I highly recommend not only registering your copyright, but saving a backup copy after each writing session. You'll have double legal protection: recognition of your work's originality by a federal agency, and a plethora of data as proof of your evolving manuscript. No book pirate will have that.
Also, make notes throughout the process, gather resources, references, because that also shows the process of your writing - the thief will defo have non of that. I keep photos of places, people I based my characters off of, music pieces that I mention within my book - anything that helped me write the book.
I've written since childhood. I don't recall a time I didn't write. In school, a teacher stole and published 2 of my poems. Who is going to believe the child wrote it? I've continued to write, but I've feared sharing anything since then. Decades later. Theft of a television is painful when they've violated your home space. Theft of thoughts and time, your creativity, I can't put into words. Thank you for your channel
My professor stole my idea for dissertation and presented it as one of the topics to choose from AFTER she convinced me not to dabble in it... Yeah... Theft of intellectual work hits more because it is unique to you.. You can buy exact same TV but it's almost impossible to recreate the story 1:1.
Ive already had this happen with an unfinished (just a few chapters) part of a series I'd sent to someone who swore they’d read over it and give me tips. She was already published. She blocked me immediately and sent it to someone (who luckily already knew me and has seen the work just a month earlier), claiming it was hers. So she got busted big time. It was a mess. Im terrified to send stuff out now.
Okay, so I went to a writing workshop years ago. Several people liked my stories. I had a story cycled worked out about an imaginary East-Central European country. I showed my world-building notes to my classmates. Then a year later, one of these people writes to me and tells me that they had a great idea. They were going to write a series of stories set in an imaginary East-Central European country with a different name. I felt ripped off and betrayed. I eventually wrote stories about "my" country, but only after ten years had passed, and it never felt the same. I don't think the other writer ever wrote those stories. I think it was just her way of sabotaging me.
That is plausible. It really might not have been intentional. They remembered the story but dissociated it from you - common thing, unfortunately, and they internalised the idea. Happens a lot, do not be discouraged by that. And write the book about that country.
Thank You. Here's a story of maliciousness. Not so much piracy but jealousy. * Trusting my roommates, I left my unguarded sd card in my chromebook in my bedroom. After visiting a friend I returned home only to find my sd card 1/2 in 1/2 out. I also learned my roommate had a known thrifty fingered techno versed friend over for a smokin' party time. Not wanting to profit from my book, but to laugh and make fun of my book she scattered my drafts all over the internet. Ha! Ha! Get a load of this! Ha! Ha! Let's embarass him! Let's poke fun! (Very intelligent. Not, very wise. Very immature. Childish.) However, it taught me a lesson. When I write to the best of my knowledge, I write offline. Where I go? My novel goes to. Never again will I trust my laptop alone on my bedroom desk. Shame things have to be that way but? Hey? What do they say? If it's not glued, nailed, bolted, or screwed down? It's fair game. ps: Thank You for the link. 👍💥
I can relate a little. I printed out a couple chapters of my ya novel in 2015 and my stepmother just TOOK them, all the pages, off my bed without my permission and at first wouldn't give them back. She wanted to make fun of me too. 😢
@@michaelsamerdyke108 sadly, doing nasty spiteful things was definitely up her alley. I've honestly never understood why she was so mean towards my passion, which was writing. She wasn't a writer or a reader herself, but she had her own talent, a beautiful singing voice, so I found it hard to get why she'd actively resent what was mine.
I have a bad habit of never suscribing/liking, but this channel is really helping me break that habit. Your content is so consistently thoughtful, valuable, and well-crafted, I really appreciate you and everything you're doing on youtube
It has been a growing concern to both my family and me that this story, this "tome" I have created, would be eventually pilfered from me somehow since people basically suck. It's too much to think about regarding the loss, but knowing there are at least a few ways to protect intellectual property is comforting. Having said that, Amazon appears to be partly to blame. In my opinion, I think the other word to remember here is "lawsuit". It should be mentioned by the Writers Guild frequently to Amazon, especially regarding the asshole who stole that book and still has the option to post anything, much less the brandjacking d--bag who needs more than a little stern talking to. Thanks for the lesson and for the upsides. Good points across the board.
