The Plagiarizing of Tammara Webber’s Easy by @JordinBWilliams
Edit x2: The book has been removed from sale on Amazon and BN. Good job for reporting this everyone!
I love Easy by Tammara Webber and so do hundreds of thousands of other readers. Unfortunately, one Jordan Williams recognized this and thought, hmmm, I’ll just incorporate whole swaths of text from Webber’s famous and much beloved book. Worse, Jordan William’s book is selling like mad. It’s 58 in the US Kindle store, as of this writing.
Obviously, I’m not going to point fingers without real evidence so here are the screencaps.
And from Tammara Webber’s book Easy:
The hoodie joined the cap, and his t-shirt fell back into place. Picking up the sketchbook and pencil, he turned to me, and I noted that the ink on his forearms continued over his biceps and under the short sleeves of his shirt.
“Where do you want me?” More breathless than I’d intended, my question seemed a brazen proposition. Wow. Could I be any more obvious? Maybe I should just come out and ask him if he wanted to be my Kennedy-rebound, no strings attached.
My insides went liquid from his ghost of a smile—the one that was becoming more and more familiar. “On the bed?” he said, his voice gruff.
Oh, God. “Okay.” I moved to perch on the edge of the mattress as he swept the hoodie and the cap to the floor. My heart was pounding, waiting.
He peered at me, head angling to the side. “Um. You look really uneasy. We don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.”
We don’t have to do what? I thought, wishing I could ask him if using me as a model was a pretense, and telling him that if so, it was a pretense he didn’t need to maintain. I looked him in the eye. “I want to.”
He stuck the pencil over his ear, looking unconvinced. “Mmm. What position would be the most comfortable for you?”
I couldn’t say aloud the answers that popped into my head at that question, but the flush that spread across my face like wildfire gave me away. He caught his lower lip in his teeth, and I was sure it was to contain a laugh. Most comfortable position? What about with my head stuck under a pillow?
He glanced around my room and went to sit on the floor, against the wall, facing the foot of my bed. Knees up, pad on his thighs, he was just as I imagined him in class the other day. Except he was in my room, not his own.
“Lie down on your stomach and rest your head on your arms, facing me.”
I did as he told me. “Like this?”
He nodded, eyeing me as if absorbing details or searching for flaws. Coming onto his knees, he moved close enough to fan his fingers through my hair and let it fall over my shoulder. “Perfect,” he murmured, scooting back to his position against the wall, a few feet away.
I stared at him as he sketched, his eyes moving back and forth from my face to the pad. At some point, his gaze began to move over the rest of me. As if his fingertips skimmed over my shoulders and down my back, my breath caught in my throat and I shut my eyes.
“Falling asleep?” His voice was soft. Near.
I opened my eyes to find him on his knees next to me, sitting back on his heels. My heart picked up the pace again at his nearness. “No.”
He’d left the pad and pencil on the floor behind him. “Are you… done?”
He shook his head slightly. “No. I’d like to do another, if you don’t mind.” At my nod, he said, “Turn onto your back.”
I rolled over slowly, afraid he’d be able to see my heart hammering through my thin sweater. He grabbed the pad and pencil from the floor and stood. Staring down, he let his eyes roam over me, and I felt vulnerable, but not in danger. I knew so little about him, but there was one thing I felt unequivocally: safe.
“I’m going to arrange you, if that’s okay?”
I swallowed. “Uh… sure.” My hands were clutched to my ribcage, my shoulders hunched almost to my ears. What, this isn’t how you want me positioned? I barely contained the nervous twitter that bubbled up at the thought.
His fingers encircled the wrist nearest him, and he brought my arm over my head, bent it as though it had been thrown back. Taking the opposite hand, he splayed my fingers over my abdomen, sat back, stared at me a moment, and then moved it, too, over my head, crossing my wrists, as though I was bound. I struggled to breathe normally. Impossible. “I’m going to move your leg,” he said, his eyes on mine, waiting for my nod. His hands on my knee, he angled it out, leaving it flush against the mattress.
He picked up the pad and turned the page. “Now tilt your face toward me a bit—chin down—that’s good. And shut your eyes.” I fought to remain relaxed, knowing that as long as I heard the scratch of his pencil across the page, he wasn’t going to touch me. I lay unmoving, eyes closed, listening to the rasp of lead on paper, broken by the soft brush of his finger, smearing a line or a shadow.
From the laptop on my desk, my inbox dinged, and my eyes flashed open. Without thinking, I rose to my elbows. Landon? But there was no way I could check.
Lucas was watching me closely. “Do you need to check that?”
Landon had ignored my email all afternoon, when in the past he’d answered so promptly that I was probably spoiled. But Lucas was sitting in my room. On my bed. I lay back, returned my arms to their prior position, and I shook my head. I didn’t close my eyes this time, and he didn’t ask me to.
He returned to sketching, concentrating on my hands a long while, and then my face. He stared into my eyes, back and forth between that intense examination and his drawing. When he stared at my mouth for long moments—drawing, staring, drawing, staring—I wanted to reach up, grab his t-shirt, and pull him down to me. My hands clenched involuntarily and his gaze flicked there and back.
Eyes blazing, he looked down at me. “Jacqueline?”
I blinked. “Yes?”
“The night we met—I’m not like that guy.” His jaw was rigid.
Edited to add. Yup, more plagiarism. This time from Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire.
From Beautiful Disaster:
The weight of the grief we both felt was crushing, and an irrepressible need came over me to save us both. I lifted my chin, but hesitated; what I was about to do would change everything. I reasoned that Travis didn’t see intimacy as anything but a way to pass the time, and I shut my eyes again and swallowed back my fears. I had to do something, knowing we would both lay awake, dreading every passing minute until morning.
My heart pounded as I touched his neck with my lips, and then tasted his flesh in a slow, tender kiss. He looked down with surprise, and then his eyes softened with the realization of what I wanted.
He leaned down, pressing his lips against mine with a delicate sweetness. The warmth from his lips traveled all the way to my toes, and I pulled him closer to me. Now that we had taken the first step, I had no intention of stopping there.
I parted my lips, letting Travis’ tongue find its way to mine. “I want you,” I said.
Suddenly, the kiss slowed, and he tried to pull away. Determined to finish what I had started, my mouth worked against his more anxiously. In reaction, Travis backed away until he was on his knees. I rose with him, keeping our mouths melded together.
He gripped each of my shoulders to hold me at bay. “Wait a sec,” he whispered with an amused smile, breathing hard. “You don’t have to do this, Pidge. This isn’t what tonight is about.”
He was holding back, but I could see it in his eyes that his self-control wouldn’t last long.
I leaned in again, and this time his arms gave way just enough for me to brush my lips against his. “Don’t make me beg,” I whispered against his mouth.
With those four words, his reservations vanished. He kissed me, hard and eager. My fingers ran down the length of his back and settled on the elastic of his boxers, nervously running along the gather of the fabric. His lips grew impatient, then, and I fell against the mattress when he crashed into me. His tongue found its way to mine once again, and when I gained the courage to slide my hand between his skin and the boxers, he groaned.
We are going to do a compare and contrast for the rest of the book but many plagiarists include multiple sources. This book needs to be taken down. Here’s the Goodreads link | Amazon Link | Author’s contact page
I did email the person who put the book up for publication but have not yet received a response.
Amazon is pretty responsive to removing content if enough people complain… I hit ‘violates amazon’s TOS’ … since it’s not her original work, that’s a TOS violation, then I mentioned Weber’s EASY and linked to here.
Once Weber files a copyright claim, they should get it down fast. It sucks that a plagiarist is selling so well. People like her are an insult to writers.
Why do authors think no one will ever catch this? Most of us read hundreds of books a year and the better books stick with us. There are books I read years ago that I can still quote entire passages from. *sigh* It’s so disheartening.
Is it sad that it’s obvious how this is going to go down?
Step one will be denial and calling this “bullying.”
I hope step two will be Amazon taking the book down and freezing her account so she gets no royalties from it.
@Courtney Milan: I don’t mind being called a bully over this.
Do we click on the “Do you believe that this item violates a copyright?” link on amazon.com or is there something else?
I reported it. That’s absolutely shameful.
UGH UGH gross and disheartening. Yes, I hope Amazon freezes the account as well.
I just… I would never want my name (or even my pseudonym!) on anything so shameful. Even if nobody ever reads them, my books are my accomplishments, and no one can take that away.
I can’t believe she didn’t think anyone would notice. Just removed it from my TBR and I’m so glad I hadn’t bought it yet.
Jane, keep doing what you’re doing, please. That’s why I love your blog and stalk you on Twitter.
@Darlynne: I think so. I’ve also posted on her facebook page and tweeted her (the author). Maybe shame will get her to take it down, but Amazon (and BN) will have to freeze the accounts like Courtney said. This book has been on sale since July 21, I guess, and has been lingering in the top 100 so she’s easily made probably 10K from the sale of the books now. (my guess)
Echoing the thanks to Jane for being alert and being loud about it.
I’d like to think that most writers–good, kind, sensible writers–are sensitive about the line between inspiration and accidentally overstepping–in fact I just spent a full five or so minutes fretting over a short phrase that I thought sounded too much like a description from another book (which I happened to read after I’d written the line), then tweaking it to make sure that it fit in context as something clearly in my story’s own voice. Because who wants even to look like they swiped something? Apparently some people just want a route to easy money. It makes me want to weep–or snarl in rage–over people who slap someone else’s text into their books like… like… like…
Wait, I can’t think of the words to express my rage, so I’ll just go find a book I can steal some from. Maybe, “my heart is racing and thinking about this book makes me dizzy. But not in the sexy, shirtless-artist way.”
Incoherent growling begins now.
