No Excuse for Plagiarism

This week, there has been quite the buzz surrounding a speech given by Melania Trump, wife of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. It seems that Mrs. Trump’s speech had passages that were identical to those that appeared in a speech given by First Lady, Michelle Obama, in a speech she made several years ago.

My first thought when I heard that Mrs. Trump was accused of plagiarizing Mrs. Obama is that she didn’t do it. Not because I don’t think the speeches were virtually identical in some places but because I don’t think either woman actually wrote the speeches they gave. It’s common knowledge that political candidates employ speech writers. If anyone committed plagiarism, it was the speech writer. Sure enough, I just finished reading the latest story on this scandal in which Mrs. Trump’s speech writer admits that she used portions of Mrs. Obama’s speech when drafting Mrs. Trump’s speech, but guess what? It was an honest mistake and she feels terrible.

The cynic in me is calling BS on this so-called honest mistake that speech writer Meredith McIver admits to committing. According to Ms. McIver, she was discussing the speech with Mrs. Trump and soliciting her opinion on people she admired. Mrs. Trump claimed to have great admiration for Mrs. Obama and to have been moved by her now-plagiarized speech. In her discussion of said speech, Ms. McIver admits to writing down passages of it and referring to those when she later drafted the speech for Mrs. Trump.

So, the speech writer went so far as to ask Mrs. Trump what public speakers she admired and to ask for quotes from them. Ms. McIver made a note of these quotes but couldn’t be bothered to make one pesky addition as to their original source. Then she “forgot” where these quotes came from when she drafted the speech for Mrs. Trump?

It all sounds pretty fishy to me, but I understand the need for the cover story. When we screw up, especially in such a public way, it’s human nature to look for a scapegoat so that we can make ourselves look better.

The reason I’m on such a tear about this is because I’ve been a victim of plagiarism, and I know how much it hurts. Yes, it can hurt financially for writers, but I was more emotionally devastated. I’d worked long and hard on the story that someone stole from me. That person took my story and made minor changes and then attempted to pass it off as her own. When it was discovered and brought to my attention, I had to do all the work to prove the story belonged to me first. I was wronged and then I had to prove it, which pissed me off even more. The other author stole from me so she should have been the one who had to prove her innocence.

Plagiarism is not a harmless crime nor is it a victimless crime. The people whose words are plagiarized suffer a violation. People who commit plagiarism know what they’re doing and either don’t care or don’t expect to get caught or both. It is not an innocent or harmless mistake. Whether you intend to commit plagiarism or not, it most definitely hurts the original author when you do. So please don’t say that you’re sorry or that it was an innocent mistake. The bottom line here; there’s no excuse for plagiarism.

The Book is called WHAT?

There are two things I’m terrible at when it comes to being a writer. Number one, writing those book descriptions that are used to let readers know about the book they’re considering buying. Number two, coming up with a title for my book.

Experts will tell you there are two things that are necessary to sell a book; a great cover and a good title. This is especially true if you’re a new author trying to entice readers. I think that might be why I have such a mental block when it comes to crafting a good title.

When it comes to the title, there are those rare flashes of what I think are brilliance, and I come up with a great title that’s fitting for the book. The rest of the time, I have to put a lot of effort in to coming up with a good title. Making that effort usually involves considering the theme, the characters, the setting, etc. and trying to find titles that are relevant to those things yet still manage to be clever while at the same time not losing the buyers’ interest. In other words, my title has to be catchy yet not too long as to be off putting to the buyers.

I try. I really do. I think most authors try hard because we know what’s at stake. Lately though, I’ve noticed this rash of titles that don’t seem to be trying hard. For instance; My Boss is a Grumpy Werewolf who thinks I’m his Mate and wants me to have his Baby.

This is just one example of many that I’ve seen lately. I’m using this one because it’s stuck in my mind. When I first saw a book in the Kindle bookstore that had a title pretty darn close to this, I was surprised. In fact, I scoffed a little bit, thinking the author hadn’t put any effort in to the title. Then I thought about it and decided that at least I knew what the entire book was about just from the title. That cemented my decision not to buy the book, but it had me wondering. Was this author lazy or clever? Maybe the title was supposed to be comedic, and I missed the point.  Though I didn’t buy the book, maybe others were enticed by the title’s straightforwardness.

Maybe having titles that seem outrageous isn’t such a bad thing. I’m still talking about this book. By doing so, I’m probably encouraging people to search it out which could lead to sales for that author. Who knows what using a seemingly convoluted title will accomplish?

