Self-Publishing Archives — Page 3 of 3

UPDATE #2: Amazon sent me a very nice explanation email. Here is what Anne Tarpey, the Amazon Trademark Agent, said:

“Thank you for your e-mail. The Kindle title, “DUILLEOG: Druids Novel” ASIN: B01N9CSV4N was removed from sale on Amazon.com. Our North American sales records do not reflect any sales of this item while it was active. The appropriate group is currently investigating this publisher. For privacy reasons, the results of their investigations cannot be disclosed, but be assured they will take any disciplinary actions they find appropriate.”

UPDATE #1: The offending novel has been taken down from Amazon. This happened yesterday, December 10, 2016, sometime in the afternoon. Still no word from Amazon.

Yesterday I was working on the details of my new release for Leaf and Branch. As I am wont to do, I went to Amazon and typed in my first novel title. This lets me quickly get to my author bio and copy it. When I typed in my novel and hit enter I found myself looking at another novel with a very similar title: Duilleog: Druids Novel. My alarm bells went off.

I clicked the book and found myself looking at a very badly done cover and the name of an author called “Park Michael”. I clicked the novel to look inside and noticed, one, the copyright detail was not there, two, it was a complete cut and paste from my novel, Duilleog, A New Druids Novel, Volume 1. This asshat had blatantly stolen my novel and was selling it on Amazon. I want to be clear here: it is a COMPLETE copy of my novel. Word for word.

I have sent a copyright infringement notice to Amazon and I am STILL waiting on word back. It’s been over 24 hours now. Meanwhile, needing a shoulder to lament on, I went over to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Author group on Facebook and told them – and my personal Facebook page. Their support and the support of my friends has been nothing short of spectacular. Moral support. Sympathy. Everything I could need. PLUS, they have flooded the pirated novel with one-star reviews and warned the world it was a plagiarised novel. My faith in humanity restored. They have all levelled up, IMHO.

Meanwhile, this pirate is selling my novel. Amazon needs to be more responsive. This is without a doubt a blatant theft. I fail to understand how Amazon could allow the publishing of something so clearly plagiarised. In Staff College, I had to submit my essays through Turnitin. Surely to Gaea, Amazon could run submissions through something similar. It’s not hard. The novel was at least two years of my life if not more. Hard work, sweat, tears, frustration, joy, and everything in between – only for someone to scan it, post it, and sell it as if it was their own. It’s criminal.

I’ll update when I have more news.

Are the major publishing houses dying a slow painful death? The following is an outstanding article written on the blog site of one of my favourite authors, Hugh C. Howey. He wrote an amazing series of novels of a dystopian world that I highly recommend. Here is the link to the first in the Silo series: Wool.

Why is he one of my favourites? It’s because he started as a self-publishing author and put a short story up for sale on Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. It became the Wool Omnibus and led to his other great novels. So for me, as a self-published author, he is someone to be admired. He wrote the article below on his blog site and I hope it’s okay to publish this on my own blog. I’m going to contact him and let him know. He might get mad at me. Hope not.

Anyway, I digress. The traditional publishing community is in a very real danger of collapsing down to something unrecognisable from today. Have a read and comment on what you think. I also encourage you to check out Hugh’s blog – it’s fun: http://www.hughhowey.com/blog/

A Peek Behind the Curtain

Category: Self-Publishing

Piracy and Copyright Infringement

The Death of Major Publishing Houses?