I have such rage over this. And on the heels of Lorelei James being plagiarized.
Do these thieves think readers are stupid?
There are strong similarities *cough* with Jamie McGuire’s Beautiful Disaster as well. These are closer to the end.
I can’t believe that Amazon STILL hasn’t instituted some kind of plagiarism filter that scans all books before they’re approved for sale. It’s not as if the technology doesn’t exist.
@Shiloh Walker: … and to readers, Shiloh. It makes me SICK every time I read a new report about someone blatantly plagiarizing an author. When I buy a book I expect it to be original work (even if the tropes used are as old as time).
@Jane: Is there any chance that Amazon or BN could demand that she return the money they have paid her for breach of contract – if they could, that might be a good deterrent to stop this kind of plagerism?
@Courtney Milan – Unfortunately, I believe that you are right. If she isn’t going to do the right thing and accept responsiblity for her actions (chances of that happening 0%), it would be best for her to just say nothing, take the book down herself and quietly disappear – chances of that happening, also 0%. I’ll go make the popcorn.
This is just terrible! Blatantly plagiarizing someone else’s work like that – and a REALLY popular book too! Ugh. And to think I featured her on my blog. Lesson learned. Keeping my eyes peeled for updates on this one.
@Jane – as a follow up to my last comment – could purchasers of the book get their money back (I haven’t bought it, but that might also be an incentive for Amazon, BN to get it down quickly)?
It hasn’t been out long. Some should be able to return it on Amazon.
While I think Tammara Weber’s book EASY is terrible and one of the worst books I’ve ever read, this IS deplorable. At least plagiarize something worth copying…
Wow I can’t believe this. I actually did a feature on my blog this past week with her book and I just went and deleted it. UGH I feel so disgusted.
@Lynnd:
Actually, she just put the book up 5 or 6 days ago. Amazon hasn’t paid her anything yet, and there’s a provision in the contract that says they don’t have to pay under certain circumstances (which would include this one).
Amazon has the ability to freeze payment to her and give the funds to the author(s) she’s plagiarized from on both a legal and a technical level.
But first, someone who has a right in this case (Tammara Webber herself & her publisher) needs to take action by getting the book taken down.
@Lynnd: Yes, you can easily return the Amazon purchase by going to “Manage Your Kindle” page and clicking on the Action button next to the title. You have seven days to do that for any Kindle purchase. For BN, not sure.
@Lynnd: Neither company would have paid her yet. Amazon holds the funds for 60 days, I believe. Not sure about BN. They may be the same. So they can, as Courtney Milan suggested, freeze her accounts and refuse to pay her anything for violating the terms of the publishing contract.
This is awful. I just don’t understand how people can so blatantly copy another authors work and think they won’t get caught – especially from a much loved and much read book as Easy. Did Jordin Williams really think NA readers wouldn’t notice? I hope the book is taken down asap. All royalties should also be returned, but I doubt that will happen…
@Darlynne:
To use the copyright feature, you have to be the copyright owner or authorized to be speak on his/her behalf (like pub/agent/etc). That’s why I used the ‘violates TOS’ options. It does violate Kindle/Amazon’s TOS. Kindle expressly requires it not violate third party, yadda yadda yadda. When she plagiarized, she violated copyright.
@Jane: And it looks as though she may have deleted your FB comment.
@Mireya:
That’s such a good point. When I buy a book, I spend my hard-earned money on it. $1, $3, $10 — it all adds up.
I’ve been informed that the publisher is on this so hopefully the retailers will respond with alacrity.
EASY has been one of my favorite novels this year, and I love Tammara’s writing, her personality on social media…
Even if I didn’t, and I hated the book, this still wouldn’t be cool. But because I do, I am mad as hell.
You guys! The “author” says that the book was ghostwritten and “passed through the test”
https://twitter.com/JordinBWilliams/status/349932998994558976
“The book was ghostwritten and passed through the test”
Ok, so she’s saying it was ghostwritten…does that make it better? Or just more pathetic
I did a promo post for this book, and now I feel like an ass. Perfect.
What does that mean? Ghostwritten?!
@Andrea T: @Isabel: You guys did nothing wrong. How could you have known! Please don’t feel bad. You are not at fault.
@Isobel Carr: Readily available! My kids have teachers who routinely run all papers through things like Turn It In.
The university where I teach has software you can run students’ papers through to catch plagiarism. (Although just copying and pasting a section into Google works pretty well, too.) If a little ole state school can afford to do this, surely Amazon can afford it?
Yeah, from her blog:
http://authorjordinwilliams.blogspot.com/p/about.html
It’s the age old question. Where you lying then or lying now?
@Lynnd: Would getting a mass amount of book-purchasers to demand refunds cause her any issues? I’m not sure the stores could demand the money back from her, but it might cause enough of an uproar to get the book banned or something?
@Lynnd: Ah, disregard. I see you already added this question and received an answer. Sorry about that. :)
WTH.
And seriously, what does Ghostwritten mean in this context? That she thinks she has no culpability? Geezus. Your name is on the cover :shakes head:
Sad, and annoyed at the balls of some.
@Jane:
What does that even mean? A Google search to see if anything pops up as the same? And ghostwritten? What? Why? By whom?
Murky waters just became shark infested. So sorry for the (true) author who has this blatant theft of her words to deal with.
Guys, stop! It was ghostwritten! That changes everything. Now I see that Jordin must be the victim here.
*eye roll*
If she’s truly innocent and some horrible ghostwriter made her plagiarize, then the next steps are posting about it on Twitter & Facebook, asking people not to remove the book, removing the book from sale herself, apologizing on every platform she owns, and promising to remit any money paid to her to those who were plagiarized.
Because that’s what an honest person would do if she found out she had inadvertently stolen from another author. She would try to make it right.
So let’s see. Three…two…one…
That’s just sick, if you can’t write your own work, don’t steal someone else’s. I won’t ever by that particular authors books.
I’ve not had the pleasure to read Easy by Ms. Webber yet, however things like this anger me to ludicrous levels. I’ve tried writing, I have several friends who are authors and I know how difficult writing can be sometimes and how much work it takes. I’ve re-tweeted this on the Twitter machine and posted the link to this site on my book groups on Facebook. I also went to Amazon and reported this farce of a “book” for violating their Terms of Service.
I hope Ms. Webber catches wind of this and files a copyright violation claim.
Let me get this straight: Williams is a “ghostwriter turned author,” and someone else ghostwrote (is that a word?) her book that was plagiarized from someone else? WTF?
Come on. What always amazes me is the amount of time it must take people to plagiarize. In that amount of time, wouldn’t it be quicker to write something themselves that they could actually claim as their own?
Well, DUH, you guys. It was CLEARLY ghostwritten by some lady named Tamorrow Webber in partnership with some other lady named Jami Macwire.
Easy is one of my favorite books and I’m very disgusted by this. For persons who’ve had the book more than seven days, you can still try to contact Amazon about returning it. I bought a book in error one time and the 7-day return period had passed but they still refunded me after I explained. You won’t be able to do this through the MYK page; I can’t remember now but think I either called them or used their Kindle Support page.
This is so sad. I saw her posts on Kboards talking about her success and attributing it to book bloggers and all. I was really happy for her.
If the book actually does violate a copyright, Amazon will investigate and take it down. It was published only a few days ago, so I imagine people will get their money back.
I just hope this doesn’t negatively affect other indie authors.
Doesn’t matter if it WAS ghostwritten. Her name is still on the cover of the book. Therefore she is still accountable.
I want to scream “Liar, liar, pants on fire.” Yes, I’m an adult. : )
She claims she “turned author” because she was sick of writing books and never getting credit for them. But then, she’s now claiming her book was ghostwritten by someone else? Give me a break.
Who’s her publisher? Or was this self-published?
I *think* what she might be claiming is that she ghostwrote Easy and/or Beautiful Disaster and therefore the plagiarised passages are really hers after all. Though if that is the case, she still doesn’t have a leg to stand on and presumably she’d be in breach of contract.
Well it worked for Cassandra Clare and everyone forgot about it, so why not?
Now Jordin has tweeted this: I am officially letting all funds go. I’m sadden by this that a ghostwriter did this through guru. Thankfully I never received any money.
I am so confused. A ghostwriter wrote Amazingly Broken, but she takes the credit as the “author” of the book?
Is “it was ghost-written, it passed the test” the new “I didn’t know that was plagiarism”?
Roberta, I’m with you, and wonder cynically whether this will blow over just as easy.
Anyone remembers The Story Siren? Still there, isn’t she?
Ghostwriter my hinny, and I thought this hogwash couldn’t get no worse. Boy was I wrong.
I’m so disgusted by this. There’s no excuse, no reason.
Oh sheet. This cannot be tolerated anymore. I have not read either of the books, but this is so unfair to the original authors! Thank you for bringing this to light. And this whole ‘ghostwriter defense’ is pitiful.
That this is selling so well suggests some pretty gruesome things about publishing post Fifty Shades/”fanfic is okay.” It’s not that fanfic and plagiarism are they same thing–they aren’t–but you do reach a point where there’s a fine line (especially when the fanfic origins are not made plain on the packet, so to speak, a la Fifty Shades and all the other published fanfic out there). Hey, so fanfic’s okay now…when does it stop being fanfic and start being plagiarism if you haven’t copied the whole thing?
It also says various things about the success of the New Adult “formula” and how very lucrative it has come to be, in a very short space of time…to the point that it barely matters what’s on the page so long as the work conforms to a specific set of tropes and requirements. (Not that some NA novels aren’t beautifully written, but a lot are now very similar in terms of voice–a new age category voice, if you will–so I can see why this has slipped through, unfortunate as that is). I would be reluctant to generalise but I released an NA myself and even with little promo, it’s made more money than my day job in the space of a few months.
