Last night, I received an email from Amazon letting me know that my just recently released Cynn Cruors novel, Midnight’s Secret: A Prequel cannot be made available because some of the content in my book was found with another publisher.
What. The. Fuck.
I immediately wrote them back with proof that I am the author of Midnight’s Secret – shots of my notebook where I wrote Herod and Arabella’s story in long hand, and the screenshot of my files showing the progression of changes. After this, I just sat staring at my computer starting to feel utterly numb.
I hate it when pirates take authors’ genuine works. I hate it when the work that you have put blood, sweat, and tears into is seen in another published material. You are the copyright holder and you have to provide evidence that you are the author BUT no evidence will be requested from the other party. In Tagalog, there is a saying, Inapi ka na, dehado ka pa. In a nutshell, not only have you been victimized, you also got kicked in the teeth. Or something to that effect.
I am really hoping that Amazon accepts the evidence I have provided.
In the meantime, there are lessons for indie authors here:
Authors, make sure that you have something to show Amazon that you hold the copyright of your work. I know it’s a pain to prove you are you. But identify fraud not only happens in the real word, it does in the digital ones as well.
Authors in the UK need to have safety nets so that they don’t have to go through the anxiety and heartache of others pinching their works. I’m not saying that piracy and even plagiarism will stop. But if we have something to show as proof that we are who we say we are and that the work we have published is truly ours, it will greatly reduce the burden we have to go through now.
Isobelle Cate 