Can't thank you enough for this video! I have been really hesitant about sending my work out to people I don't know, yet eager for the honesty of people not worried about hurting your feelings. Thanks for getting the word out there about this topic.
I'm more concerned about the liklihood of a big corporation taking full control over something that I made (ie what marvel and dc did to its creators) than I am of pirates, since piracy can be good for ensuring that my work is never forgotten through archiving and can be accessed to people all around the world to bypass economic restrictions or book bannings.
Also sometimes if you publish with your legal name you might want to Amazon your name first I only found out after publishing that someone with my same legal name but they were a doctor, published research about children with autism. I took my book down for that and other reasons and have chosen a pen name to write under going forward.
Thank you for this timely and concise presentation. I've heard this issue discussed before, but these concrete examples are really helpful, rather than 'tall tales of horror' from someone somebody knows. Really enjoying your content.
Sounds like a lot of these issues could be sorted out if Amazon would respond to them as if money is being taken out of their pocket which since they take the lion's share of the profits, it is. I'll never understand that.
Well, but it's not stealing from Amazon. Amazon still gets their cut whether it's a fradulent book or not. So they don't really have a motivation to stop it.
I do beta reading for fantasy novels, and I'll save people time by pointing out common flaws. 1. Formatting - If you submit the book, please make sure that it's formatted correctly as it could cause blank spaces and empty lines. The odd gaps look unprofessional and puts off the reader. Most books also contain a few spelling mistakes which is understandable given the number of words. 2. Tense - Keep the tense consistent throughout the novel. For example, 1st person or 3rd person. There is a difference between third person limited and third person omnipresent. There is also past and present tense. 3. Perspective - Related to the tense, but it can disrupt the flow and become confusing if you change perspective from different characters. If you are writing through the eyes of a character, then remember the experience is based on their feelings and sense of the world. I feel like those three are the most major concerns. In my personal opinion, I find stories easier to follow if they stay consistent to their theme or setting (I've had stories that change from a medieval magical fantasy to space adventure). I find it confusing when introduced by too many characters at the start. It sometimes feels that character arcs are rushed without adversity providing an opportunity to adapt or time for reflection (I've seen a meek scared little girl become an almighty god within a single chapter). I've been impressed by female authors and their ability to show themes of family and emotional support. In general, there has always been something an author has done that is different and interesting. Perhaps some more time could be spent going over the novel after the first draft for editing and structure. However, congratulations to everyone that has complete their novel. It usually takes me about a month to write a review for a book. Sometimes I have to put the book down multiple times, but I've put Brandon Sanderson's books down a few times before as well. I feel a critique about early chapters and pacing can be justified, though it's fair to read the entire book before writing a review. If anyone wants to contact me for a beta read, I have my email listed on my profile page. I am specifically interested in medieval fantasy right now.
@@Bookfox thankyou for responding! Yes, transfering money just isn't an option (I'm from Iran) for that reason I thought to myself I should give up on self publishing and go for Trad publishing, recently a friend told me Agents probably won't accept you because of this exact issue, and I was wondering how should a person like me in this situation approach the publishing.
@@aouyiu Because it's my book and I have the right to choose who gives it for free. It can ban my book from specific sites. If I ever decide to sell it, some markets are banned because of the theft. They didn't ask, and I also don't want readers to get a virus and think I sanctioned it. The reason I offered the book was to give free ebooks to readers who couldn't afford books but weren't willing to pirate them. It took me a while to get the books pulled.
People don't steal novels. It's way too much effort. The only people afraid of this are people who never finish books and therefore feel as though their half-assed ideas are equivalent
In general, this is true. I almost didn't make this video because I didn't want to be seen as fear-mongering. And most of the time I'm telling people that they should worry less about their novel being stolen and more about making the best novel they can. Still, I hope by telling actual stories of where it happened, the video was less sensationalist and more practical.