I hope Ms. Webber and her publisher are able to sort this out in a swift fashion. Nobody should profit from someone else’s work.
I bought this book and was so hung up on how like Beautiful Disaster it was that I never even considered Easy. I feel like I got scammed twice.
She went and hired some ghostwriter through Guru.com? Wow. So lame.
Why is fan fiction not plagerism? (This is serious question, not sarcastic, just in case it sounds sarcastic)
@Kristi: Yet on her website she states SHE is a ghostwriter, so why the need to hire a ghostwriter? Here’s what she says in her bio on her website:
“Jordin Williams is a 26 year old ghostwriter turned author. She lives in Iowa and has always loved to sit down and read a good book. When she started ghostwriting books they would become popular even though she was never given any credit so she decided to write her own book, Amazingly Broken.”
Reading that makes it a little–a lot actually–hard for me to believe she hired a ghostwriter to write Amazingly Broken for her. Sounds like an excuse, but either way, legally speaking, even if she hired a ghostwriter she’s responsible for that person’s actions.
But that’s just my opinion. It’s unfair, but I’ve already tried and convicted her of illegal activities in my head. This many passages cannot be coincidentally plagiarized.
@Beth: Because plagiarism involves stealing actual text, as in Jane’s examples above. Fanfiction (usually) doesn’t do that.
Wait, so let me see if I’ve got this straight. A wanna be writer, who always wanted to be an author and create a best selling novel, hires a ghost writer from GURU.com, and after the book is released to good sales and positive word of mouth, now finds out that her ghostwriter used passages from another best selling work.
But, see, I thought the wanna be writer was already a writer because she was a ghostwriter but she wanted to put out her own work and be known for her own writing.
WTH? Why would a self ghostwriter even need to hire another “ghostwriter?” Do the work your own self!
It would seem this “author” has now removed her facebook fanpage, as well as removing all information about herself from her website. Whether to rectify the situation and fade off into the background, or in response to the information being ‘used against her’ (if you will), it isn’t clear.
All of the people posting and condemning this woman for plagiarizing have also condemned Cassandra Clare, correct? None of you buy her books, follow her on Twitter, follow her fandom? None of you will see her movie, correct?
Because if you do not care that Cassandra Clare is also guilty of having plagiarized material and treat her in the same way, you are behaving hypocritically.
Was her book ghostwritten by herself since her bio says she is a ghostwriter? So I would say she is calling herself the plagiarizer. Or else why would a ghostwriter get a ghostwriter to write her book? All of her words on this seem a little silly.
“Jordin Williams is a 26 year old ghostwriter turned author. She lives in Iowa and has always loved to sit down and read a good book. When she started ghostwriting books they would become popular even though she was never given any credit so she decided to write her own book, Amazingly Broken.”
@Ros: Considering her awkward author blurb, I’m skeptical.
This is the first I’m hearing of Cassandra Clare plagiarizing. What did she plagiarize???
@Beth: Fan fiction is usually a retelling of someone else’s story. You take the characters and/or universe someone else has created and write your own endings or fully alternative stories for the characters.
Plagiarism is taking full passages of text and inserting into your own, without attribution. You are not rewording or writing down your interpretation, you are fully copying the text.
@Ros:
but it takes someone elses idea, characters, etc…aren’t they just as much the intelluctual property of the writer? Then when you turn around a publish that…I just don’t see the difference
@Beth: FF is generally a violation of copyright (because you’re using the world and characters owned by someone else), but rarely does it copy the actual WORDS of the original wholesale, as that would defeat the entire purpose. Where this gets murky is in cases of out of copyright works (like Austen sequels) which may actually use large chunks of Austen’s original work for verisimilitude, but because the original in the public domain and there is no effort to disguise the original source, it’s looked upon differently.
@Donna:
Uh… yeah. You don’t want to hear me go off on CC.
A quick way to make a buck!!.. Be creative!
BTW, amused to see squeeing review at GR about how much like Beautiful Disaster it is.
I am beyond confused by her response. Is she trying to say she was the ghostwriter for the book she plagiarized? Or she is a ghostwriter who has to hire a ghostwriter?
@Donna: Thank you
@Sara Butler, this link goes into it: http://bellumina.wordpress.com/2012/03/14/049-why-i-have-a-problem-with-cassandra-clare-why-you-should-too/
But if you spend a few minutes on Google, you’ll see plenty of discussion about her being a plagiarist from the start.
http://www.journalfen.net/community/bad_penny/8985.html?page=4#comments
Another, more direct route.
@Beth:
I suspect this is subjective, but I suppose it depends very much on the nature/content of the fanfic and how far removed it is from the original work. Plagiarism, by definition, is straight-up copying. After that, everything gets murky.
ETA…am too late. Am liking that Isobel and I both used “murky” though. Is an excellent word ;)
@Donna:
First I’ve heard of this. Care to elaborate?
@Sara Butler: This is a nice summary
http://bellumina.wordpress.com/2012/03/14/049-why-i-have-a-problem-with-cassandra-clare-why-you-should-too/
Author is deleting all her profiles including her website. Seems she is trying to disapear, she obviously knows she is in the wrong.
Thank you for calling attention to this. I don’t know if plagiarism is actually more common than it used to be because the internet makes it so easy to publish and to access sources, or if it’s just easier to spot given the search tools of the internet. Whichever it is, I hope you and others keep publicizing any instances you find.
This is behavior that deserves shaming.
Beth, Jane put up a clear post on this a while back here at Dear Author: FanFiction, Plagiarism and Copyright. Hope that helps.
She claims in her bio to be a ghostwriter (although I’m guessing that just means she has a listing on Guru). If you’re a ghostwriter, why would you hire another ghostwriter to write a book for you? If you’re not going to own up to what you did, at least come up with an explanation that makes sense.
Definition of plagiarism
transitive verb
: to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one’s own : use (another’s production) without crediting the source
intransitive verb
: to commit literary theft : present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source
See link to source
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plagiarize
Maybe because fan fiction credits the source its more acceptable???
I really only think its a problem when its published.
@azteclady:
Thanks I will check that out.
Wow, this is awful! Thanks for letting us all know though! I read Amazingly Broken and enjoyed it, so I’m even more disappointed. I guess I was enjoying Tammara Webber and Jamie McGuire’s work! There’s never any excuse to steal someone else’s work.
“I can’t believe that Amazon STILL hasn’t instituted some kind of plagiarism filter that scans all books before they’re approved for sale. It’s not as if the technology doesn’t exist.”
@Isobel Carr:
Yes, Isobel Carr. THIS. #thebiggerissue
@Beth: Fanfiction exists in a legal gray area. It’s not done for profit, but out of love for the source material and a desire to interact with other fans. If a piece of work has a fandom, then it’s good for the source material, and is generally tolerated.
I think Fifty Shades totally crossed the line, but apparently filing the serial numbers off your fanfic is a-okay! This case is total plagiarism, though.
@Ava Lore: Thank you. That makes me feel better. :-)
Y’all, adding insult to injury, this thing is one of the Amazon Editors’ best books so far for 2013. The little badge is floating right there.
@Isobel Carr: Right. And in most fanfic communities, plagiarism (directly lifting words from someone else’s work) results in a huge backlash against the author. Setting a book in someone else’s world is okay; taking their words is really really not. So I imagine that even pull-to-publish (which also used to be a big no-no) fanfic authors know better than to lift.
But I won’t be surprised if we see more of this, considering the money involved. I’m only surprised that we haven’t seen a ton of it already (or maybe it is out there, but the books just aren’t as popular as this one is?)
@Willaful: Yes, so am I now that I’ve seen a bit more. Was just trying to make some sense of the crazy.
Her web presence is rapidly vanishing. Twitter account is gone too.
I find it even more confusing, in light of her ghostwriting claim, that her review of her own book on goodreads states “I loved writing this book”. And yeah, why would a ghostwriter hire another ghostwriter?
@Ava Lore: Except that some of it is now legit. See Jane’s posts on Amazon Kindle Worlds.
OMG
“Easy” by Tamara Webber is on his Goodread’s book list, so he did read it. He even gave the book five stars. Why wouldn’t he know/realize that his own book contained passages from Webber’s work? I’m not buying the whole “I had someone ghost write it for me,” because he’s clearing out his tracks way too fast. This is so sad.
Edited to add: On Goodreads the author lists their sex as a male.
@Ros: Kindle Worlds is basically a way to hire fanfic writers to write tie-in novels.
Amazon is no longer selling this title. When I looked it said it’s currently unavailable and has no purchase links.
@Courtney:
I’m just not buying her excuse. A ghostwriter turned author hires a ghostwriter? Doesn’t pass the smell test.
While the book is still listed on Amazon, it is no longer available for purchase.
@wikkidsexycool: Oh, come on now. When you hire a ghostwriter, you’re not suggesting you should actually bother to read the book they write for you? That’s crazy talk.
Amazon just pulled the plug on Jordan’s disgrace!
Book and author gone from Amazon.
@Camryn Rhys:
YES. I teach and if my very under-funded school can get a plagarism tracker for us that doesn’t require much effort to use, the biggest book retailer and publishing platform in the WORLD can afford to adapt the technology and get it out there Stat. That they haven’t and that they probably won’t says volumes about where their priorities lay.
Just went to Amazon to look at the book and it states “This Book is not Currently Available for Purchase”. I guess somebody got through to Amazon! Go Jane!!!!
As a writer, this infuriates me. I woke up to find out that more copies of my books were pirated, and now this. Just awful.
@Ros:
I know, right? I see he had a professional looking website, and he’d hit just about all the right sites to promote his “work”. It’s such a shame, because if he’d really written something worthwhile and not stolen the work of others, maybe he’d really be living his dream. He’d already done the marketing and made enough fans/contacts from what I can tell.
