Writer’s Tips – Plagiarization, Signing Contracts, and Book Covers
For this week’s edition of Writer’s Tips, I found some helpful and informative articles around the web on how to deter copyright thieves from our writing, caveats when signing contracts, and a wonderful article from Andrew Joyce, guest writing at The Story Reading Ape’s blog on why it’s important to have a great book cover.
The ‘cut and paste’ thief and what to do if you find your work being plagiarized
https://bloodredpencil.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-cut-and-paste-thief-and-what-to-do.html
Another informative post from Hugh Roberts – How to discover if your work is being plagiarized and how to go about rectifying
How To Help Stop Somebody Stealing Your Blog Posts
Great info from Alex at Standout Books on learning your rights when it comes to signing contracts.
By now I’m sure most of you know how important a book cover is for selling books. I’d say that the three most important things in getting someone to plunk down cold hard cash for one of your books are: 1) word of mouth, 2) your book cover, and 3) your blurb. However, you’re not going to get any word of mouth unless you first sell a few books, and to do that you’ll need to have a dynamite and unique cover … and a great blurb. But the cover has to come first. .
Book Covers – Guest Post by, Andrew Joyce…
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D.G. Kaye is a nonfiction/memoir writer, who writes from her own life experiences and self-medicates with a daily dose of humor.
32 Comments
Dorinda Duclos
All great tips that everyone who writes should read!! Thanks, Debby! <3
dgkaye
Thanks Dorinda. Absolutely! <3
Marian Beaman
I don’t know where you find all this good info, but you aim to “save our hides”! Shame on these plagiarists and other thieves. Yay, to you, Debby!
dgkaye
Thanks Marian. I read a lot of newsletters daily. I take what I think would be relevant for my writing friends and keep in a folder for the next writing tip post. 🙂
Hugh Roberts
Thanks so much for including a link to my recent post about how to help stop someone stealing your blog posts, Debby. Having had it happen to me three times (and I was somebody who thought it would never happen to me), although having copyright notices will not stop every thief, it will stop some.
I’m pleased to say that I have been successful in all three cases where I’ve had my stolen work being removed from the offender’s blog. In one case, the offender’s blog was removed entirely. I must thank WordPress for having such an excellent process in place that helped me reclaim work that was mine.
dgkaye
Thanks so much for sharing your success with WP Hugh. That is important to know for all of us. <3
Natalie Ducey
Another awesome share, Debby. Thank you! 🙂
dgkaye
Thanks Natalie, Glad you appreciate. 😉 x
Balroop Singh
WordPress provides great support in keeping the stealers and spam droppers ay bay. One such thief deleted the post that was stolen from my blog when I warned, pleading innocence about copyright notice.
Thanks for posting these meaningful shares Deb.
dgkaye
Thanks for sharing your experience Balroop. May I ask how you found out someone copied your post?
Christoph Fischer
Thanks for plagiarizing ehm sharing those great resources 😉
dgkaye
Lol, I sure hope I’m not plagiarizing by sharing. 🙂 And you’re welcome <3
Diana Peach
It amazes me how much plagiarism and theft there is of written material. People can be really unkind, greedy, and disrespectful. Combatting it can be a full-time job! Thanks for the great links, Debby. 🙂
dgkaye
Absolutely Diana. It is a full-time job for sure! 🙁 x
Stevie Turner
Thanks for these tips, Debby. I suppose I’m lucky in that I haven’t had my work plagiarised (that I know of anyway) as of yet. Do you still belong to the ‘Blasty’ site?
dgkaye
How do we know this for sure? It’s a big wide web. If our books are stolen why wouldn’t our content be? Remember how many books we found stolen with Blasty? I had resigned on for another year and was still getting a ton of blasts. It just ran out and I’m not renewing again. Cyber crimes run amok with stolen content. 🙁
John Maberry
You keep finding the good ones, DG! If I ever get rolling again this year, I have a cover design I need to redo for that first short story collection. My DIY honestly speaking does suck–price was right though. In other words, you get what you pay for. LOL.
dgkaye
Exactly! Live and learn. 🙂
Olga Núñez Miret
Thanks for sharing those great resources, Debby!
dgkaye
Most welcome Olga. 🙂 x
Norah Colvin
You’ve curated a great collection of helpful advice, Debby. Thank you.
dgkaye
Thank Norah. My pleasure to share. <3
Hilary
Hi Debby – when things go wrong .. they can be a right pain to sort out and get back … I’ve seen it happen to a few – so unfair. Thanks for the tips etc … always useful to know about … cheers Hilary
dgkaye
Thanks Hilary. It’s amazing we struggle to sell our books among millions of others, yet, no problem for people wanting to steal our work. 🙁
Jacqui Murray
Good links. This is a bigger and bigger problem. I’m still trying to get my head around it.
dgkaye
Me too Jacqui! Thanks 🙂
Sue Dreamwalker
Many thanks Debby for sharing these links.. 🙂 An important issue for many.. <3
dgkaye
Absolutely Sue, it’s not just for books but blogs too 🙂 xx
Kate Johnston
It’s good to know we have ways to combat plagiarists and thieves, but what tiresome work it is. Thank you so much for scouting the net for these valuable tips! The book cover article I’ll be reading closely–I can’t always rely on DIYs in Canva. 😉
dgkaye
So glad you found these useful Kate. I read many newsletters and save the ones to curate for a post that I know will be helpful to other writers. 🙂
Liesbet
Thanks for sharing another list of great info and resources, Debby!!
dgkaye
My pleasure Liesbet. I hope you found something that resonates. 🙂