Whatever the answer is, I will probably not change the way I develop titles. I will also probably be struggling with title creation my entire writing career. So maybe, coming up with the title that makes buyers do a double take because it’s so far out there isn’t such a bad thing. 

I Took on Love

On August 21, 2015 I released Taking a Gamble, the first book in the Taking on Love series. On June 28, 2016, Taking Another Shot was released and the series has come to a close.

The Taking on Love series, which consists of four books, came from characters that were introduced in the preceding Time for Love series. The main characters in the Time for Love series originally appeared in my young adult novel Like You Mean It. Readers loved the characters and asked for more. That led to a four book series that followed the love story of Justin Jacobs and Chelsea Schumacher which brought new characters along with old friends.

I think it was around the third book in the Time for Love series that I decided I wanted to do a spinoff series for some of those characters because I wanted to flesh them out. From that idea came the Taking on Love series.

In Taking a Gamble, Marcy Larsen finds herself married to Nick Singer, her best friend’s brother, after a night of drinking goes way too far. Then came Taking a Chance, the story of Randi and Tom who have to learn to let the past go if they’re going to take a chance on each other. After that was Taking a Risk where we learned that Grayson Jacobs has been hiding a big secret from his family and meeting Cris Kinkaid changes everything for him. Finally, there was Taking Another Shot. Since Grayson got his happily ever after, there was no way I could let his beard and B.F.F. Shayla Hamilton be robbed of hers.

Just as it was with Time for Love, writing the Taking on Love series was a blast. I enjoyed developing the characters and watching their stories unfold, but there was one of the four that I had the most fun with. I know that parents shouldn’t play favorites, and any writer will tell you that our stories are like children to us, but I really enjoyed writing Taking a Risk. Grayson and Cris were a couple that faced a lot of adversity, which any story needs, but it was writing about Cris’s brothers that made that story a riot for me. And of course, it gave me an idea. Yep, you guessed it, the remaining Kinkaid brothers are getting their own series.

One young adult novel spawned all this. Eight books later, I guess it’s safe to say that I took on love and we all won!

What Your Favorite Authors Don't Tell You

I’ve been a writer for the last ten years and in that time I’ve learned there are quite a few things that readers don’t know and writers don’t talk much about. I think it’s time to shed some light on those things. Without further ado, and in no particular order, I present to you, the myths of being an indie author.

Myth: Writers become independent authors because they can’t make it in the “real world” of publishing.

This couldn’t be further from the truth for most authors. I started out in the supposed real world. My first agent turned out to be a con artist who made her living preying on novice authors with dreams of making it big, and I lost a bit of money and a lot of hope as a result. My second and third agents were legitimate, but they couldn’t sell my work. It was met with mixed reviews by publishers. Some liked the story but hated the characters. Some loved the characters but hated the story. When I decided to submit to smaller houses, I was offered a contract for one of my novels only to have the publisher go under before my book ever made it to print. Another small house offered me a contract on another of my novels, but it never made it to print because one of their staff was on an extended leave and they had no return date for her. Apparently, she was the only one that could format the novels. I was able to break that contract. Yet another small house offered me a contract for that same novel with the editor assuring me she loved it and didn’t want to change it only to ask me to make a major rewrite. When I balked, the editor sent me a scathing email telling me if I was with one of the “big publishing houses” these changes would be made without my knowledge or consent so I could either agree or move on. I moved on.

For most of us, it isn’t a lack of literary talent that motivates us to release on our own. It’s the fact that we can retain our rights and control and still reach our desired audience without getting our hopes up, our hearts broken or having to jump through needless hoops.

Myth: Writers don’t need your reviews. It’s enough that you bought and liked the book.

This is wrong, wrong, wrong on so many levels. Independent authors don’t want your reviews because we want our ego stroked. We need your reviews because Amazon isn’t going to promote our work if we don’t reach a certain number of reviews.  More reviews also leads to recommendations. Have you ever clicked on a book to get more info and seen this: “Customers who bought this also bought…”? That recommendation is the result of your reviews of my book in the same genre as the one you’re currently browsing. So, yes, I need your reviews.