Incidents like this are a slap in the face to all hardworking authors who plant their butts in a chair everyday writing. Anyone who steals someone else’s intellectual property is horrible human being. Thank you for bringing attention to what this thief has done.
Add me to those who love “Easy” and disgusted by this.
Jordin Williams @JordinBWilliams 16m
@JamieMcGuire_ @TammaraWebber I can’t write and I’m sorry this happened. It’s taken down and Amazon and other sites are giving back funds
This is from her Twitter Feed (and no I don’t follow her). So she’s a ghostwriter who wanted to write her own book because she never got credit for her own work, yet claims she can’t write?
I’m sorry but I’ve heard my 5 year old scramble for a way out of trouble better than this.
@Shiloh Walker: I went to leave a complaint and the page for the book is no longer working, so I think Amazon has already started to take action. :)
@Camryn Rhys:
I think they must have something in place for scanning works, though, because I have twice had my self-published reprint of a short story removed from sale until I proved I had the rights to put it up on my own (which I do). It is currently available for sale in an anthology from a publisher as well. Apparently every so often a bot trawls through and flags things that are similar, which my story and the anthology my story originally appeared in would be.
There is a whole twitter convo going on about this with @JamieMcGuire_ and @TammaraWebber SMH
I just googled this book. There are about 50 book-blog promo reviews for it which just seems to me to be really really fishy. This is the “author’s” only book, right? What kind of machinery lies behind her being able to score so much free publicity for her work? How many real authors out there are struggling just to get a few reviews on Amazon or Goodreads let alone blog-exposure? It looks like a self-pubbed book, but somehow got that much exposure?
I’m glad to see Amazon took it down, but I wonder what was really going on here!
Her excuses are getting ridiculous by the minute. Can’t she just apologize sincerely? She did made a mistake and I’m surprised how quickly her website went down. HA! That says something.
@Andrea T:
I know how you feel! I did the SAME thing!
I read Easy, but didn’t really care much for it. wasn’t for me. so I didn’t, until today, realize she plagiarized. After reading this article, I’ve gone and pulled down all of the promo’s I’ve done for Jordin!
I’m kicking myself in the ass for not seeing this sooner, and how I helped her get sales with the promos! SMH
This is the third time I’ve seen an instance of plagiarism in a week. In college we have to turn all of our papers into turnitin.com. I’m starting to think self published books should go through the same process. This scam hits authors and readers a like.
I’ve been watching this unfold on FB and Twitter. I have to say, the word “BUSTED” comes to mind. On Twitter she claims, a “ghostwritter” wrote the book…
Jordin Williams @JordinBWilliams 1h
I am officially letting all funds go. I’m sadden by this that a ghostwriter did this through guru. Thankfully I never received any money.
12:12 PM – 26 Jun 13 · Details
Yet on a blog post (DATED June 26, 2013) during a blog tour…she states….
“Jordin Williams is a 26 year old ghostwriter turned author. She lives in Iowa and has always loved to sit down and read a good book. When she started ghostwriting books they would become popular even though she was never given any credit so she decided to write her own book, Amazingly Broken.”
http://faerietalebooks.org/2013/06/26/amazingly-broken-by-jordin-williams-release-day-event-giveaway/
Kim
@Meljean: “But I won’t be surprised if we see more of this, considering the money involved. I’m only surprised that we haven’t seen a ton of it already (or maybe it is out there, but the books just aren’t as popular as this one is?) ”
Meljean, I think you’re exactly right. I bet KDP is crawling with it, people making quick bucks and slinking off before anyone notices. If it can happen to LB (as it did with Opal Mehta) it’s certainly happening in the kind of publishing where there’s zero oversight).
Hey Jane…….all in a days work? Well done.
@pamelia: I’m not that surprised by the book blog promo, tbh. If you’re writing in YA or NA, it’s not that hard to get promo opps.
@Kim Cresswell:
Yet his Goodreads page (the author lists their sex as male on Goodreads) states “I loved writing this book” dated June 21st.
So I’m thinking there never was a ghostwriter. The tools used were simply Mr. Copy and Mr. Paste.
Anyone else think that this guy/girl is going to pop up again with books under a different name? Maybe as the opposite gender this time. Seriously, I don’t think it’ll stop here, especially as he/she disappears from the internet the very day this is posted.
Also, as an aspiring author working as hard as I can to be noticed…this just is a slam to the craft. We’re trying so hard to write well and get noticed.
And this person just shows up and jumps to the top of the game.
Lucky he got caught. Thanks @Jane!
Absolutely sickening. It’s incidents like this that give authors (both indie and traditional) a bad name. Readers become more wary of who to trust these days. It’s a shame. I feel sorry for the author who had her work plagiarized, and I feel sorry for the plagiarist who had to stoop so low to ride on other people’s coat-tails just to make a deadline or quick buck. If you like a certain scene in a book from another author, why not rewrite the scene in your own words rather than copy/paste? SMH….
Thought you guys might find this interesting! Found a Twilight fanfiction story of the same name published in March 2013! Link > http://www.fanfiction.net/s/9063496/1/Amazingly-Damaged
Document not found on Amazon now.
@Aisling:
You know I wouldn’t be surprised if this was scraped fanfiction and the irony is that this so called writer didn’t realised that there was sections plagiarised in the story. Her bio is faked with a stock photo and author is listed as a male on the goodreads account. Its like a case of Inception going on here.
In one comment on twitter she said she hired the ghostwriter on guru. . . Then a few comments later she said it was odesk. . . funny how she can’t keep her story straight
@Aisling:
You know I wouldn’t be surprised if this was scraped fanfiction and the irony is that this so called writer didn’t realise that there was sections plagiarised in the story. Her bio is faked with a stock photo and author is listed as a male on the goodreads account. Its like a case of Inception going on here.
@Jane: But in her bio here: http://tinyurl.com/n9rrx9h she says she IS a ghostwriter and got tired of other people getting the credit for her work. Why would a ghostwriter hire a ghostwriter?
@Has I haven’t seen Inception but based on reviews from family and friends I’m betting this saga could almost come close to the same amount of messed up.
@Aisling: Wait, Jordan stole/bought this from a fanfic writer who stole fragments from two books?
@Jane:
A ghostwriter who published a book that she now claims was ghostwritten? That doesn’t really make sense. I can think of several reasons why a writer would hire a ghostwriter, but not necessarily for a debut novel.
The whole think is very weird.
Just tweeted:
Jordin Williams @JordinBWilliams
@JamieMcGuire_ @TammaraWebber I’m definitely not a ghostwriter. I can’t write.
This is just getting odder and odder.
@Maili: I’m thinking a copy/paste steal… if it was her fanfic wouldn’t it have been deleted/removed long before publication? I put a few lines from the beginning of AB through an online plagiarism tool and got the link to ff.net on the first go.
Found one of the stolen passages – http://www.fanfiction.net/s/9063496/7/Amazingly-Damaged I dont think Jordin Williams realised this was plagiarised when they stole or picked this up from fanfiction dot net. I am laughing at the irony and it is not like other ficcers in the past *cough*Cassandra Clare* Cough* have done the same. But I think this is the case of a scraper who got caught.
According to Jamie McGuire Jordin B Williams also goes by Jordin Bishop and wrote something called Sparkle. Apparently he/she advertised on Jamie’s author page without permission after Jamie expressly asked her not to. The twitter page for Jordin Williams also says he/she is the author of an upcoming book called Amazingly Damaged, and my first thought was “wonder who’s writing she’s stealing from for that.”
It’s already removed from Amazon, but I shared on my FB and left a plagiarism review on Goodreads. SHAMEFUL!! :(
WOW! I am so glad I saw this, I just removed it from my TBR list on Goodreads!
@Has: and the plot thickens. I feel like resurrecting my old ff.net account and sending the author a PM. But I haven’t the nerve..ha
What I find funny is that Jamie McGuire is raking Jordin Williams across the coals on Twitter and continues to tag Tammara Webber in all of the tweets relating to William’s plagiarism. I wonder why she would do that if there’s proof above that she also took a section of her own book from Easy? What’s the point of that?
@Robin I left a comment in the reviews section on the ff.net story. Hope it’s ok that I linked back to this story.
So sent a tweet to @JordinBWilliams & when I refreshed the page, it was gone. Excuse was she used a ghost writer because she can’t write. I told her then don’t. All authors are responsible for those words, ghost writer or not. Much like a CPA and tax returns…one is ultimately responsible for their work when under their name.
@Sara Butler:
This gives a brief overview: http://fanlore.org/wiki/Cassandra_Claire
The Bad penny-article is also a very good read with explicit evidence of the whole debacle. I was around in HP-fandom for parts of it and the whole thing (including the whole laptop-thing) with all its ugliness left a bad taste in my mouth which is why I don’t buy her books and tell people who think about buying them about the issues surrounding her. Then they can make up their mind whether or not they are going to buy her books.
The fanlore-article also goes briefly into the similarities between her character Jace and a fanon-version of Draco Malfoy.
@Hannah: Williams plagiarised both McGuire & Webber
Yeah, I’m confused by this whole “I can’t write” thing in light of her bio of “ghostwriter turned author.” Here is the cache of the bio page on her site that she deleted http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://authorjordinwilliams.blogspot.com/p/about.html
Also of note, Jaime McGuire posted, “Jordin B Williams also goes by Jordin Bishop, and back when the author advertised Sparkle on my author page, “she” was male.” Apparently the person was promoting their book on her (Jaime’s) page, so she had to message her/him not to do that and never got a response. Seems like quite a coincidence that the non-writing ghostwriter who hired a ghostwriter who ultimately plagiarized Jaime’s story was also spamming her page? (sorry, no way to logic-up that sentence lol)
@Rachel Haueter (@Queen_Spaz):
That’s kind of weird. There was a recent remake of a 70s movie called Sparkle, and Jordin Sparks played the lead role. It’s funny that this Jordin Williams/Bishop spells his/her first name the same way.
