Thursday News: The Author Edition
Publishing Newsauthors / copyright / damages / federal law / fraud / harassment / infringement / journalism / mental health / plagiarism / reader expectations / reviews / rumors / sock puppets19 Comments
Update on the STM Plagiarism Case – You may remember Rachel Ann Nunes’s post about being plagiarized and then harassed by the person who allegedly plagiarized her book, A Bid for Love. In this case, plagiarism also amounts to an infringement of copyright. I am so excited to report that Nunes did what every author in her position should, ideally, do — she is suing the accused plagiarist in federal court (where claims of copyright infringement are heard). It’s also important to note that registering for copyright affects damages. In her statement, Nunes asks for restraint on the part of readers, which, again, highlights her professionalism.
hough the complaint is open to the public and details will likely be available in many places on the Internet, please remember that judgment now is in the court’s figurative hands. I make a plea for my supporters to refrain from bullying, name-calling, or attacking the defendant online. –Rachel Ann Nunes
I’ve been plagiarized! – Aubrey Rose reports that one of her books has been plagiarized by an author named Clarissa Black. Details are quoted below.
I have also been apprised of an allegation that Blaze author Rhonda Nelson’s Double Dare has been plagiarized in a book by Amanda Reed called Abandoned for Love (check out the 1-star reviews).
From Aubrey Rose’s blog:
Well, somebody stole my book. A kind fan pointed out that Clarissa Black’s book City Girl, Mountain Bear was similar to my novella City Girl, Country Wolf. Too similar. This “author” has taken my storyline and rewritten my book scene for scene, changing just enough to be able to get through Amazon’s plagiarism filters. Not a single sentence is the same, but the story is exactly the same. –Aubrey Rose and Rhonda Nelson
Mental Health Issues – And Not His Novels – Led to MD Teacher’s Suspension – So remember that story about the Maryland teacher supposedly forced into involuntary commitment (commonly known as a 5150 hold)? Yeah, well, like many popular internet rumors, it was untrue. Not only was his writing known in his community, but the books had no bearing on Patrick McLaw’s custodial situation (note: HIPAA’s Privacy Rule means that a lot of information that would shed light on the situation will not be made public, including McLaw’s current location and condition). It’s just a very sad story that was rapidly sensationalized in the absence of investigation. From the LA Times:
Concerns about McLaw were raised after he sent a four-page letter to officials in Dorchester County. Those concerns brought together authorities from multiple jurisdictions, including health authorities.
…
McLaw’s letter was of primary concern to healthcare officials, Maciarello says. It, combined with complaints of alleged harassment and an alleged possible crime from various jurisdictions led to his suspension. Maciarello cautions that these allegations are still being investigated; authorities, he says, “proceeded with great restraint.” –The Digital Reader
“I am not your personal customer service hotline.” – So Chelsea Cain left a pretty pissed off message on her Facebook page, in which she indicated to her readers some of the things she was and wasn’t cool with them asking. Two hours later, she came back and tried to do a little damage control, and the incident kicked off a pretty interesting discussion about both what authors owe readers and the way they should or should not be expressing those personal rules.
I am a person. And I maintain my own FB page. And I will piss you off. This has nothing to do with my books. And here is the thing – I don’t care if you like me. I am trying to get through the day. Just like you are. –Chelsea Cain Facebook page
I don’t think writers really owe readers anything other than a good story (that isn’t plagiarized). However, that doesn’t mean you have to be a dick. It’s possible to be tactful about things like this, or to just ignore questions that you’re asked repeatedly.
If running your own FB page frustrates you to the point where you’re ready to lash out…maybe it’s time to let someone else take over for a while.
Chelsea Cain was obviously having a really bad day and there is no doubt that she’s under pressure to perform with the launch of her new series. However, her comments on FB were ill-advised and unprofessional—and I say this as a reader who’s enjoyed her books in the past and purchased a copy of her latest. Regardless of previous achievements, no author is entitled to hit a list, and most never will. Many writers work just as hard as Chelsea does under a variety of adverse circumstances. She’s not a special snowflake.
