A Thief Strikes Again

In a recent post, we talked about plagiarism, the act of one author stealing from another (or several others) and passing the work off as her own. I hate to say it, but a different author has committed the crime of theft, only this one is more interesting than the last.

Every author knows writing a book is only step one in the process of releasing your book. So much more goes into it, including having a cover. Anyone will tell you that a cover can make or break a book. You can have the best-written book, but a bad cover can kill your sales.

So, what do you do when your book is written and you need a cover? There are several options.

I’ll tell you what you don’t do though. You don’t search the internet for a photo, find one you like and then use it for your cover. If you do, chances are high you are committing a crime. Like books, most photographs are copyrighted. To use a photo that has a registered copyright without permission of the photographer is copyright infringement.

And guess what folks? You can’t hide behind the ‘I didn’t know’ argument. If you’ve found a photo you like during an internet search, it’s your responsibility to track down the photographer and find out if it is available for licensing. If you don’t do that, and you use the photo anyway, you are engaging in copyright infringement. What is that old saying? Ignorance of the law is no excuse.

Now, let’s say you don’t heed this advice and you use a stolen photo. If the photographer finds out, and contacts you and asks you to stop using his work, you’d better comply. If not, you are not only a terrible person you are also in violation of copyright laws.

I’m equal parts disgusted and saddened that photographer Michael Stokes was the subject of one such thief last week. Even more appalling is that when Stokes reached out to two authors he found to be using his work without permission one took him for a ride on the crazy train. The author accused him of being a liar and a racist, among other things, and refused to stop illegally using his photograph on her book cover. The author in question defended her actions by saying she paid $1.50 for the picture and would continue to use it.

I don’t know about you, but the fact that the picture only cost her $1.50 raised a huge, red flag for me. Michael Stokes, Golden Czermak and Wander Aguiar are among the most prolific photographers in the industry. There is no way any of them would sell their work at such low cost, and they shouldn’t be expected to. Even if the author did pay someone for the picture, the photographer has informed her that he wasn’t paid for its use. That should be enough to get her to stop using his work, but she continues to refuse.

As if that isn’t bad enough, she’s also taking shots at anyone who defends Stokes. Not only has she made disparaging remarks about Stokes, his colleagues and his fans, but she’s failed to keep in mind some of us stepping up to stand at Stokes’ side are readers. Readers who are so outraged and disgusted by her actions that we do not intend to purchase her books. This woman has cost herself a loss of future income in addition to the financial loss she’ll face if Stokes pursues legal action.

I’m not just a reader. I’m an author. Would I love to be able to license photos from industry titans like Stokes, Czermak and Aguiar? Sure, I would, but I’m not in a position to do so now. Does that mean I’m going to use their work anyway and then have the audacity to justify my theft? Absolutely not.

The bottom line here folks is that using a photograph for any reason without the photographer’s permission is stealing. No self-respecting author, or person, would ever to such a thing. I, for one, hope Stokes takes her to the cleaners.

Give Up the Ghost

A couple of weeks ago, I talked about a scandal in the male/female romance community. An author was found to have plagiarized several other authors in the genre. As if that wasn't bad enough, because there is no excuse for plagiarism, she ripped off best selling authors, including industry titan, Nora Roberts. Instead of owning her mistake, the author blamed her ghostwriter. The ghostwriter fired back, making sure everyone knew that every word she wrote came from the author, who by the way did not pay the ghostwriter for her services, instead giving her a sob story about needing the money for a sick child.

Plagiarism is  deplorable, but this scandal sparked another debate. Is it okay to use a ghostwriter? Before we go any further, let's define what a ghostwriter is. In the simplest terms, it's having someone else take your ideas, and usually your rough draft, and polish it up until it becomes a full fledged story. The ghostwriter is not credited for the work done and consumers buy and read books assuming it was written by the author listed on the cover and title page.