And Bishop TD Jakes produced the film Sparkle.
Somewhere, somehow there’s a book in all this.
My 12 year old son had to use a site called http://www.turnitin.com for any papers that he wrote in school last year. It checks for plagiarism…not sure why amazon, etc. doesn’t require something like this.
@Sandy N: @Sandy N:
WOW! What a mess! And here I am starting on my own novel. My first one. I would NEVER do this! :(
Good catch, Jane. I’m so glad you found this and recognized it as plagiarism.
I just glanced at Jordin Bishop’s Goodreads page. The image used is from The Arrangement by H.M. Ward. I’m concerned that this Jordin person has multiple author identities with other stolen works.
http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/16406792-jordin-bishop
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-arrangement-hm-ward/1114075879?ean=2940016087726
@Hannah: There is nothing suggesting that McGuire stole from Easy. That was a commenter’s misunderstanding. Let’s not perpetuate it! Both McGuire and Webber are the victims here.
@Ros: There have always been authors who accepted, encouraged, even celebrated their FF. Marion Zimmer Bradley springs to mind. She edited and published tons of it! But, as with the new Amazon Worlds thing, it should be ENTIRELY the creator’s choice.
@Courtney Milan: Unfortunately, Amazon won’t do jack about the money portion. I had one of my works illegally uploaded to Amazon by a third party, and though Amazon took the illegal copy down, they said they wouldn’t prevent money earned from dispersing to the copyright violator’s account and that it was up to me to somehow magically collect the money from the violator. Yeah, I haven’t seen a penny from that, but some dude out there got a decent chunk of change from my work.
@Jessica Meigs: Wow that is super disheartening.
@Jessica Meigs:
Maybe file a claim with small claims court? Or get an injunction somehow? I can’t imagine it is legal for Amazon to facilitate a crime.
This is disgusting behavior! I’m going to do a short explanation on this on my blog and link them here for the whole story – just trying to spread the word a bit too – don’t worry, I won’t plagiarize you :) (sorry I have to find humor when I’m really angry….and this makes me really really really angry!)
@Jen @ Under a Gray Sky:
They’d have to develop their own system–they couldn’t use turnitin directly because the terms & conditions of turnitin give turnitin permission to use the author’s work forever in perpetuity for whatever turnitin wants, including commercial use blah blah blah.
Which no author of an actual commercial book would agree to.
But since Amazon has the ACTUAL text of actual books, they don’t need turnitin. There’s nothing but money that’s going to stop them from developing its own test. It is already alerting authors to potential typos when they upload books (which is a really new development), so my guess is this may be in development.
@Jill Sorenson:
The image can be found on numerous stock-sites so I doubt that it was stolen.
Here it is on dreamstime: http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-image-sexy-love-couple-image28069201
@Jessica Meigs: That is just so depressing (and sadly, not surprising).
My head is spinning here. I looked at the Twilight fanfic Amazingly Damaged and searched for ‘wildfire’. Yep, there it is:
I couldn’t say aloud the answers that popped into my head at that question, but the flush that spread across my face like wildfire gave me away. He caught his lower lip in his teeth, and I was sure it was to contain a laugh. Most comfortable position? What about with my head stuck under a pillow?
“I don’t know,” I said, combing my hair back out of my face.
“How about the Titantic pose without being nude?”
I laughed. “Do you like the Titanic? It’s your secret obsession, huh?”
So did Jordin write the fanfic including stolen bits and pull to publish (gah) or steal the fanfic not realizing it contained plagiarism? I’m betting on the former.
Messy as hell, the whole lot of it.
@Willaful Oh, God! I misunderstood! I thought that McGuire had taken from Easy as well, but Williams took text from her!!! Got it! Sorry for any confusion there!
This whole thing is thiefception. Who stole it first? Steal already-plagiarized fan fic, carry the one, self-publish, multiply by hutzpah… PROFIT!
I’m glad this was brought to light, and resurrected Cassandra Claire. She is a thief of the first degree, and has no business experiencing the success she’s seeing right now without people who knew her when she first started taking credit for the work of others speaking up.
Not that anybody cares — she has an army of lawyers to defend “her” brand now.
thank you for writing this and for those on facebook that shared this. I ALMOST bought this! thanks for the save! this person whould be ashamed of themselves
@Courtney Milan: I seem to remember an RWA session years ago on plagiarism that featured one of the founders of turnitin, who was talking about adapting the program for commercially published fiction. Did that turn out to be a bust? I assume if such a program/partnership happened, the TOS would be modified, but maybe that was a sticking point? Periodically I think about that presentation and wonder if anything’s going to come of it. Part of me thinks it would be a great idea, but another part of me thinks it would be impractical and/or unworkable.
@Jane Davitt: The thing is though is that she didn’t “pull”. If it has been edited, characters names changed, formatted and published and marketed, why would a previous fanfiction be left online? How would the publisher allow this? If it was her fanfic and she was smart enough to avoid exposure until now I’d like to think she would have been smart enough to remove the fanfiction page.
Also if she had decided to leave the former edition available on ff.net wouldn’t she have left a note for the readers to notify them that she was continuing it as a novel and that it was going to be published?
As of 4:00 p.m. EDT today the book was gone from Amazon, Jordin B. Williams’ Twitter profile has been deleted, and almost all information has been deleted from her blog. The Nook Book was already gone from BN.com by late this morning. If she wasn’t using a pseudonym to publish it her life is going to be even more messed up than it already is.
@Jill Sorenson:
Hi Jill,
I just read and saw the screen grabs of Jamie McGuire on Galleycat. The other name used was Jordin Baker, not Bishop. Sorry about that.
https://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/writer-caught-plagiarizing-tammara-webber-jamie-mcguire_b73164
You go Jane! Thanks for highlighting this before Jordin B Williams made off with a huge profit.
Because of all the work that went into this (over 1,000 twitter followers in a very short time, seriously working book review blogs etc.), something tells me this isn’t simply someone who used fanfic and didn’t realize what they were doing. This was premeditated, and after the person was challenged, he/she couldn’t keep their story straight.
They mixed up the names of the ghostwriter sites, citing one and then the other as where the work was purchased (Galley Cat has screen grabs from JordinBWilliams twitter site).
Then he/she claimed to be a ghostwriter on their blog (About me section, still cached, and probably using a fake photo) As a ghostwriter, he/she claimed authorship of other works but was never acknowledged, so now he/she wanted to come out of the shadows with their own works.
Stranger yet, in his/her twitter apology to Tammara Webber, the ghostwriter claimed “I can’t write” yet on June 21st (their Goodreads site) stated “I loved writing this book” and gave his/herself five stars.
Then after all this broke, he/she tried to delete all traces of him/herself.
Wow. Just. Wow.
I also want to point this fanfic out. It’s pretty much the same, so I’m wondering if it was “written” by the same author. Gah, this is frustrating!
@Willaful: Oh, God! I misunderstood! I thought that McGuire had taken from Easy as well, but Williams took text from her!!! Got it! Sorry for any confusion there!
Made a post about it on my Tumblr: http://satellite—hearts.tumblr.com/post/53952439174/plagiarism-return-your-copies-of-amazingly-broken-by
Reblog if you’ve got one!
There will always be some people who want fame and money rather than the pleasure of practicing their art. It’s the desire for both, or one, and some authors think of it as a way in (that’s what I’m seeing on some author lists, anyway. Personally I think “write to the market” is a bad idea, but what do I know? I’ve never sold a million copies of any title).
But a ghost writer employing a ghost writer? What’s going on? I’m willing to venture that this isn’t a real person, but a collection. More and more writers are making a start, stumbling, then making a new start under another name.
Plagiarism, as I understand it, and as the court defined it in the Roberts case, is copying significant passages from one copyrighted work into another. Word for word, which is why the fanfic thing isn’t strictly plagiarism. But it’s in the spirit of it. Trouble with that is that there is a zeitgeist, so sometimes writers working completely independently of each other will come up with the same idea. And sometimes tropes will repeat from book to book, so were to draw the line?
About ten years ago there was a rash of plagiarism in academic papers and exams. Universities set up sites where lecturers could exchange papers privately, and quote parts, to make sure they weren’t being plagiarised, and then more sophisticated software was developed. I was on a few of these, and it really did seem to arise like an epidemic for a while. Is that where the idea came from? Or is it the slide of the auteur principle?
Obviously this case is a clear-cut one. Word for word copying. What I’d love to know is who did it and why?
@Meljean:
Meljean – I agree, but sadly I think FSOG opened a very large and ugly door. I understand fanfiction isn’t plagiarism. But when people see that you can make MILLIONS by riffing off someone else who made MILLIONS doesn’t it lend itself to first stealing their characters, then their plots, then finally their words?
Everyone is upset that an author’s words were stolen, but I do think we have to look at the bigger picture. In a world where anyone who wants to can write and publish and make money from a book, I think we’re going to see more and more of this kind of thing and in different variations.
Because it’s all in how you justify it. Yes, I used her characters, but I changed the names. Yes, I took her plot points, but I didn’t copy word for word. Yes, I took this one scene… but I made it my own by making some changes.
I know that by stealing sentences you cross the line, I just wish that line was a little further back. Only original material should ever be sold for profit.
You want to fanfic in your world for free – have at it. But when you sell intellectual property to a consumer, I truly believe you should be the one intellectually creating it from beginning to end.