More worrisome, though, were some of the comments of support from her fans––at least one I saw threatened to “hurt” her detractors. Although this comment was neither made nor endorsed by Chelsea Cain, it reflects badly on her and her brand. It’s not fair but it is what it is.
I skimmed the rest of Chelsea Cain’s FB page and, well, that post didn’t seem out of character at all. From berating her ‘core fans’ for not getting her latest book onto the NYT list to berating her publishers for not sending out swag, her main modus operandi does seem to be shouting at people. Which is an odd way to run a fan page.
Authors are the face of their business and need to act accordingly. Can you imagine if a corporation like The Gap or Barnes and Noble or even a CEO of some big company posted a tangent on their official Facebook page how their customers are to blame because they didn’t make enough revenue for the month?
From the tone of Cain’s post about not making the NYT, maybe something more is going on behind the scenes with her publisher?
I went and looked at the posts people had made to Chelsea Cain’s FB prior to her comments and didn’t see anything that looked like over-entitled fan behaviour. Sure, there were some questions about pre-orders that I’m sure she isn’t the best person to handle, but in general it was just a lot of squeeing about her books and signings and all that stuff.
Here’s what I think: authors don’t have any obligation to interact with their readers at all. These days it’s easy to set up a website with all the information on it and just leave it there for people to find. You don’t have to do FB or twitter or have a blog or invite readers to contact you. But if you decide you are going to do some or all of those things, then I think you do have an obligation to be polite and respectful. And you should expect that readers will ask you stuff directly, either because they’re excited about the idea of talking to the author, or because they don’t know where else to look. Be flattered by the former and patient with the latter. And if it becomes a real problem, put up a sticky post with links to all the information right there. Or hire a virtual assistant. Or shut down comments for a while. But shouting at your readers is just dumb. If you don’t want to engage, don’t do social media. You can’t have it both ways.
Well, some authors make a name for being grumpy. Harlan Ellison for one. Ellison was entertaining with it though. I haven’t read anything by Chelsea Cain, including her FB page, so I don’t know if she can pull it off.
I agree that Cain’s comments were ill advised and that she should, as someone suggested, step back. However, I do give her kudos for leaving up the negative comments and her negative posts.
There are several authors who will delete the slightest disparaging comment from their pages and will also rant away, get their fans to go attack someone, and then delete the offensive post. I find that far worse behavior.
Ros totally nailed it. Authors are not their readers’ bitches, but neither are readers their favorite authors’ bitches. However, since readers don’t need authors (as much as they may want those books), it behooves authors to behave professionally–or completely refrain from interacting with readers when they can’t manage it.
Not fair, but life is not fair, is it?
Some P’s are getting slicker and slicker.
I was ripped off by someone who’d taken fan fiction and tried to pass it off as her own, which has now made me wary of posting excerpts and short premises on my blog, because this individual took the entire premise and published the book before I officially released mine. In my case, the premise was way too similar (with a Hispanic lead, only in her book its in name only). I tend to use my excerpts as promos but from now own I won’t reveal so much about the plot or as many chapters in free promos after getting burned.
Thankfully I still have a digital trail (entered it in the Wattpad contest last year and also posted it on Scribd in 2013) so those two date stamps have become part of my proof.
Also,, because this “author” didn’t have the full novel, she fell back on cliches and effed up the storyline. But this was her return to publishing book, so she hasn’t learned anything about lifting others work imho.
And I’m still going to publish it, with mention of the timeline so readers know who came first.
I think your comments here miss the point a bit. It’s hard to blame “the internet” for sensationalizing this when the local paper that broke the story explicitly tied the commitment and suspension to his books. I mean, this was the lede:
To me, this is less of an issue of the internet blowing stuff out of proportion than an issue of journalists unquestioningly repeating whatever cops tell them and assuming it”s truth.