Have you ever wondered how some authors can release a book a month while others are good for only a few a year? And still others only release one a year? For a few writers, they are dedicated enough to sit at their computer every day and do nothing but write. Some have a backlog of already written stories they're pulling from. The rest? They're using a ghostwriter. 

Using a ghostwriter isn't a new practice, but this scandal has raised some questions. Is it fair for authors to use ghostwriters? Are authors who use ghostwriters duping readers? When a ghostwriter is used, what is the impact to the rest of us who aren't using them?

In the wake of the latest plagiarism scandal, many authors decried using ghostwriters. Several authors made sure to use their social media platforms to inform their readers if their name was on a book, they alone wrote it. There was even a few Facebook threads of authors posting pictures of their pets and cheekily proclaiming those were their ghostwriters. Given how passionately so many authors are speaking against it, I'm sure you can guess how most of us feel about ghostwriters, but why?

Like it or not, using a ghostwriter is a misrepresentation to your readers. Your cover and title page boasts you as the author, but you're simply the creator of the idea. You're not earning your fans or your money honestly, and that is not fair to the people purchasing your books.

Then there is the fact that ghostwriters are usually able to crank out these stories in thirty days or less. How? Because it's their job. They earn their living by writing one story after another. The more they can produce, the more money they make. Sure, the quality of the storytelling suffers, but many readers who are fans of the "author" will snap every one of those books up.

For those of us who write our own stories, we suffer. Fans want to know why we can't write a book a month. If we take a few months in between, there's a risk our fans are going to move on and find writers they know are producing. Part of this is because readers worry the author is going to abandon the series and they don't want to get invested. I hate to say it, but it happens for a variety of reasons.

So far, I've never abandoned a series, but I do take several months in between releases. I'm not the only author in my genre who does, and it's my hope that true fans will understand. I'm taking my time so I can give them the best product. I would rather take longer to give you the most polished product than give you something every month that isn't up to snuff.

As long as the practice of using ghostwriters is legal, there are people who will take advantage of it. I submit to you those people aren't real authors and they aren't truly invested in their craft.

My Annual Birthday Wish List

My birthday is this Friday. About a month before, my family starts asking what I want. From a personal perspective, I struggle to answer this question because there's not a lot I want. If I do want something, I usually buy it, which doesn't leave a lot of choices this time of year.

As a writer, I can easily answer this question. If you're one of my longtime readers, you already know the answer, but there's one thing this year that I think it will surprise you.

Okay, so what do I want?

Reviews, I always want reviews of my books. Reviews on Amazon have a direct relationship to how much promotion effort the online retailer does for the book. The more reviews a book has, the more likely it's promoted. I also like seeing reviews. If they're good, they make me happy, make me want to write more. If they're bad, they give me a means to improve my craft.

 Book sales are another great gift idea. Last year, I finally achieved a longtime goal. I became an Amazon best selling author with my m/m romance novel, Going Inksane. Now, I would like to become a NY Times and USA Today best selling author. The only way that happens is through book sales. All of my novels are $3.99 or less. Hopefully, the low price point motivates people to buy.

People taking a moment to promote one of my books on Friday would be a great present. Word of mouth is an effective sales tool. The more people that say they like my books, the more likely it will attract new readers.

Join my Facebook group. That's a new thing I'm trying in my promotion efforts. So far, it's slow going. There are around thirty members. I'm hoping that as I release more books, books that people hopefully like, that more readers will join. I would love to have the level of engagement some of my peers and idols have.

This year, you'll be surprised to hear that I want to be a finalist in the Lambda Literary Awards. For those of you who don't know, the Lammy is an award given to authors of LGBTQ books. Finalists are being announced tomorrow with the winners awarded in June. I entered my novel, The Truth Inside, for consideration in the transgender romance category. This new adult novel tells the story of an up and coming MMA fighter in his first relationship with a woman since his transition. The cover also features transgender activist and model Jeffrey Rubel. Since my birthday is Friday, and finalists are being announced tomorrow, being a finalist would be the best present ever.

There you have it, my annual birthday wish list. It doesn't change much, does it?