Remember Janet Dailey? She was the writing wunderkind of the 1970’s, 80’s and maybe even 90’s.
Everyone at my school read Janet Dailey. Her stories were fresh, original, chock-full of details that made you wonder and look at the worlds she presented from a new, more informed perspective. Besides, she was a whiz with research. Janet Dailey was also one of the first writers to present the trilogies and ongoing sagas.
I challenge you to read Legacies...one of her best, and tell me where you have ever read such an amazing, insightful novel on the Civil War, its moral quandaries, its questionable (at the time) vision, and its horrors. And it's a love story to boot.
Janet Dailey may still be writing. Someone with her unquestionable talent and drive certainly is...but not under the name Janet Dailey, which has become mud and synonymous with, as Nora Roberts put it, “mind rape”. This is because she was found guilty of plagiarism.
Now I am a fan of Nora Roberts. Her “In Death” series, I consider to be one of the very best mashup of crime/romance/suspense/SciFi genres. And she is a writing machine, rivaled only by three other writers: Dean Koontz, Jayne Ann Krentz -- and yours truly, when I’m in the producing mood.
But notice how clever Nora Roberts was here. She termed Janet Dailey’s plagiarism of her work as “mind rape” a word to strike horror in the minds of women/readers everywhere. Why? Because she did not want it to be taken lightly when another author, especially an established on with a huge fan base--as Janet Dailey’s was--steals from a writer, especially one as prolific as herself. It would be throwing dollars out in the dustbin. And writing, which is solitary, taxing work-- without any credit unless your work sells-- on its own, takes enough from you already.
So what happened? I can tell you what. Nora Roberts burst on the scene after countless tries at getting published. It wasn’t easy for Nora. She first tried her hand at writing out of boredom, she says, after being snowbound with her kids in a house....She had read everything she could lay her hand on, and finding the themes to be somewhat hidebound, thought to herself that she could do just as, or even better than the writers then. Here’s irony: Wanna bet that perhaps Janet Dailey was one of the writers who inspired her?
Well, Nora Robert’s take on romance was fresh and exciting...her love scenes more graphic than previous, and of course, readers devoured her books by the handful. You could not read just one Nora Roberts. You didn’t have to with her prodigious output. Her fan base grew faster than a crop of pre-adolescent acne on a candy-hogging computer jockey’s chin, and before you know it, there came the general perception that she was the “one to beat.”
Meanwhile, remember Janet Dailey, having come up in the time where you produced one novel every three months or so, according to Mills & Boon/Harlequin/Silhouette’s decrees, was feeling the pressure...and (graphic love scenes never having been her strong suit) succumbed to temptation and cut-and-paste. Which is why I call it a 21st Century plague. Because before, plagiarists had to put in the work--type manually what they wished to plagiarize. Now, they simply cut-n-paste! For a while, Janet Dailey got away with it.
But Nora Robert’s fans were legion and avid readers. Not to mention, it was a different time, with the internet and computers making side-by-side comparisons easier than ever before. So guess what? Janet Dailey got caught. And ostracized. A sad end to what could have been an epic challenge-produced stellar turnaround of a sagging career.
Nowadays, with ebooks, plagiarism is on the rise-- and more marked and yes, bold-faced, than ever. There are webinars & classes which tout "How To Make $30,000 --or so--On Amazon in One Month" ...but they do not teach you how to write. They teach you how to game the system, put in the right catchphrases, eye-catching covers, tag with the most popular keywords, and sell, sell, sell. Is it any wonder some people are simply cribbing the work of the more popular authors, cutting out whole scenes, using the same language, expression and phrasing that have done well before, and putting out other people's work as their own? But--here's irony: The very technology which makes it easy to plagiarize, also makes it easier to spot.
Take a look at some of these examples: Tammara Webber's EASY, plagiarized by Jordin Williams. In fact, groups of untalented, unprincipled people appear now to be copying, wholesale, old Harlequin romances and placing them for sale on Amazon--which is despicable, since the authors of these novels, plodding on typewriters and old word processors, are single-handedly responsible for the Romance Genre that we have today and should be justly compensated for their work.
Yet what can you do to prevent theft of your intellectual property and prove your work? Well, there is a plethora of specialized software such as Sourceforge, and sites such as Grammarly.com which can help to detect intellectual property theft.
