, make them.
Let’s stand together to stop these liars and thieves from profiting off the hard work of others and making it difficult for honest, hardworking writers to succeed.
After reading Nora Roberts’ posts, I’ve been thinking about how we can help in taking a stand against scammers and plagiarizers. Obviously, I don’t have the resources of top authors, but I believe even those of us with limited finances can aid in this fight, and it is a fight. To my mind, the only way we’re going to make it stop, is to stand up to the big online booksellers and force them to adhere to anti-plagiarism policies on their sites.
What Can We Do?
The first step is educating writers and readers. Share blog posts like Nora’s and CaffeintedFae’s on your social media accounts with the hashtags #CopyPasteCris and #WritersAgainstPlagiarism. Let’s gather an army of legitimate authors and lovers of words to protest the lack of policing of plagiarism by online retailers. Let’s stand together to stop these liars and thieves from profiting off the hard work of others and making it difficult for honest, hardworking writers to succeed.
As Nora suggests, name and shame anyone you find perpetrating and profiting from these schemes and scams. If we don’t stand up, stand united, it doesn’t stop.
Stop buying 99 cent books or downloading free books. Some of these are the books scammers are putting out and many of them are works by legitimate authors struggling to compete in an extremely difficult field. As authors, our work is more valuable than 99 cents. Giving it away for free or at a cheap price, doesn’t help and it certainly doesn’t pay the bills. By purchasing cheap or downloading free books, we’re feeding the scammers and encouraging the big booksellers to allow them to flourish.
Sign this petition emploring online bookstores to adopt and enforce anti-plagiarism policies on their websites.
Stand up, stand together, #WritersAgainstPlagiarism.
Immobilienmakler Heidelberg Makler HeidelbergSource by Wendy Hewlett