Fighting Plagiarism and Cyberbullies

I don't know how familiar you may be with the work of Rachel Ann Nunes being plagiarized by one Utah woman with many aliases, who then used those aliases to cyberbully Nunes too, but Rachel Nunes has filed suit against Tiffanie Rushton. You can search the Internet for various articles on this matter, but here to get you started is a link to Rachel's blog: http://rachelannnunes.blogspot.com/.

Per Rachel's latest Go Fund Me update, she states:

My attorney tells me it will likely cost another $30,000, even to do a summary judgment, and 100,000 for a jury trial. That much to get someone not to plagiarize and harass me.

What a sad statement of our world and some of the people in it.

If you would like to contribute to Rachel's legal fees in the prosecution of this matter, please visit http://www.gofundme.com/standingagainstplagiarism.

I so hate bullies, and I really can't stomach people who make money from efforts not their own. Plagiarism is theft, stealing, having no regard for the person with the actual creativity and imagination, not to mention Rachel's hard work and diligence, to first put those words to paper.

As Nora Roberts stated in regard to her own work being plagiarized by Janet Dailey, it is "mind rape." I agree.

Best wishes, Rachel. When we fight one plagiarist, we send a message to them all.

"If your vocation isn’t a vacation, then quit, leap, change careers."

Denise Barker, Author, Blogger, Copy Editor
Books that Build Character(s)

amazon.com/author/denisebarker

http://denisebarkerauthor.blogspot.com/

http://bit.ly/DeniseBarkerBlog

http://bit.ly/AMAZONDeniseBarkerEbooks

http://bit.ly/BNDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/SMASHWORDSDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/KOBODeniseBarkerEBooks

What lies behind you and what lies in front of you pales in comparison to what lies inside of you. Ralph Waldo Emerson
When you give someone a book, you don’t give him just paper, ink, and glue.  You give him the possibility of a whole new life. Christopher Morley
The best inheritance you can leave your kids is an example of how to live a full and meaningful life. Dan Zadra

Amazon and Simon & Schuster Reach a Multiyear Agreement

I'm so glad I'm already an Indie-published author. But, if I were a trad-pubbed author, I'd want to have been with Simon & Schuster rather than Hachette. S&S negotiated with Amazon for three weeks, and, two months before their current contract expired, reached an agreement. Which makes S&S shine compared to Hachette. For more details, there are plenty of news feeds on this subject today, but here's one to click now:
http://news.yahoo.com/amazon-signs-multi-deal-simon-schuster-business-insider-210830874--sector.html.

Best wishes to those Hachette authors.

"If your vocation isn’t a vacation, then quit, leap, change careers."

Denise Barker, Author, Blogger, Copy Editor
Books that Build Character(s)

amazon.com/author/denisebarker

http://denisebarkerauthor.blogspot.com/

http://bit.ly/DeniseBarkerBlog

http://bit.ly/AMAZONDeniseBarkerEbooks

http://bit.ly/BNDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/SMASHWORDSDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/KOBODeniseBarkerEBooks

What lies behind you and what lies in front of you pales in comparison to what lies inside of you. Ralph Waldo Emerson
When you give someone a book, you don’t give him just paper, ink, and glue.  You give him the possibility of a whole new life. Christopher Morley
The best inheritance you can leave your kids is an example of how to live a full and meaningful life. Dan Zadra

The 101 Habits of Highly Successful Screenwriters: Insider Secrets from Hollywood's Top Writers by Karl Iglesias

Just finished reading this one tonight, and it is full of wisdom for both authors and screenwriters alike.

Have you ever read a book that fell flat? It's sometimes hard to determine exactly what went wrong (maybe because all four reasons outlined below were at work). Well, per The 101 Habits, here are a few explanations:

1. It's a repeat of another story or a derivative that doesn't veer far enough off. It's clichéd, boring, done before. BE ORIGINAL, UNIQUE. SURPRISE YOUR READER.
2. It's lacking . . . something. IT'S CALLED LACK OF EMOTIONS. THE READER CONNECTS VIA EMOTIONAL RESPONSES TO THE AUTHOR'S WORDS. ADD SCENES THAT CONJURE UP SADNESS, JOY, ANGER, REVENGE, ETC.
3. It has no conflict and/or the motivation or goal is not clearly defined. UP THE DRAMA AND OBSTACLES. BE PRECISE, CLEAR, COMMUNICATE WITH THE READER.
4. It's flat. I feel nothing for the main character. THE AUTHOR'S WORDS CAME TOO MUCH FROM HER HEAD AND NOT ENOUGH FROM HER HEART. SAVE THE BRAIN ACTIVITY FOR PLOTTING BEFOREHAND AND REVISING/EDITING AFTERWARD. USE THE HEART FOR DRAFTING FEELINGS VIA THE APPROPRIATE SCENES.

I'll have more good stuff to share from this book in a later post.

"If your vocation isn’t a vacation, then quit, leap, change careers."