For the serious, dedicated author, who is concerned not just with prevention, and protecting their work, but for receiving just compensation should a plagiarist use one's work and make money off it, there are a few measures which can eradicate the risk of one's work being stolen, and, should it be necessary to prove your work in court, provide proof on ownership.
As a prolific writer myself, I take plagiarism very seriously. I would not permit any theft of my work to go unchallenged, even after having allowed my books to be scanned and placed on the Internet via Google, I retain my copyright.
As a lover of books, I know that no writer who has ever permitted his/her work to be available for free to me, via the Public Library, has ever lost a penny by me. That’s because when I love your work, I am a fan for life. After having read something for free, I want my own copy, or two, OF EVERYTHING you've written. So I now return the favor. If you’re a book lover and you want to read my books, cost is not a factor. But if you’re a thief? You will rue the day.
Here’s what I do:
-I save all manuscripts with DATE OF ORIGIN three ways: On the cloud, on a thumb drive and on my machines.
-I encode all my books with details of places, people occurrences, particularities unique to me--even some events from my journals. If necessary, I can show when I lived where, and whom of my friends has certain quirks, identifiers as portrayed (with their permission) in my novels.
- I take photos ( most are date-stamped except those taken on impulse) of locations described my books. Two examples posted below:
-I keep logs of all my research, per book, and sources.
-Ink can be dated. So I write a quick synopsis and/or plot/character ideas in my journal.
-I take other precautions that only I know about. Yes, I have imagination because I am a writer.
Anyone stealing would be better of just doing your own, no matter how crappy. Because coming up against me, damn you; you will lose.
It is incumbent upon any writer to protect their work. Why? Because it’s YOURS. There’s no better reason than that!
And for those plagiarists, would/be thieves who think ebooks is a quick way to make a buck? Admittedly, with an eye-catching cover and great promotion, yes, it is. Which is why it is abysmally STUPID to steal. Because all that money, with a proper legal procedure, goes BACK to the person whom you stole from. So why do it?
Get a ghostwriter instead. You know that writer you admire so much? Ask them to do something for you. Pay them upfront or split royalties. You’ll STILL make gobs of money. And one thing more....
You will sleep better at night. I promise.
Everyone at my school read Janet Dailey. Her stories were fresh, original, chock-full of details that made you wonder and look at the worlds she presented from a new, more informed perspective. Besides, she was a whiz with research. Janet Dailey was also one of the first writers to present the trilogies and ongoing sagas.
I challenge you to read Legacies...one of her best, and tell me where you have ever read such an amazing, insightful novel on the Civil War, its moral quandaries, its questionable (at the time) vision, and its horrors. And it's a love story to boot.
Janet Dailey may still be writing. Someone with her unquestionable talent and drive certainly is...but not under the name Janet Dailey, which has become mud and synonymous with, as Nora Roberts put it, “mind rape”. This is because she was found guilty of plagiarism.
Now I am a fan of Nora Roberts. Her “In Death” series, I consider to be one of the very best mashup of crime/romance/suspense/SciFi genres. And she is a writing machine, rivaled only by three other writers: Dean Koontz, Jayne Ann Krentz -- and yours truly, when I’m in the producing mood.
But notice how clever Nora Roberts was here. She termed Janet Dailey’s plagiarism of her work as “mind rape” a word to strike horror in the minds of women/readers everywhere. Why? Because she did not want it to be taken lightly when another author, especially an established on with a huge fan base--as Janet Dailey’s was--steals from a writer, especially one as prolific as herself. It would be throwing dollars out in the dustbin. And writing, which is solitary, taxing work-- without any credit unless your work sells-- on its own, takes enough from you already.
So what happened? I can tell you what. Nora Roberts burst on the scene after countless tries at getting published. It wasn’t easy for Nora. She first tried her hand at writing out of boredom, she says, after being snowbound with her kids in a house....She had read everything she could lay her hand on, and finding the themes to be somewhat hidebound, thought to herself that she could do just as, or even better than the writers then. Here’s irony: Wanna bet that perhaps Janet Dailey was one of the writers who inspired her?
Well, Nora Robert’s take on romance was fresh and exciting...her love scenes more graphic than previous, and of course, readers devoured her books by the handful. You could not read just one Nora Roberts. You didn’t have to with her prodigious output. Her fan base grew faster than a crop of pre-adolescent acne on a candy-hogging computer jockey’s chin, and before you know it, there came the general perception that she was the “one to beat.”
