January 4, 2015

Update on Plagiarism accusation

If you don’t know what I’m referring to, you can find my other post here.

While I still haven’t heard back from the other author in this matter, there has been some progress made. Only two of the original seven reviews are still up on Amazon, which makes me happy despite the fact that one of those reviews still claims I plagiarized this other author’s books. The good news is that a reader saw a friend of mine tweet about this situation and left her own comments on the two reviews. She has read both books and confirms my side:

 

“For what it’s worth, I’ve read the first book in both series, and there’s no way anyone else who has done so would accuse Ms. Mary of plagiarism. The characters are different, the plots are different, etc. The superficial similarity in the setup–disease causes zombies, people travel across the country to find loved ones–is just that–“superficial”–AND a stock concept in zombie fiction. The execution, though, is entirely different in the book/series in question.”

source

 

I also have a statement from Shandy Jo at Mama Knows books, and she offered to post something on her blog to help verify my side of the story. I declined for the moment, but if the other party doesn’t fulfill the requests I made in my cease and desist letter, I may reconsider.

My book, Mad World, was released yesterday, and at that time the other author and her husband posted the following statement on Facebook.

retractionblacked out

 

While they were careful to word this statement so as not to admit any wrongdoing on their part–and they did not apologize to me for the original accusation–I’m satisfied with the “retraction.” All I want is for people to know I did not steal this other woman’s work. Why they’re still so upset over a title, I just don’t get. If someone accidently buys the wrong book there’s a very easy solution: return it and buy the correct one However, anyone who is paying attention will be able to see the difference in covers and author names. I think we should probably give our readers a little more credit when it comes to intelligence and assume they are going to at least look at the cover of a book before they hit buy.

I’m still waiting for them to sign and return the cease and desist letter I sent, and once they do that I will consider this matter CLOSED. It hasn’t been fun and I have more important things to focus on.

Thanks everyone for all the support through this! It’s actually unbelievable how many authors I barely know or don’t know AT ALL have contacted me to tell me how proud they are of me for handling this situation professionally, and to share their outrage at these ridiculous accusations. The writing community, for the most part is extremely supportive, which is something I don’t think this other author really understands. She sees other writers as her competition, while I see them as a potential team. Word of mouth is the best way to increase sales, and supporting other authors, as well as helping to promote each other’s works, actually works to our benefit.

~Kate L. Mary

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