Myth: Writers don’t care about or want to see bad reviews

Bad reviews hurt. That is no lie. Reading a bad review can feel like listening to someone bad mouth your child. It makes the mama bear in you want to lash out, but there’s another choice that I make when it comes to reacting to bad reviews. I use them as a tool to improve my writing. The only ones I tend to disregard are those that are not constructive and obviously intended to hurt. One of my Amazon reviews reads: “This book is a waste of miney and it’s free.” Given that the reviewer couldn’t spell money correctly and was the only person to give that book a one star review, I disregarded it, but I do not ignore all bad reviews.

Myth: Using social media will make a huge difference in a writer’s book sales.

Maybe social media works for well-established authors who have a large and loyal following. Maybe there is that one success story where the unknown author takes to social media to spread the word about her book and makes it big. Sad to say, it doesn’t work for the rest of us. I have a Facebook page with nearly 800 likes, but I doubt even one-third of those people are actually reading and buying my books or my quarterly royalty payments would be much higher. I also have a large number of Twitter followers and Tweet about my books and my writing daily. Only my die-hard fans read and retweet and favorite. The rest seem to be skimming over them. My Instagram hasn’t even cracked double digit followers, but I created it because a number of people told me it was necessary to build an audience and tell them about my books. Maybe I’m doing something wrong on that front. If you have any ides, please share them with me so I can fix it.

Myth: Joining Facebook groups that promote reading and writing will increase books sales.

When I first joined Facebook, I went in search of ways to use it to promote my books. I’d read countless marketing articles that said this was something all writers had to do to reach more readers. I found a number of groups dedicated to allowing authors to promote their work and began posting daily. It didn’t take long for me to realize that I was one of an astronomical number of authors doing the same thing. My posts were quickly getting buried by other authors who were there, like me, to push their own agenda. Most readers don’t seem to be looking at Facebook groups to find new books to read.

Myth: Trading reviews with other authors will increase the number of your reviews.

It should, but it doesn’t always. There are several groups online where authors can seek out reviews from their peers. I find most of them either don’t get responded to or those that do respond don’t like my genre. Either that or I don’t like their genre and couldn’t enjoy the book enough to give a fair review.

Myth: Giving away free copies of your book is a good way to get more reviews.

This should work, especially when you specify that you are giving it to someone in exchange for an honest review being posted on Amazon. Unfortunately, there are some people out there who want the free book and will accept it without any intention of writing the review. It sucks, but it’s not like I can take the book back once I give it away. All I can do is cross that person off a future giveaway list.

Myth: You can promote your book with little or no cost and see a big return.   

Yes, you can promote your book for free or spend only a little bit of money, but you will not gain more readers by doing this. Ever heard the phrase you have to spend money to make money? Not only is it true, but it applies to marketing your books. The less money you spend, the smaller the return on your investment. You reach fewer readers and reviewers which means you make fewer book sales.

Myth: Book tweeting services are great exposure for very little money.

Some book tweeting services are fairly inexpensive, and they deliver on what they promise. For a nominal fee, they will tweet information about your book to their ungodly amount of followers. They do that, but it doesn’t mean that anyone cares or rather that enough people care. Just because they have one million followers doesn’t mean all one million followers will see and buy your book. Not to mention, this service is available for any writer willing to pay for it. That means they’re sending out an awful lot of tweets to their followers every day that are probably being ignored.

Okay, I will admit this is a long and somewhat depressing post, but I don’t want you to feel bad. I want you to understand how hard it is to be a writer and why you matter so much to us. Without you, we have no one to write for.  Please, buy our books but don’t stop there. Tweet about our books. Post pictures of our books on your social media. Encourage your friends and family to buy our books. Take a few minutes from your day to post a brief review on Amazon. If you don’t let us know what you think, how can we get better?

Just What I Needed

As a writer with a full time day job, and a family, it can be difficult for me to find time to write.  In my earlier days of writing, I used to come home after working all day, have dinner and then head straight for my computer where I would write until bedtime. I would also write from sun up to sun down on the weekends.

All this writing time was great, but it translated to not spending much time with my family so I changed the routine. I still spend most of my weekends writing, but I no longer write in the evenings after working all day. I confine my weekday writing to my lunch hour on the day job. The formula’s been working, but like any writer, I wish I had more time to write. That’s especially true when I’m close to finishing a story and I want to see how it ends.

There are some bonus days to write. Those are the days that I’m supposed to be at the day job, but I get the day off. Those are typically a holiday. Now, there are some holidays that I won’t be writing because they’re for family, but there are some that I can sneak in the time to write.

This past weekend, I decided I was going to lengthen my Memorial Day weekend by taking Friday off the day job. That Friday, my husband was working, one child was in school and the other spent the day with her friends. That gave me an entire day to work on a story that I was near finishing and pretty damned excited about.