😳Goodness you need to venture into more of the writing community if you think stories aren’t stolen. Hopefully intellectual property theft never happens to you, but it happens enough to be a concern. And that’s not even adding the theft of written works being input into datasets to feed AI Generators = stealing written works. Stealing usually doesn’t make sense, just like scamming doesn’t. It is a lot of effort, usually more complicated than if the thief/scammer just did the actual work. However, that unfortunately does not deter those people, especially if they can garner money from it. In the case of writing, stealing it likely will involve less time and effort than actually writing the book; depending on the method of theft. People have had their work stolen from scams, hacking, and whatnot. Just last year there was someone taking portions of published books and piecing them together and selling them on Amazon; trying to avoid being noticed for copyright infringement. I’ve had articles stolen. Twice was by a magazine editor who accepted my submissions of the article/story and photos. He didn’t pay me nor give due credit, but gave my work to a staffer who then changed enough words to not be verbatim but had a similar line of story and took photos himself to imitate mine. Thus difficult to fight if I’d have had the means to do so, but a clear case of theft considering the personal aspects of the story were unique to me. I think he eventually got a rep for doing this. As a coloring book artist I have experienced theft and seen more in my friends books. There are people who copy text and illustrations from either an artist’s site or book and try to publish under their own name. Most even have the artist’s name and the copyright logo on the page from the artist’s site; which is good because then it’s easy evidence of theft. A different circumstance, but to what has happened with written works. There are dozens if not hundreds of websites out there which are like Wattpad and Vella. Many feature AI generated stories and stolen stories. They’re hard to catch because if an author nor their readers venture to those sites how would they find them? Many of these have a pay-per-chapter requirement after so long. Sometimes they change the names of characters. Usually they’re uploaded under a username with little info. Sometimes they brave trying to publish on Amazon. Many time those stories then get copied and published elsewhere for free, but the sites they’re published on are full of shady ads, viruses, and phishing. As with anything, there’s some nasty people out there doing harmful things. Thankfully the majority of folks are not like this, but shtuff does indeed happen. It was a good video to make; especially about officially registering a copyright as so many do not understand that concept and that mailing yourself a copy is less likely to help in a court of law.
@@Bookfox Yes you did a good job. You gave specific examples and practical ways to safeguard. AND you ended the video basically saying what this comment is getting at: Stop coming up with excuses, write your book, and get people to read it.
Amazon be like when you are not selling on their site, making them $0 but someone impersonates you and sells books under your name and they make money off of that: "Well, do you have a tRAdE mARk on your name?!?"
I liked that last point you made, but I feel like there is also another layer to it, like if a book isn't available in someone's country then I see piracy as justifiable or even if someone is just plain poor, although I find that most poor people actually have pretty good morals
If a book isn't available in your country you can use a VPN to legitimately buy it from a country where it is available. Not necessarily legal but at least the purchase is legitimate. Don't see how piracy would help anyone.
Problem is when a major player has deep pockets and can easily swat off a lawsuit. I was displaying my novel at Comic Cons and a movie came out that incorporated many major elements of my novel. Being registered with the government didn’t prevent the problem.
Well, you can't copyright ideas or plot points. Only the actual words you used to express those ideas. The best defense is publicity, so your story is known before anyone else seizes it.
I highly recommend not only registering your copyright, but saving a backup copy after each writing session. You'll have double legal protection: recognition of your work's originality by a federal agency, and a plethora of data as proof of your evolving manuscript. No book pirate will have that.
That last one would be easy for me and my gazillion drafts & edits...
That reminds me, I need to start over AGAIN, doh!
Also, make notes throughout the process, gather resources, references, because that also shows the process of your writing - the thief will defo have non of that. I keep photos of places, people I based my characters off of, music pieces that I mention within my book - anything that helped me write the book.
@@marikothecheetah9342 Great strategy!
@@MrNoucfeanor I hate when that happens. 😂
@@5Gburn One nice thing about starting over is that I have other stories that I can work in as future books!
I really do need to finish, though.
“Obscurity is always a greater danger than piracy.” Amen, brother!
I've written since childhood. I don't recall a time I didn't write. In school, a teacher stole and published 2 of my poems. Who is going to believe the child wrote it? I've continued to write, but I've feared sharing anything since then. Decades later. Theft of a television is painful when they've violated your home space. Theft of thoughts and time, your creativity, I can't put into words. Thank you for your channel
That movie "The Kindergarten Teacher" is about exactly that.
My professor stole my idea for dissertation and presented it as one of the topics to choose from AFTER she convinced me not to dabble in it... Yeah...
Theft of intellectual work hits more because it is unique to you.. You can buy exact same TV but it's almost impossible to recreate the story 1:1.