I’ll make exception for those “franchise” series because in that case the owner is giving permission to use the world.
Jordin says she hired a ghostwriter BUT in her bio she says SHE is a ghostwriter: http://books-and-insomnia.blogspot.com/2013/06/release-day-blast-giveaway-amazingly.html
Also, it was just revealed she also stole from Twilight Fan Fiction here: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/9063496/1/Amazingly-Damaged
Female Jordin Williams also writes under the name Jordan Bishop and is listed as a male.
@Donna: I can’t speak for anyone else, but no, I don’t read Cassandra Clare. I won’t read her, won’t buy her books, and my friends who like her work are tired of my soapbox about her plagiarism when she was part of fandom.
@Sara Butler: Clare was accused of plagiarizing the fan-fiction of another person’s Harry Potter fan-fiction and sharing it as her own, back before she was traditionally published. It was a very big deal in fandom at the time and a variety of posts can be found just by googling her name and plagiarism.
Great work, Jane. And it is somewhat reassuring how fast JordinBWilliams got deconstructed once the word was out here.
I do have to agree with other comments here, though, that this is a way “professional” job of plagiarism. So much online press and push right from the gate. The words from Easy and Beautiful Disaster, the title that brings to mind Beautiful Disaster. The cover that has me thinking of The Mighty Storm. It’s like a grab-bag of high-concept, topnotch, blockbuster New Adult. Amazingly well orchestrated and that is very scary.
@Andrea T: I did one as well, but I deleted the post–I don’t need my followers reading promotional posts for plagiarized work. One of my Goodreads friends messaged me regarding this issue and I’m extremely grateful that I learned about this. This is really sad, and especially since I am a writer myself, I am disturbed by this.
@wikkidsexycool: Well, He/she can delete all they want, I screen printed what I saw of the Twitter thing and am happy to share what I have of it.
@Aisling:
True :;nods:; But he/she does seem to have left readers hanging on the fanfic. Maybe they didn’t think anyone would make the connection so thought it was safe to leave up? Maybe they didn’t tell their publisher it was originally fanfic? Who knows. I doubt we’ll ever get to the truth; they’ll vanish for a while and resurface using another name, another person’s work.
Thank you SO much for sharing this information, and for writing this article. I had this book on my “To Read” list and I’m so glad that I had not already purchased – and therefore supporting – this book. I hope that the REAL authors (however there may be, because I’m guessing it’s more than two) who had their words stolen, get LOTS of positive publicity and support for their ORIGINAL material!!!!
@Stephanie Doyle: I think you really hit the nail on the head. I think fanfiction and fandoms are great, but once you try to make a buck off of it you’ve crossed the line. I wish the line were farther back, too.
That said, we’re not going to find much out about this. My guess is that the bio was fake, the book may or may not have been written by a ghostwriter, and who ever DID write it ripped it wholesale from that fanfiction, which in turn plagiarized “Easy” and “Beautiful Disaster.”
@Stephanie Doyle:
Only original material should ever be sold for profit.
You want to fanfic in your world for free – have at it. But when you sell intellectual property to a consumer, I truly believe you should be the one intellectually creating it from beginning to end.
I’m not sure where you’re drawing the line here. Are you saying that there should be no “riffing” in so-called original works, or that fan fiction can never be creatively original? And does that mean there should be no more adaptations of Romeo and Juliet, Pride and Prejudice, and the gazillions of other books, myths, films, poems, and characters that are reworked and rewritten every year?
One of the main issues in the Constitutional grant of copyright oversight to Congress is the creation of a balance between the *limited* rights of the creator and the rights of the public. Because if you lock everything up too tight, you end up with NO artistic products past a certain point, since so much of what is produced creatively is inspired by or even riffed on by another creator. And in many cases, the creator may not even be fully aware of those inspirational origins, until someone else points them out.
I agree that there will always be people who will want to take advantage of what someone else has created for their own benefit. However, I’m afraid that we’ve already shifted the balance in copyright law too far away from the public realm (and toward corporate ownership. e.g. Disney), where ideas and works circulate and inspire and give rise to all sorts of dynamic interpretations and reinterpretations of previously created (and similarly inspired) work.
@wikkidsexycool: Baker, not Bishop? I’ve seen Bishop linked to the book title and mentioned in other places. If that is incorrect I apologize. I hope this gets cleared up, along with any other names the author might be using!
Okay, now I feel an urge to share on Facebook and urge all those that have bought this book to return it!!! How feasible is that? Does anyone know? Everyone that has book this “book” should be fully refunded their $$!!!!
Wow this has my heart racing. As an author you take pride in your work and to think of someone attaching themselves and taking ownership of your sleepless nights writing and sacrifices for the words, thoughts, ideas and imagination is an outrage. This writer should never be allowed to publish anything else…EVER!
Interesting yet disgusting. Am I correct that this book has only been published for about a week? If so, no worries. Amazon doesn’t pay any royalties until 60 days from the end of the month in which the royalities are earned. Part of the KDP contract is the author’s attestation that the work is original. Ms. Williams is in breach. I doubt she’ll see a nickel. (Someone else may have posted this info. If so, my apologies; I didn’t read down through the whole thread.)
@wikkidsexycool:
Actually, Jamie McGuire had corrected herself saying that it was Bishop not Baker, “Correction, Jordin B Williams also goes by Jordin Bishop, and back when the author advertised Sparkle on my author page, “she” was male.” https://twitter.com/JamieMcGuire_/status/349964472133222401. I checked, and Jordin Bishop has a Goodreads page where he/she was asking why his/her account kept getting deleted.
@Robin/Janet:
Robin, see this is probably where I trip myself up because I don’t know the ins and outs of copyright law. When I made my exceptions – I certainly should have included public domain. Because isn’t that what allows us those exceptions for Jane Austen, Shakespeare etc?
But I see your point too that there are other ways to make money off of reinterpretations. And my opinion is less of a legal interpretation and more of a gut feeling. I’m just afraid that we’ve opened Pandora’s box with the modification and publication for profit of fanfic. And to your point, no I don’t think it can be truly original if you’re using the world building/characters someone else has created.
I wrote fan fiction, many moons ago. I knew what it was then. I knew that I was playing with someone else’s toys. Changing their names wouldn’t have made it any different in my opinion and suddenly okay to sell.
And in my opinion people in the fanfic world were of the same mind. It was for fun, for the entertainment of the person doing the writing. And hopefully for the person doing the reading.
It was the onset of self-publication that tempted those people who had hundreds, thousands of readers to start to making money from what they were doing.
What I see happening is lets say… the legions of Kristen Ashley fans start writing Tack and Tyra fan fiction. Someone develops a following, then decides to change the names and sell it as her own. It’s not. Even if every word is original, it’s not her own intellectual property.
Also let me be clear – I’m not opposed to fanfic authors transitioning into published ones. I was there – it’s a great tool in the growth of an author. But when you see that you can attract fans, and you decide you want to be paid for your talent, that’s when it’s time to let that other person’s world go and create your own.
@Robin/Janet: Pride and Prejudice and Romeo and Juliet are out of copyright, and plagiarism doesn’t apply to them. I’m interested, though, in knowing where tropes end and copying/plagiarism begins. When does it stop being a “homage” and start being a blatant copy? I think that’s why the law is so careful to make the distinction.
Some readers do want the same story over and over again, that’s clear. So there’s money in them thar hills.
The book has been taken down from Amazon. Just checked.
I’ve never read either of these (though Easy is on my TBR list), but that is insane!! It really is WORD FOR WORD. How could someone so blatantly copy someone elses work like that??
DEAR AUTHOR! This is even BIGGER. This person has many MANY aliases! Check these links to Goodreads! This person/persons hitches rides off other authors, friends them at Goodreads and when caught, does it again as she/he just did as Jordin Willaims/Jordin Baker!!
LIZ THOMAS/EMILY CURAN<–cover similar to Easy, http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6569664.Emily_Curran
BOOKSYCUP/JORDIN BAKER/JORDIN WILLIAMS/BETH KLEIN
Even I fell for it AGAIN not realizing Amazingly Broken was in fact this same person or group. They work all corners on Facebook as well. The list is long. Check out Liz Thomas profile:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6590298.Liz_Thomas
And holy crap!!!! this girl keeps on going!!!!!!!
@Lynne Connolly:
Actually, works in the public domain can be plagiarized. However, they are no longer bound by copyright protection, so using bits and pieces of them would not be copyright infringement. The difference is consequential, because it goes in part to @Stephanie Doyle‘s comments about originality and using someone else’s books or movies or ideas for inspiration or to riff off of. There was a famous case when 2 Live Crew sampled some of Roy Orbison’s Pretty Woman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campbell_v._Acuff-Rose_Music,_Inc.). SCOTUS rules in favor of 2 Live Crew on the basis of fair use.
The thing is, people infringe on other people’s copyrights quite frequently. How many times do you see song lyrics in novels? How about the way people use copyrighted images on their blogs and websites? Some of that infringement, though, is protected as fair use. And at some point, a work is deemed transformative enough that it no longer is perceived to be infringing. However, that does not mean there is no trace of the original work. Other things, like titles, can generally not be copyrighted, and yet Romance loves to use titles that refer to other popular books and movies and songs and tack them onto novels. It’s not infringement or plagiarism, but it’s hardly original, and clearly there is an intention for the reader to see the association to the “original” work. Is that okay?
Some of these lines are bright, and others are not so bright. But I think once we start going down the road of “only original work should be sold,” all sorts of questions about what constitutes original work pop up, and it’s much more difficult to hold to that position than it seems in theory. At some point, for example, a story built on Tyra and Tack from Motorcycle Man might absolutely become transformative, even if it began as fan fiction to the novel. Why not? No decisive case has been made against 50 Shades being sufficiently transformative, even though the characters were originally named after the original inspiration.