Meanwhile, remember Janet Dailey, having come up in the time where you produced one novel every three months or so, according to Mills & Boon/Harlequin/Silhouette’s decrees, was feeling the pressure...and (graphic love scenes never having been her strong suit) succumbed to temptation and cut-and-paste. Which is why I call it a 21st Century plague. Because before, plagiarists had to put in the work--type manually what they wished to plagiarize. Now, they simply cut-n-paste! For a while, Janet Dailey got away with it.
But Nora Robert’s fans were legion and avid readers. Not to mention, it was a different time, with the internet and computers making side-by-side comparisons easier than ever before. So guess what? Janet Dailey got caught. And ostracized. A sad end to what could have been an epic challenge-produced stellar turnaround of a sagging career.
Nowadays, with ebooks, plagiarism is on the rise-- and more marked and yes, bold-faced, than ever. There are webinars & classes which tout "How To Make $30,000 --or so--On Amazon in One Month" ...but they do not teach you how to write. They teach you how to game the system, put in the right catchphrases, eye-catching covers, tag with the most popular keywords, and sell, sell, sell. Is it any wonder some people are simply cribbing the work of the more popular authors, cutting out whole scenes, using the same language, expression and phrasing that have done well before, and putting out other people's work as their own? But--here's irony: The very technology which makes it easy to plagiarize, also makes it easier to spot.
Take a look at some of these examples: Tammara Webber's EASY, plagiarized by Jordin Williams. In fact, groups of untalented, unprincipled people appear now to be copying, wholesale, old Harlequin romances and placing them for sale on Amazon--which is despicable, since the authors of these novels, plodding on typewriters and old word processors, are single-handedly responsible for the Romance Genre that we have today and should be justly compensated for their work.
Yet what can you do to prevent theft of your intellectual property and prove your work? Well, there is a plethora of specialized software such as Sourceforge, and sites such as Grammarly.com which can help to detect intellectual property theft.
For the serious, dedicated author, who is concerned not just with prevention, and protecting their work, but for receiving just compensation should a plagiarist use one's work and make money off it, there are a few measures which can eradicate the risk of one's work being stolen, and, should it be necessary to prove your work in court, provide proof on ownership.
As a prolific writer myself, I take plagiarism very seriously. I would not permit any theft of my work to go unchallenged, even after having allowed my books to be scanned and placed on the Internet via Google, I retain my copyright.
As a lover of books, I know that no writer who has ever permitted his/her work to be available for free to me, via the Public Library, has ever lost a penny by me. That’s because when I love your work, I am a fan for life. After having read something for free, I want my own copy, or two, OF EVERYTHING you've written. So I now return the favor. If you’re a book lover and you want to read my books, cost is not a factor. But if you’re a thief? You will rue the day.
Here’s what I do:
-I save all manuscripts with DATE OF ORIGIN three ways: On the cloud, on a thumb drive and on my machines.
-I encode all my books with details of places, people occurrences, particularities unique to me--even some events from my journals. If necessary, I can show when I lived where, and whom of my friends has certain quirks, identifiers as portrayed (with their permission) in my novels.
- I take photos ( most are date-stamped except those taken on impulse) of locations described my books. Two examples posted below:
-I keep logs of all my research, per book, and sources.
-Ink can be dated. So I write a quick synopsis and/or plot/character ideas in my journal.
-I take other precautions that only I know about. Yes, I have imagination because I am a writer.
Anyone stealing would be better of just doing your own, no matter how crappy. Because coming up against me, damn you; you will lose.
It is incumbent upon any writer to protect their work. Why? Because it’s YOURS. There’s no better reason than that!
And for those plagiarists, would/be thieves who think ebooks is a quick way to make a buck? Admittedly, with an eye-catching cover and great promotion, yes, it is. Which is why it is abysmally STUPID to steal. Because all that money, with a proper legal procedure, goes BACK to the person whom you stole from. So why do it?
Get a ghostwriter instead. You know that writer you admire so much? Ask them to do something for you. Pay them upfront or split royalties. You’ll STILL make gobs of money. And one thing more....
You will sleep better at night. I promise.
SETTING FOR BLOODPACT