Ive already had this happen with an unfinished (just a few chapters) part of a series I'd sent to someone who swore they’d read over it and give me tips. She was already published. She blocked me immediately and sent it to someone (who luckily already knew me and has seen the work just a month earlier), claiming it was hers. So she got busted big time. It was a mess. Im terrified to send stuff out now.
Okay, so I went to a writing workshop years ago. Several people liked my stories. I had a story cycled worked out about an imaginary East-Central European country. I showed my world-building notes to my classmates.
Then a year later, one of these people writes to me and tells me that they had a great idea. They were going to write a series of stories set in an imaginary East-Central European country with a different name.
I felt ripped off and betrayed. I eventually wrote stories about "my" country, but only after ten years had passed, and it never felt the same.
I don't think the other writer ever wrote those stories. I think it was just her way of sabotaging me.
That is plausible. It really might not have been intentional. They remembered the story but dissociated it from you - common thing, unfortunately, and they internalised the idea. Happens a lot, do not be discouraged by that. And write the book about that country.
My car entertainment just in time. Your content is skyrocketing in value and quality.
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it.
Thank You. Here's a story of maliciousness. Not so much piracy but jealousy. * Trusting my roommates, I left my unguarded sd card in my chromebook in my bedroom. After visiting a friend I returned home only to find my sd card 1/2 in 1/2 out. I also learned my roommate had a known thrifty fingered techno versed friend over for a smokin' party time. Not wanting to profit from my book, but to laugh and make fun of my book she scattered my drafts all over the internet. Ha! Ha! Get a load of this! Ha! Ha! Let's embarass him! Let's poke fun! (Very intelligent. Not, very wise. Very immature. Childish.) However, it taught me a lesson. When I write to the best of my knowledge, I write offline. Where I go? My novel goes to. Never again will I trust my laptop alone on my bedroom desk. Shame things have to be that way but? Hey? What do they say? If it's not glued, nailed, bolted, or screwed down? It's fair game. ps: Thank You for the link.
👍💥
Wow, what a horrible experience.
I can relate a little. I printed out a couple chapters of my ya novel in 2015 and my stepmother just TOOK them, all the pages, off my bed without my permission and at first wouldn't give them back. She wanted to make fun of me too. 😢
@@lovetolovefairytales Wow. What a nasty thing to do.
@@michaelsamerdyke108 sadly, doing nasty spiteful things was definitely up her alley. I've honestly never understood why she was so mean towards my passion, which was writing. She wasn't a writer or a reader herself, but she had her own talent, a beautiful singing voice, so I found it hard to get why she'd actively resent what was mine.
excellent points I am new to thinking about getting my work published this is one of my concerns about sending it out to people i don't know
I have a bad habit of never suscribing/liking, but this channel is really helping me break that habit. Your content is so consistently thoughtful, valuable, and well-crafted, I really appreciate you and everything you're doing on youtube
Welcome aboard! I'm so glad to break that habit. Come into the Bookfoxer fold, it's warm in here and we love writing and books.
It has been a growing concern to both my family and me that this story, this "tome" I have created, would be eventually pilfered from me somehow since people basically suck. It's too much to think about regarding the loss, but knowing there are at least a few ways to protect intellectual property is comforting. Having said that, Amazon appears to be partly to blame. In my opinion, I think the other word to remember here is "lawsuit". It should be mentioned by the Writers Guild frequently to Amazon, especially regarding the asshole who stole that book and still has the option to post anything, much less the brandjacking d--bag who needs more than a little stern talking to.
Thanks for the lesson and for the upsides. Good points across the board.
Isn't identity theft a crime? If yes - police to get the info of this mothafkrrr IP and a lawsuit in hand.
Can't thank you enough for this video!
I have been really hesitant about sending my work out to people I don't know, yet eager for the honesty of people not worried about hurting your feelings. Thanks for getting the word out there about this topic.
I'm more concerned about the liklihood of a big corporation taking full control over something that I made (ie what marvel and dc did to its creators) than I am of pirates, since piracy can be good for ensuring that my work is never forgotten through archiving and can be accessed to people all around the world to bypass economic restrictions or book bannings.
Every new fact I learn about amazon makes me hate it even more!
Amazon cares about profits, not people and yet people fuel it like crazy and buy stuff from it every single day.:/ Because convenience.