@Lynne Connolly: Pride and Prejudice and Romeo and Juliet are out of copyright, and plagiarism doesn’t apply to them.
I beg to disagree. If I copied either of those texts, either in whole or in part, and published them under my own name, I would be guilty of plagiarism. What I would not be guilty of is copyright infringement.
This is crazy I was schedule to do a blog tour for this book tomorrow. I’m so glad that I found out about it before it posted. Sad thing is I cannot get the time and effort I put into that post.
Shawna’s Survey
@Sandy N:
Hi Sandy,
Thank you for the correction.
@Jill Sorenson:
Hi Jill,
No, you were right. Another commenter (Sandy N)has stated that McGuire corrected the last name in another tweet, and stated it Bishop, not Baker. My apologies for the error.
@Robin/Janet: I do agree with your point, that very little is original. And like you, I’m interested on where to draw the line. If there is a line.
Jackie, maybe I should have said “legal plagiarism.” It’s in the public domain, and the person using it can’t be prosecuted in a court of law. Not that many of these cases get that far.
There’s a case ongoing, in which the estate of Sherlock Holmes is claiming that since the last book is still in copyright, then Sherlock Holmes riffs and pastiches shouldn’t happen without their permission. The opposition is claiming that the characters of Holmes and Watson were established in the earlier, out of copyright books. It’s ongoing, but there are Holmes watchers waiting for that result.
And Georgette Heyer – almost every trope and character in her books can be traced down to books being published today. She nearly went to court suing Barbara Cartland for plagiarizing one of her books. “These Old Shades,” she said, was copied by Cartland in “Knave of Hearts.” I’ve not read the Cartland, so I don’t know how close it is.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/aug/04/1
One of the prosecutors in the failed Dan Brown case died this week. Michael Baigent. To me, the similarities between “Holy Blood and Holy Grail” to the “Da Vinci Code” are astonishingly close, but that case failed.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/mar/28/danbrown.books
The plagiarist may not make bank, but Amazon sure as hell will, unless everyone insists on a refund. Or will they do the right thing and give everyone their money back? Somehow I doubt it. It’s not to Amazon’s benefit to police plagiarism other than making KDP authors check the little box…until somebody sues AMZ successfully over it.
such a disgrace!!!
It’s still up on Kobo:
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/amazingly-broken/9990004687035-item.html?ikwid=amazingly+broken&ikwsec=Home&gcs_requestid=0CMCk17nwgrgCFUaI5wodIEYAAA
But I have no idea how to take it down…
I am truly saddened and stunned by these events.
I am one of those bloggers who have had this “author” on my site as I do a lot of promotion for Indie writers. There are so many wonderful stories that I have come across that are Indie have always felt they deserved as much promotion and attention as the larger more known authors.
This whole debacle just makes everyone side eye everyone now, especially the Indie’s. Let us hope the true Indie authors do not get a bad rap because of one person who obviously was looking to make a buck at the expense of readers and the authors he/she stole from.
@Daylafm I don’t have a Kobo nor a Kobo account, but could you at the very least leave a review that states that this book has been plagiarized? At least then maybe a potential purchaser will stand warned.
Wow, it’s like looking at Cassandra Clare’s fanfiction career all over again.
Done and done.
Edit: Funny story, I went to link up the book with my review and it said that the content was deleted by the provider (this was the Kobo site), then when I went on the Chapters side of the website, the book is still there… I think there’s just a minor delay in it.
@Daylafm:
Same for me. Left the review on the book page then was told the book didn’t exist. Looks as if it’s disappearing silently.
The scary moment when you realize you are friends with both Liz Thomas and Emily Curran on Goodreads…
Wonder how many other frauds are among us but haven’t gotten caught yet.
@Annabeth:
Actually, I’m pretty sure Amazon DOES have functionality that does this, it’s just that they don’t do it when the book is uploaded.
For example, I have twice received emails from Amazon that they found content “substantially similar” to some of the works I have for sale there. One of the URLs they sent went to a website where one of the works had been posted without my permission. The other went to my website, where I have the story available to read.
In the other case, the email had to do with the fact that for four of my historical romances, Berkley has only North American rights. And that means I have the rights elsewhere, which, in turn, means I can upload my version of the book to Amazon and click only the territories where I have rights. And that, in turn, means that for each of those books, there are two versions of virtually identical content — and it’s not plagiarism or copyright infringement.
I don’t mean to blabber on too much, but there are, as my situation illustrates, completely legal and above board reasons for content to be duplicated, as well as not-so-above board ones, as in the case of that story someone reposted.
Of course, none of that answers the question of why Amazon doesn’t check (in some fashion) at the time of upload, since that would surely raise flags about cases like Jordin who, and cases where someone has wholesale stolen another author’s work and is re-selling it under some other name.
On the other hand to my knowledge, no traditional publisher runs contracted MSS through such pre-publication checking for plagiarism either, so why, the thinking would go, should Amazon or anyone else?
@Carolyn Jewel
I have a feeling that Amazon will never check content. If they start checking for more than just formatting and typos, then they will open themselves up to liability if something slips by their review. Then the author who has been plagiarized will be able to go after the copycat and potentially Amazon for failing to catch them. Amazon will continue doing it they way they are doing it now, where they react after the fact and escape all responsibility, and let authors and the reading community police plagiarism.
I did buy this book. It was very similar to Beautiful Disaster with a terrible ending. If this book is taken down do buyers get their $ back
@Robin/Janet:
” At some point, for example, a story built on Tyra and Tack from Motorcycle Man might absolutely become transformative, even if it began as fan fiction to the novel”
Not until it’s public domain. Otherwise I’m sorry… it’s icky. I know, law and icky are sometimes hard things to marry. But in this case it’s the icky factor that I’m using to judge.
Is Liz Thomas/Emily Curran the one who plagiarized harlequins last year? I also remember someone with sports names, like manning and Peyton who did this last year. Wow, so this just gets more confusing as it develops.
@Luann:
Seriously? Did you really just say that?
@Lindsay: I would not be surprised if that’s the case.
I bought this ebook and I returned it today for a refund as soon as I saw this post. I had no problem getting my money credited back to me. This situation is such a disgrace.
Yowsa! Thanks for this post. Your comments were fascinating. I saw this book cover. Glad I didn’t buy it. I’ve had my work stolen by torrent sites, and I know that sinking feeling that comes from be pirated. Plagiarizing would be just as awful. Congrats on catching this!
@Meryl:
You should be able to just do a return from your ebook account. But do it soon, I think (on Amazon at least) the time for a return is 7 days.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention Jane. I don’t know why the author thought she can get away with it.
And it further saddens me that she’s making excuses for her actions by blaming it on someone else.
@Lynne Connolly:
I’m sorry, but no.
Plagiarism is to copy, word by word. Not to quote, not to cite, to give no attribution. To copy. Whether or not it violates copyright–as would be the case with works that are in the public domain–it remains plagiarism.
To violate copyright you don’t need to claim you wrote the text or created the images; to violate copyright you USE the text or images without the permission of the copyright holder. Even if you acknowledge the rights of the copyright holder, even if you link to the original work, you are still violating their copyright by using their work without permission.
Those two are not the same.
I have a blogpost that covers all the drama that has so far occured. I also have several screenshots – http://bookishtreasures.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/the-strange-case-of-jordin-williams.html
Can someone explain to me if ghostwriting fiction is popular? I get it for something like an “auto”biography but I don’t understand it in fiction. I know big name authors (Evanovich, Patterson, etc.) are now publishing books written by others under their banner which I’m not a fan of either. But I don’t understand hiring someone else to put words to your ideas. Either you are a writer or you aren’t.
Also, I’m wondering if Jane or someone would be interested in creating a page on their blog (or even a separate site) which would keep track of these instances of plagiarism for perpetuity. One place where links to evidence of these situations could be kept and tracked so maybe people wouldn’t so easily forget these crimes. I think including separate but linked fanfic PTP information would be helpful to readers, too. Don’t know that it would be a deterrent but I would think an “author” list of shame or some such would be a good place to start.
@Shawna:
Crazy… I’m just catching up now. I can’t believe the author set up a blog tour and everything. Wow.
The book is still on sale on Amazon as of today.
@wikkidsexycool:
Hi,
The book has been written and will be out very soon! I’ve been working on it since February 2013. I noticed some funny things happening with some book sales by new authors and the idea hit me!
My book is called ‘Sock Puppet’. It’s a romantic comedy, hitting on the problems of plagiarism and publishing. And I swear on a stack of Bibles, I wrote every word of it myself! It will be available in July.
Desmond X Torres
We were asked if we’d host a guest blog post. When I went to look at it all there was were links, a cover, and an excerpt. I wrote back that a guest blog post is when an author writes an “article” type of writing and that our site prefers them BDSM/kink themed. Never got a response back. I figured she didn’t want to write anything for us, just get her info on our site. Now I know. Thanks!
@azteclady:
plagiarism is taking the *ideas* (this includes characters and storyline). any intellectual property of an original author that is “used” by another author is technically plagiarism.
Plagiarism actually covers not just copying tracts of the original book, but also characters and the storyline.
Public domain: When something is in the public domain, it covers in copyright law, the right of anyone to use literature, music or other previously copyrighted materials, after the copyright period has expired. Although the copyright laws have changed several times, a rule of thumb would be that the last possible date for copyright protection would be 50 years after the death of the author. Thus, the works of William Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Jack London, and other classic writers are in the public domain and may be published by anyone without payment of a royalty.