Good news! Thanks to my extra day off, I finished the first draft of that story. I also started the editing of another novel that I’m hoping to be ready for release this month.

It was such a great feeling to take that time and be able to focus on my story and my characters without any distractions. The fact that I was so productive was an even better feeling. It made me wish that I could give up the day job and take up writing as my full time gig. I’m not there yet, but I will say that extra day to myself was just what I needed. You better believe I’ll be doing it again soon.

Still Feeling the Squeeze

In a recent blog post, I went on quite a rant about Amazon’s policy of paying independent authors based the number of pages read in their books as opposed to a percentage of the retail price. One of the things that I took exception to was that as a reader, I’m not allowed to return a book I haven’t finished reading and get a partial credit for it.

Well, not only was I wrong, but I was wrong in a big way and I’m even more frustrated.

Readers can return e-books to Amazon, but this isn’t just limited to readers who read the book partway and realize it’s not for them so they ask for a refund. This is for any book, fully read or not and it gets even better. The reader has up to seven days to return the book for a full refund.

You read that right! Seven days to return a book for a full refund. I don’t know about you, but there have been many days where I have enjoyed a book so much that I have finished it in far less than seven days. If a book is really good, I have been known to finish it the day I purchased it.

In theory, this seven day return policy isn’t for voracious readers like me that enjoy the books they’ve purchased. It’s probably intended for people who buy a book but don’t have time to read it right away only to sit down a few days later and discover they don’t like the book or it isn’t what they expected.

The problem is that Amazon has no way to truly distinguish between legitimate return requests and those requests that are the result of some lowlife cheapskate looking to cheat the system and take money from the pockets of hard working authors.

I spend a lot of time and effort on my books and I have my price points set at $3.99 or less for all of my e-books. For someone to read my book, enjoy my book, not review it and then have the audacity to return it within seven days just so they can get their money back makes me more than sick.

It flat out pisses me off. The trouble is, there isn’t a damn thing I can do about it. Until or unless Amazon is willing to amend their return policy to be more equitable for authors and readers, this will be yet another way that I’m feeling the squeeze. Talk about sucking the joy out of what I love to do!

Leave my Reviews Alone!

Every time I release a new book, I go on a tireless campaign to commission reviews. And when I say tireless campaign, I mean that I beg every follower on each of my social media outlets to take pity on me and post a review of my book on Amazon.

I hate to say it, but my begging usually doesn't work. The people that would be affected by it are those that have already left a review. Those are my die hard fans who love all of my books and make me happy to be a writer. I love those fans, and I love their reviews. Like any writer, I'd also love to see more reviews.

Every time a review comes up on Amazon, I hold my breath waiting to see what the reviewer thought. Most of the time, the response is good. I'm sure I've never told you this, but I always print out the first five star review that my new novel gets and I frame that alongside a picture of the book cover. Then I hang it in my office to serve as a constant reminder that someone likes what I do.

As I said, I love not only my reviews but my fans. Anytime a fan wants to friend me on Facebook, I accept. I love to hear from them and connect with them. Building relationships with readers is part of what makes me a better writer. I get to hear first hand how they felt about my characters, plot, etc.

Well, it seems that in befriending my readers, I'm running the risk of Amazon deciding any reviews posted by my "friends" are in violation of their review policy and could therefore be taken down. Yep, it's true. Your friends and family are not allowed to post reviews of your books. If they do, and Amazon discovers the relationship, the review is removed and the reviewer is notified.

I'm just going to say it. Give me a break here, Amazon. I'm not Nicholas Sparks or James Patterson. I don't have so many best selling books and readers that I couldn't possibly keep track of them all. I'm an indie author who relies on having a good relationship with my readers in order  to help me sell more books. So what if they friend me on Facebook? That doesn't mean it's going to change their opinion of my work.

As far as my family not being allowed to review my books? I guess I can kind of see that. I'm always skeptical when a family member raves about my book because I'm not sure whether it's genuine praise or obligatory. I will say this though. Since I'm an indie author, my family members are usually the first to buy my books and show their support. I say if they bought the book, let them post the review.

No, I don't know the logic behind Amazon's policy, and I don't really care. I have a number of books on Amazon's site, and they each have less than ten reviews. Some don't even have one review. So, Amazon, if you're reading this, please leave my reviews alone! I need them more than you can possibly understand.