Also sometimes if you publish with your legal name you might want to Amazon your name first I only found out after publishing that someone with my same legal name but they were a doctor, published research about children with autism. I took my book down for that and other reasons and have chosen a pen name to write under going forward.
Thank you for this timely and concise presentation. I've heard this issue discussed before, but these concrete examples are really helpful, rather than 'tall tales of horror' from someone somebody knows. Really enjoying your content.
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you as someone that has struggled worrying about this, it is a life saver to have your advice thank you.
Excellent video and straight to the point. Also love how you end your videos without any additional stuff.
Now pirates can use AI to alter your texts, so it doesn't look exactly like a copy.
Love this content, and your presentation makes it easy to understand. Thank you!
Happy to hear that!
A lesson I learned from this story is that Amazon is fucking unreliable
That is absolutely true.
It is worth having an agent and have them promote your book to editors and publishers.
Sounds like a lot of these issues could be sorted out if Amazon would respond to them as if money is being taken out of their pocket which since they take the lion's share of the profits, it is. I'll never understand that.
Well, but it's not stealing from Amazon. Amazon still gets their cut whether it's a fradulent book or not. So they don't really have a motivation to stop it.
This is a scary video. It needed to be said, though. Good job 👍
I appreciate that!
I do beta reading for fantasy novels, and I'll save people time by pointing out common flaws.
1. Formatting - If you submit the book, please make sure that it's formatted correctly as it could cause blank spaces and empty lines. The odd gaps look unprofessional and puts off the reader. Most books also contain a few spelling mistakes which is understandable given the number of words.
2. Tense - Keep the tense consistent throughout the novel. For example, 1st person or 3rd person. There is a difference between third person limited and third person omnipresent. There is also past and present tense.
3. Perspective - Related to the tense, but it can disrupt the flow and become confusing if you change perspective from different characters. If you are writing through the eyes of a character, then remember the experience is based on their feelings and sense of the world.
I feel like those three are the most major concerns. In my personal opinion, I find stories easier to follow if they stay consistent to their theme or setting (I've had stories that change from a medieval magical fantasy to space adventure). I find it confusing when introduced by too many characters at the start. It sometimes feels that character arcs are rushed without adversity providing an opportunity to adapt or time for reflection (I've seen a meek scared little girl become an almighty god within a single chapter).
I've been impressed by female authors and their ability to show themes of family and emotional support. In general, there has always been something an author has done that is different and interesting. Perhaps some more time could be spent going over the novel after the first draft for editing and structure. However, congratulations to everyone that has complete their novel.
It usually takes me about a month to write a review for a book. Sometimes I have to put the book down multiple times, but I've put Brandon Sanderson's books down a few times before as well. I feel a critique about early chapters and pacing can be justified, though it's fair to read the entire book before writing a review.
If anyone wants to contact me for a beta read, I have my email listed on my profile page. I am specifically interested in medieval fantasy right now.
Your friend should have told Amazon that they used her copyrighted image for their profile picture and they should have at least removed it.
A Big fan of your channel here, can you make a video about writing and publishing a book from a county crippled by sanctions? The laws and stuff.
Thanks for the kind words! So you're wondering about how to publish your book internationally? And Amazon won't let you because of sanctions?
@@Bookfox thankyou for responding!
Yes, transfering money just isn't an option (I'm from Iran) for that reason I thought to myself I should give up on self publishing and go for Trad publishing, recently a friend told me Agents probably won't accept you because of this exact issue, and I was wondering how should a person like me in this situation approach the publishing.
Excellent.
Thank you! Cheers!
This is great advice. But sort of a bummer, too, as now I am looking forward even less to trying to find beta readers.
My free ebooks were pirated. I mean why? When they could it on Kobo for free.
If that's the case, why does it matter? It's their risk.
@@aouyiu Because it's my book and I have the right to choose who gives it for free. It can ban my book from specific sites. If I ever decide to sell it, some markets are banned because of the theft. They didn't ask, and I also don't want readers to get a virus and think I sanctioned it. The reason I offered the book was to give free ebooks to readers who couldn't afford books but weren't willing to pirate them. It took me a while to get the books pulled.