Denise Barker, Author, Blogger, Copy Editor
Books that Build Character(s)

amazon.com/author/denisebarker

http://denisebarkerauthor.blogspot.com/

http://bit.ly/DeniseBarkerBlog

http://bit.ly/AMAZONDeniseBarkerEbooks

http://bit.ly/BNDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/SMASHWORDSDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/KOBODeniseBarkerEBooks

What lies behind you and what lies in front of you pales in comparison to what lies inside of you. Ralph Waldo Emerson
When you give someone a book, you don’t give him just paper, ink, and glue.  You give him the possibility of a whole new life. Christopher Morley
The best inheritance you can leave your kids is an example of how to live a full and meaningful life. Dan Zadra

Three Things about Authors, From a Copy Editor's Perspective

First, we all start out as newbies, and there is nothing wrong with this. We have to begin somewhere. Just think of all those people who wish to write a novel someday, yet haven't. Well, we've done it. And it's not as easy as it seems, right? So we've done something huge. Now there are relative measures as to this "newbie" status, with a few authors exhibiting their vast potential Day One, like Nora Roberts aka J. D. Robb, Ayn Rand and other greats, which leads me to the next point.

Second, we all continue to learn, to grow in our craft as we pursue our careers as authors. Yes, even the J. D. Robbs of the world. We never stop gaining knowledge as to our art. In the State of Texas, lawyers are required to annually complete a minimum fifteen hours of continuing education. For me, as an Indie author, I easily read weekly that much and more of how-to material. Even if a book/article is about things well-known to me, I still search to find one nugget of gold therein that is new and useful. But regardless of the actual time expended, we career authors continually strive to improve.

Third, we all have blind spots, no matter how brilliant our writing is on the whole (just like our cars have blind spots no matter how wonderful the make and model). We all have unconscious, as-yet-unknown oversights that show up in our writing. Hopefully some ace copy editor or critique partner can point those out for us, so we can watch for them and deal with them as needed.

I've read where some authors update their earlier work, applying their current level of expertise to novels from the beginning of their career. Whether we make this particular effort or not, our work as authors is never really done. So keep on writing, learning, perfecting.

Best wishes to all.

"If your vocation isn’t a vacation, then quit, leap, change careers."

Denise Barker, Author, Blogger, Copy Editor
Books that Build Character(s)

amazon.com/author/denisebarker

http://denisebarkerauthor.blogspot.com/

http://bit.ly/DeniseBarkerBlog

http://bit.ly/AMAZONDeniseBarkerEbooks

http://bit.ly/BNDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/SMASHWORDSDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/KOBODeniseBarkerEBooks

What lies behind you and what lies in front of you pales in comparison to what lies inside of you. Ralph Waldo Emerson
When you give someone a book, you don’t give him just paper, ink, and glue.  You give him the possibility of a whole new life. Christopher Morley
The best inheritance you can leave your kids is an example of how to live a full and meaningful life. Dan Zadra

HarperCollins Took a Tiny Step in the Right Direction

Per this article by Laura Hazard Owen, https://gigaom.com/2014/10/02/finally-a-big-5-publisher-raises-digital-royalties-but-theres-a-catch/, it seems HarperCollins has an online Web site to sell their authors' books and, based on HC's announcement on Thursday, has increased the previous royalty rate for physical books and e-books from 15% and 25%, respectively, to 25% and 35% on their Web site. It's a tiny step in the right direction for compensating the authors, the creators of all those books.

Click the link to read the full article.

"If your vocation isn’t a vacation, then quit, leap, change careers."

Denise Barker, Author, Blogger, Copy Editor
Books that Build Character(s)

amazon.com/author/denisebarker

http://denisebarkerauthor.blogspot.com/

http://bit.ly/DeniseBarkerBlog

http://bit.ly/AMAZONDeniseBarkerEbooks

http://bit.ly/BNDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/SMASHWORDSDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/KOBODeniseBarkerEBooks

What lies behind you and what lies in front of you pales in comparison to what lies inside of you. Ralph Waldo Emerson
When you give someone a book, you don’t give him just paper, ink, and glue.  You give him the possibility of a whole new life. Christopher Morley
The best inheritance you can leave your kids is an example of how to live a full and meaningful life. Dan Zadra

Amazon v. Hachette

I've been watching some of the clips and reading some of the blog/newspaper articles on this subject. (Remember some of the owners of these newspapers also own some of the Big 5 Publishers.) I've run across some very succinct articles, but this one I just have to share. Check out C. J. Lyons's No Rules, Just Write blog post entitled "Three Sides to This Fight?" found here: http://www.norulesjustwrite.com/three-sides-to-this-fight/.

The Internet brought about the possibility of the situation which has currently involved Amazon v. Hachette. And while I don't think Jeff Bezos helped to create the Internet, he did have the foresight to build Amazon upon it.

"If your vocation isn’t a vacation, then quit, leap, change careers."

Denise Barker, Author, Blogger, Copy Editor
Books that Build Character(s)

amazon.com/author/denisebarker

http://denisebarkerauthor.blogspot.com/

http://bit.ly/DeniseBarkerBlog

http://bit.ly/AMAZONDeniseBarkerEbooks

http://bit.ly/BNDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/SMASHWORDSDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/KOBODeniseBarkerEBooks

What lies behind you and what lies in front of you pales in comparison to what lies inside of you. Ralph Waldo Emerson
When you give someone a book, you don’t give him just paper, ink, and glue.  You give him the possibility of a whole new life. Christopher Morley
The best inheritance you can leave your kids is an example of how to live a full and meaningful life. Dan Zadra