Wow, I had never heard of Chelsea Cain [which says more about me than about her, I’m sure] but all she needs to do is create an FAQ with the answers to those questions and any time somebody asks one, post the link. Gads, could she be any more self-destructive?
I read the Rachel Ann Nunes blog post. Wow, what a crazy story! And she handled it so well. I’m very proud of the reviewers who immediately stood up with her against the obvious plagiarism. The responses from the author who stole her work got weirder and weirder. Rachel handled it all with grace. I’m so happy she’s taking it to court- she’s my hero.
@Michele Mills: There seems to be a certain kind of entitlement that feeds the crazy that appears to be inherent in a lot of the plagiarism we’re seeing now that publishing is a free-for-all. Or maybe the crazy feeds the entitlement? I’m not sure, but the responses of the people who get caught are often eerily similar and frequently quite scary.
@Jane: I agree. Having read some of her other posts, I’m thinking, too, that some of her readers might not have been put off by her comments, since she has a tendency to be somewhat sarcastic, even caustic. I’m also not sure about her boundaries — I mean, some of the questions (about series order, for example) seem reasonable from a reader’s POV and are at least not personally directed. But I do think we should be having more discussion in general about reasonable expectations of both author and reader behavior.
@Ridley: What it looked like to me is that law enforcement gave them little to no information, but that didn’t stop the initial reporting of some inflammatory assumptions and assertions that then took off on the wings of internet outrage, including more than 100 Amazon reviews protesting McLaw’s non-existent arrest and Reason’s free speech defending blog post (I’m also pretty curious about the participation of school officials in the publicity, but that’s for McLaw’s attorney to deal with). I won’t say I’m grateful that other journalists decided to look into the story further once it blew up so big online, but hopefully it will deter some of the untethered speculation. The Star Democrat story seems to have a pretty good timeline: http://www.stardem.com/easternshore/news/dorchester_county/article_47f06380-8a13-5a72-bd8c-c40c3513b977.html.
This, in my view, is a very classy comment from the always classy Beverly Jenkins..
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=812848338745714&id=292514317445788
Here’s an excerpt from her post:
“I refuse to judge other authors and how they interact with their readers because the only one I can really judge is me. I love interacting with my readers -everywhere. There’s a ton of great authors out here writing and for you to spend your hard earned dollars with me makes me incredibly grateful. You pay my mortgage, buy my coffee, help me help my kids when they need new tires or a new water heater. I take none of that for granted. And with that in mind I will continue to explain to newbies why we have the Two Shafts Support Group, I will let you know which book is up next and the date it drops. I will continue to point out the book list on all three of our related pages, and honor requests for the complete character list of BOB from 70 plus year old little ladies who don’t read as fast as they used to.”
And THAT, as Linus said to Charlie Brown, is what it’s all about.
I think I’m a bit more forgiving of a bad day or an acerbic personality than many on Chelsea’s FB page seem to be. It’s a good reminder to try and always take a deep breath before posting. I have to admit to being amazed at the authors who are jumping on the train wreck just to shill their own books.
@Lucy Woodhull: I don’t mean every author who is commenting, just the really blatant ones. Just seems ugly to try and take advantage, and there’s a difference, at least to me.
@DS: “Well, some authors make a name for being grumpy. Harlan Ellison for one. Ellison was entertaining with it though. I haven’t read anything by Chelsea Cain, including her FB page, so I don’t know if she can pull it off.”
IMO, she can pull it off in her books. It’s probably part of the reason I enjoy her Archie/Gretchen series. She excels at writing prickly/quirky/bonkers characters.
Well, it seems Cain did remove the pages per her publisher’s request “I have deleted my posts because my publisher asked me to and they are very busy and do not have time to deal with the hysteria I apparently whipped up.”
Then she goes on to say “But you puzzle me . . . ”
And that’s when I realized she was ready for round three.
To be fair, after a while (especially in her damage control post) it did read like some folks were just piling on for the sake of it. It’s like onlookers at an accident. Everyone wants to see. For her sake I hope she hasn’t derailed her writing career.