I was done for the day. Really. Aside from a few interruptions of posting at the comments forums of other blogs and the Message Board of my most-accessible favourite author, I got a lot of work done. Things happened. I had a full day of being able to type and I took advantage of it for the better of my characters. Then I was done.
And I settled down to take a break by reading the Book Review section of the latest EW.
And then I got so boiling-over mad I raced back down the stairs to my lair and here we are. Angry typing.
A Published Book Should Be Something You Write
I’m a writer. It’s deceptively difficult. What I mean to say is that people think writing fiction is easy but it really isn’t. It takes work and time and a sort of emotional investment that can be exhausting. No, it’s not as bad as building a railroad. I’m not that arrogant. But it takes a lot.
Few things strike a raw nerve in me more than seeing Lazy Books published. NOTHING makes me angrier than THIS.
This woman is having a major publishing success–a half-page interview in EW for a first time author is serious gold–and talking about writing her book.
She is a blogger. This “book” she has “written” consists of cherry-picking the best comments from her blog. Except it isn’t even a blog anymore. It’s worse. It’s one of those crappy forum things where people can go and tell their stories.
Her “writing” of her “book” is nothing more than getting other people to take their time, effort and experience, post it to her site and then she chooses it for her “book”. It’s lazy writing. Hell’s Hindparts, it’s not even WRITING. It’s theft of intellectual property.
This is what I hate about the internet and about some mommy bloggers and Facebook and any other place that wants to make a buck off other people by stealing their ideas. I’m so glad that J.K. Rowling won her case. Because that web site she won against was one of my first forays into having someone try to steal contributers’ material and repackage it as his own work. I know a lot of people who wrote essays for the guy’s website. Essays he now claims to hold exclusive publishing rights on.
So I guess I have two things to say:
If you are a blogger, don’t pimp your commenters for your book deal
You suck. If you do this you suck. There is no middle ground. You just plain suck.
If you are a blogger–or a commenter–do not put your writings anywhere that the site owner claims ownership over your work.
This is why I don’t put Notes on Facebook. It’s why I don’t participate on some forums and it’s why I don’t write for any of those “get paid to blog for us!” sites. They ALL claim property rights over your work. And maybe you don’t care that someone else owns your idea or your story or the way you tell your ideas and stories. But since that’s all I’ve got in this world, I DO care.
“Book” my ass. Write your own story, lady.
I see what you’re saying is true, but I cannot believe it. Did the people who commented on her site know they were being… um… cultivated for content? And were they willing participants? That just strikes me as so highly unlikely. So, you just get to steal from your commenters in order to get paid? That’s unbelievable.
Preach it, sister.
It’s the literary equivalent of “sampling” without paying the original artist.
FYI – the company I write for has a very fair intellectual rights policy. Really no different than if I were writing for a magazine.
[...] you can imagine that I about fell over when I read this at Coble’s yesterday. But I went to the website and I read through their fine print and lo and behold: All content [...]
[...] Kat Coble breaks down the situation. Few things strike a raw nerve in me more than seeing Lazy Books published. NOTHING makes me angrier than THIS. [...]
Sounds like the comic book world in a way. How much money do you think the guy who created Wolverine is getting right now from the movie?
True enough, but at least he knew up front he was a work-for-hire. I’m sure few commenters are aware that they’re a strange subset of work-for-hire–work-for-free.
I like to watch myself dance in the reflection from my toaster.
Thats about the average comment from what I saw on that site. This kind of content needs protection?
How is this different from “America’s Funniest Videos”?
They aren’t stealing anyone’s “work.”
Or, am I missing something? I just don’t see the theft, especially if you offered a legal disclaimer.
How is this different from “America’s Funniest Videos”?
Well, the people who send their videos in to AFV know that those videos may be broadcast for the broadcaster’s profit. They want that to happen; that’s why they send the videos in. This doesn’t seem to be the case with the site Kat mentions, which presented itself as a place for discussion except in the fine print.
Thats about the average comment from what I saw on that site. This kind of content needs protection?
“All I took was a candy bar. That’s not like I robbed a bank or something.”
“She was a hooker. Rape doesn’t count.”