Whoever said imitation is the sincerest form of flattery
obviously wasn’t a writer and was probably not talking about writers. Copying a
writer’s work and claiming it as your own is serious, it’s illegal and it has a
name; plagiarism.
Recently, the writing community was shocked by the news that
one romance writer plagiarized the work of another. And we’re not talking about
borrowing a few lines. We’re talking about taking the entire novel and changing
so few details that anyone reading both would immediately see the problem. The
author committing the plagiarism initially stayed silent but did remove ten of
her books from circulation. Yes, ten! That author has since come out to say
that she has “made mistakes” in her writing and was dealing with personal
issues.
As an author, I was stunned and sickened when I learned of
this. I’ll admit there have been times when I’ve read a book and liked it so
much that I wished I’d thought of it. I have never, ever, plagiarized another
author’s work. I’ve never even considered it. The fact that someone would is
almost unfathomable. Not even in my darkest personal moments can I imagine stooping so low as to steal from someone else.
What makes this case worse is that it hit home for me. Until
I learned she was a fraud, I supported the plagiarizing author. I bought
several of her books and left glowing reviews online. I followed her on social
media. I encouraged like-minded readers to buy her books. As a reader, I feel
betrayed. As an author, I’m heartsick. Did the money I paid for her books
rightfully belong to someone else?
A few years ago one of my stories was plagiarized. Just like
in this instance, it was an alert reader that stumbled across it and contacted
me. In my case, there was no profit being turned by the phony. She took my
story and made it her own and posted it on a Justin Bieber fan fiction website.
It took me a few weeks of going round and round with the moderator of the
website, who was probably a teenage girl for all I know, to finally get my
story removed. It didn’t matter that this other person wasn’t making money from
claiming my story as hers. What mattered was that my story, a story I’d worked
so hard on, was being passed off as hers and she was getting praise she didn’t
earn.
Plagiarism is one of those crimes I’ll never understand.
Isn’t there any kind of conscience on the part of the person committing the
crime? How can they sit back and watch the money and praise roll in and not give
one thought to the person they’ve victimized? And that’s what we are folks, we’re victims. The authors
being plagiarized are victims of the most heartbreaking kind, but the readers
are victims too. The readers are paying for a product and endorsing an author
who is nothing more than a thief stealing the words, dreams, and in some
instances money, of an author who poured blood, sweat and tears into her novel.
There isn't much more I can say other than it's disgusting and anyone who steals from another author should be punished to the fullest extent the law allows, no matter what the reason for the plagiarism was. You can bet I'll be keeping an eye out to see what comes of this case.