Mythical figures from antiquity can be used as characters, for example my book is a crime/mystery/fantasy novel surrounding the Sumerian myths of the Annunaki, who were thought to be a group of angels also called Watchers, two hundred of them fell from grace after teaching mankind certain things that were not allowed, they also mated with human women and produced hybrids called Nephilim. Their leader was called Semjaza and one of the characters in my book is Semjaza. Because all of this is firstly mythical and secondly meant to have happened in antediluvian times, the characters, their names and events are in the public domain and not within any copyright.
@Lada:
No. Outside of things like celebrity novels (which are almost always ghostwritten) and series where the “author” is a pseudonym created and owned by the publishing house (such as Carolyn Keene or Dana Fuller Ross) ghostwriters are not something I’ve ever heard of. Even in situations like what James Patterson is doing, the “co-author” is listed and is not in any sense of the word a “ghostwriter”.
@Anne:
unless is it s a part of their estate that has been inherited. some things never go out of copyright because someone has always owned it.
@Isobel Carr:
Well, the VC Andrews books have been ghostwritten for years, since she died over 20 years ago. Neiderman’s name still doesn’t appear anywhere on those books.
L.J. Smith lost all rights to her books under that name because of the publisher. So, any new Vampire Diaries, Secret Circle, etc books under that name are ghostwritten.
@Daylafm: @Bitchie: I would call those both classic examples of what I was talking about, and also unusual in the greater scheme of publishing. The VAST majority of “authors” are the writers behind the words within the cover of the book that bears their name. I do believe that the ghostwriter thing might be more common in middle grade and YA though, where many of the examples I hear about come from. I think this might be to do with how those publishers function (a lot of work for hire).
@LauraDeLuna:
No, copyright has a finite term. Currently in the United States, for works that qualify for protection created after Jan. 1, 1978, copyright protection is the life of the author plus 70 years. And the US copyright term is longer than most countries. Many countries set the limit at life of the author plus 50 years.
For works made for hire and anonymous and pseudonymous works in the US, the duration of copyright is 95 years from first publication or 120 years from creation, whichever is shorter.
The only copyright in perpetuity of which I am aware is Peter Pan. J.M. Barrie willed his Peter Pan copyrights to the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. When the copyrights ran out, the British Parliament created a special exemption for the hospital and they retain the rights to public performances of Peter Pan in the UK. However, the other rights are now in public domain. Hence the recent explosion of Tinker Bell merchandise – Disney no longer has to share monies and/or get permission to use her in new settings.
Also, copyright does not protect ideas. While plagiarism can be defined as taking someone else’s ideas and passing them off as your own, plagiarism in and of itself is not illegal. Academia and journalism tend to have strict penalties for students/researchers/employees caught plagiarizing, and most people think it is highly unethical, but there are no laws covering it.
That’s what happened in the Dan Brown case: while he was certainly aware of the earlier book, and even used the authors’ names to create a character name in The DaVinci Code, the courts found that Brown did not violate copyright because at best the books shared the same idea: Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene married and had a child, whose descendants are guarded by a secret cabal. An idea that Garth Ennis also used in his comic book series Preacher, years before The DaVinci Code. And ideas can’t be infringed.
So to go back to @Lynne Connolly’s question about ideas/ tropes: in my mind, tropes are fair game. It’s the execution that matters, not the originality of the basic plot. After all, what’s the old saying: there are only seven basic plots in the world, and Shakespeare used them all at least twice? And then there’s the idea that you if give ten authors the same plot, you will end up with ten very different stories. I look for originality in the expression of the idea, but the basic plot being as old as time and used by dozens of other authors beforehand doesn’t bother me.
@Daylafam: L.J. Smith had a work for hire contract from Alloy Entertainment; she never owned the rights. But yeah, Alloy continued to use her name, although they were careful to say “Created by L.J. Smith” on the covers of the books that were ghostwritten.
Beautifully explained, Alexa, thank you! In the UK also, it’s author’s life plus seventy years. Recently, I wrote a Clandestine Classic. We took the work of famous authors, and added to them. The rules were that we were not to change the words in any way, just add our own. I did it because it was a fascinating exercise. Some of the books I wanted to do were nixed because they’re still in copyright – “The Big Sleep,” and “The Maltese Falcon” for instance. I ended up doing “Tom Jones,” which was a great choice, as it turned out. Except that it’s 800 pages long, and we had to split it into 4 parts!
What a shame a fellow author would feel the need to steal someone else’s work, and HIDE IT inside the book HOPING no one would catch it!
KOODLES to the person who found it! YEAH! KOODLES for pointing it out, too!
I’m glad I came across this article, and I think I found it tweeted? Can’t be certain as it was LATE last night! I had woken up with NO hopes of falling back to sleep! LOL!
Now I know if this author writes again, I will NOT support this author.
Doesn’t this guy know that NO ONE will support him? Doesn’t he know he CRUCIFIED his future abilities to write? WHERE were his brains?
I HOPE he learned his lesson! Thanks for sharing!
Laurie
This morning I was feeling saddened by Jordin being attacked. I had not seen this posting yet. I have read the book as my blog was promoting the book. I had written my review but not posted it to the blog. In my review I stated that a scene from Easy as in a whole scene appeared very very close to what was in AB = Amazingly Broken. I noted all the similarities to BD = Beautiful Disaster. I HAD been willingly to let it slide that character characteristics were similar etc..etc… between AB and BD but now that I have read you posting. I am very saddened to see that in fact there are many many many with what appears to be almost a copy and paste action in the story line. I am saddened as I don’t like seeing humans who are not perfect make mistakes and get lynched for it. When I see other authors of note being called up on there similar behavior. But this is quite damning evidence that saddens me. I had spoken to the author be it girl or guy several times and they were sweet and excited about their book and release date and the reviews coming in. After seeing this I can’t help revaluate how I feel about the author. I LOVE supporting Indie Authors but I feel quite duped . I understand even the author image was not the author. I have removed my Book Promo I had up for this book. I am lucky I didn’t release my draft of the review. I want to help authors, promote them , but I don’t want to be promoting somebody who isn’t on the up and up. I spend a lot of time with authors and emails and reading and reviewing etc etc, but to have this happen. I feel very saddened. There are mistakes in life as nobody is perfect and then there is doing this which is quite contrived , thought out. I mean who goes to this much trouble to take these lines from other books? Really deeply saddens me. I believed in Jordin as a person and author. :(
Mich
@michelle A – Novels On The Run:
“There are mistakes in life as nobody is perfect and then there is doing this which is quite contrived , thought out. I mean who goes to this much trouble to take these lines from other books? Really deeply saddens me. I believed in Jordin as a person and author. :( ”
Frankly, this is the heart of the matter, right there. I mean, think about it, many readers got scammed for five bucks or something like that- the book was down before I could see what the cost was. Personally, I’ve been clipped for more than five bucks on stupid things lots of times. Nobody’s going to go to the poor house because of it.
It’s the betrayal of trust. The book bloggers that fell in love with the book, and promoted the heck out of it because they BELIEVED in the book, and the author. That’s the shame of it all.
I doubt that Jordin whazitsname is the first writer to pull this trick. And I truly doubt he/she feels badly about it. But the fact is, that Jordin Whoever should be ashamed of him/her self.
It is a shame for this to have happened, as a blogger I want to help authors , everyday. It isn’t a good feeling to know this has happened.
Mich
@Desmond X. Torres:
Hi Desmond, I now understand what you are saying. I misinterpreted your comment before. It is sad and it is not good what has happened.
Have a great day!
Michelle
Wow, unbelievable! How could someone think that they could possibly get away with that? It’s blatantly obvious. Despicable.
Tammara Webber is one of my favorite authors and “Easy” is an outstanding book – one I’ve read 3 times since downloading just a few months ago. Plagiarists should know they CANNOT get away with this now that authors and readers are all over online and sharing info instantly. I’m very glad this person has been exposed and it looks like she’s gone into hiding. She shouldn’t be able to make one dollar off her plagiarism. (I have not read the other book she stole from.)
I find this absolutely disgusting. Using another authors work to get famous.
As a teacher, I try to impress upon my students over and over again what a crime–literally!–it is to plagiarize. To see an “author” making money from stealing someone else’s work makes me ill. How can she not know she would be exposed? There are simply too many people who can easily check if something sounds too familiar…
It seems that my students’ usual attitude of “catch me if you can” is a lot more common than I believed. What a damn shame. So keep catching ’em, Jane!! Show my students it’s not right to steal.
Hi
Just wondering if you can help me. I have just written my first book and am in the editing process. I have only just realized that this thing happens and am now freaking out if I have any lines in my book that might have been used before in another book without my knowledge. If for example my lead says to his girlfriend “on your knees” or “get into position” is that plagiarism? I am confused because when I googled it, it says three to five words are plagiarism . So in that case how does every book use the words “I love you?” Do you know what I mean? Arggg I am going a little crazy worrying myself sick. Someone told me that if it is a verb sentence as in a describing three words eg “lie down baby” it is not plagiarism. Please if anyone reads this HELP. I have not copied anyone’s work but it would absolutely kill me if I get accused of this and I did it accidently. I have been working on my book for twelve months and now it is nearly finished I need to get this straight before I publish. Thanks guys xx
Very good information. Lucky me I found your website by chance (stumbleupon).
I’ve book marked it for later!
Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t Beautiful Disaster published before Easy? I’m assuming that you were talking about the book Amazingly Broken? According to Goodreads.com:
Beautiful Disaster was published January 1, 2011.
Easy was published November 6, 2012
Amazingly Broken was published June 19, 2013.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11505797-beautiful-disaster
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16056408-easy
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17673542-amazingly-broken?from_search=true
As much as I love both Easy and Beautiful Disaster (Easy is my favorite of the two), it stands to question did Tammara Webber actually plagiarize? I hope not. I am disappointed that either of them would…?? :-/