*promptly starts spelling my name with a trademark next to it. And a $…like Ke$ha* 😂
People don't steal novels. It's way too much effort. The only people afraid of this are people who never finish books and therefore feel as though their half-assed ideas are equivalent
Absolutely. My worries of people stealing my stuff quickly dissapated after I read it two weeks later :)
In general, this is true. I almost didn't make this video because I didn't want to be seen as fear-mongering. And most of the time I'm telling people that they should worry less about their novel being stolen and more about making the best novel they can. Still, I hope by telling actual stories of where it happened, the video was less sensationalist and more practical.
@@Bookfox you go bro! incredible video: distinctive informative succinct amazing!
😳Goodness you need to venture into more of the writing community if you think stories aren’t stolen. Hopefully intellectual property theft never happens to you, but it happens enough to be a concern. And that’s not even adding the theft of written works being input into datasets to feed AI Generators = stealing written works.
Stealing usually doesn’t make sense, just like scamming doesn’t. It is a lot of effort, usually more complicated than if the thief/scammer just did the actual work. However, that unfortunately does not deter those people, especially if they can garner money from it. In the case of writing, stealing it likely will involve less time and effort than actually writing the book; depending on the method of theft.
People have had their work stolen from scams, hacking, and whatnot. Just last year there was someone taking portions of published books and piecing them together and selling them on Amazon; trying to avoid being noticed for copyright infringement.
I’ve had articles stolen. Twice was by a magazine editor who accepted my submissions of the article/story and photos. He didn’t pay me nor give due credit, but gave my work to a staffer who then changed enough words to not be verbatim but had a similar line of story and took photos himself to imitate mine. Thus difficult to fight if I’d have had the means to do so, but a clear case of theft considering the personal aspects of the story were unique to me. I think he eventually got a rep for doing this.
As a coloring book artist I have experienced theft and seen more in my friends books. There are people who copy text and illustrations from either an artist’s site or book and try to publish under their own name. Most even have the artist’s name and the copyright logo on the page from the artist’s site; which is good because then it’s easy evidence of theft. A different circumstance, but to what has happened with written works.
There are dozens if not hundreds of websites out there which are like Wattpad and Vella. Many feature AI generated stories and stolen stories. They’re hard to catch because if an author nor their readers venture to those sites how would they find them? Many of these have a pay-per-chapter requirement after so long. Sometimes they change the names of characters. Usually they’re uploaded under a username with little info. Sometimes they brave trying to publish on Amazon. Many time those stories then get copied and published elsewhere for free, but the sites they’re published on are full of shady ads, viruses, and phishing.
As with anything, there’s some nasty people out there doing harmful things. Thankfully the majority of folks are not like this, but shtuff does indeed happen. It was a good video to make; especially about officially registering a copyright as so many do not understand that concept and that mailing yourself a copy is less likely to help in a court of law.
@@Bookfox Yes you did a good job. You gave specific examples and practical ways to safeguard. AND you ended the video basically saying what this comment is getting at: Stop coming up with excuses, write your book, and get people to read it.
what about those who don't live in US?
You'll have to check the copyright laws in your particularly country. Many are similar, but a few might have crucial differences.
Amazon be like when you are not selling on their site, making them $0 but someone impersonates you and sells books under your name and they make money off of that:
"Well, do you have a tRAdE mARk on your name?!?"
Chat Gpt yeah right
I liked that last point you made, but I feel like there is also another layer to it, like if a book isn't available in someone's country then I see piracy as justifiable or even if someone is just plain poor, although I find that most poor people actually have pretty good morals
...in which case, said poor individuals would not steal someone else's honest hard work. Right?😮
If a book isn't available in your country you can use a VPN to legitimately buy it from a country where it is available. Not necessarily legal but at least the purchase is legitimate. Don't see how piracy would help anyone.
Problem is when a major player has deep pockets and can easily swat off a lawsuit. I was displaying my novel at Comic Cons and a movie came out that incorporated many major elements of my novel. Being registered with the government didn’t prevent the problem.
Well, you can't copyright ideas or plot points. Only the actual words you used to express those ideas.
The best defense is publicity, so your story is known before anyone else seizes it.
Being a copyright zealot will probably lead to some form of creative and professional oppressions like Disney and Nintendo
So basically, the internet was a mistake