Idea Theft!!

What do you do when you think someone has stolen your story ideas? After all, there is a saying that there are only six basic story ideas in the world; so did our own ideas come from one of them? Of course they did.

However, if you write a story from an idea that just seemed to pop into you head, then some time later (and I stress the 'sometime later' point here) find someone has used that idea to create another story somewhat different but still the same basic plot and ending, should it make you mad? Damn right, it should!

Then when you find that same person has used another of your ideas, well, it's downright cheeky in my opinion. People who steal story idea just go to prove they have no imagination. So it begs the question; are all their stories unoriginal? I think it does, there is an old saying 'monkey see, monkey do' and people without original thoughts or idea will always jump on a good one; if they think they can make a buck or two out of them.

Read this excerpt from a news article by Associated Press:

LOS ANGELES — “Pirates of the Caribbean.” “The Matrix.” “The Last Samurai.” “Broken Flowers.” “Amistad.”

Success isn’t all these films have in common. Each was also challenged by a lawsuit claiming “idea theft” — a common Hollywood problem that lawyers say is likely to continue as long as huge movie studios wield enormous power.

But why would movie studios, with every resource at their disposal, steal stories? Are these writers just cranks, frustrated wannabes with delusions of creativity?

No, says attorney John Marder, who specializes in representing aggrieved writers. Many are victims of a system that favors studios and networks and offers little protection for writers and ideas.

“It’s a small group of people that have all the juice, and if you’re not in that crowd, you’re really at their mercy,” he says. “There’s a real lack of moral compass on the issue in Hollywood. And there’s an ego-driven arrogance about it, like how dare you challenge this producer, this director, this studio? They’ll spend $10 million fighting a case where the demand is $100,000.”
 

So, lets go back to the original question. What do you do? Well, unfortunately you can do nothing unless the story is a direct rip-off. By that, I mean, it would be plagiarism if it were your story with just minor changes. If it's just the plot idea; however close to your plot, there is no legal redress.

Nevertheless, you can make a noise. Shout about it from the rooftops, write about it on your blog, and post in writers forums. Just be sure to mention no names or the story in question because you might find yourself on the wrong end of a lawsuit.

Carol x

What the Kindle Forums are saying about us Indies

While checking my offerings on Amazon I had a wander through the Kindle forums. This is my take on what they had to say about us Indi authors.

The number one complaint seems to be about typos.

It's one of my pet hates too, if you can't afford an editor make sure you turn on the inbuilt spell & grammar checker in your word processing package. Yes, I know this is basic but it's surprising how many don't activate the grammar check. Trust me it does work, and if you get funny squiggly lines under the word or sentence it's because you've done something wrong. Don't just ignore it, keep working at it until you lose the squiggle I promise it will make the sentence sound better. Eventually.

If you're still not sure it's spelt right or looks odd, use the thesaurus to check for synonyms (alternative words), you'd be amazed how many times I've done that and found I was using the wrong spelling of a word to describe something. Oh, and watch for missing words, this usually happens when you're editing for the nth time, 'can't see the woods for the trees' syndrome. Don't give the Kindle trolls grist for their mill,

The second complaint was about homophones.

Now, I must confess I had no idea what a homophone was but I do now, it’s just a technical term for something I’ve always known, and I have to admit they have driven me mad when I see them in a book. For those like myself who have lived most of their life in ignorance of the technical term homophone, they are words that sound the same but are spelt differently and have different meanings IE: there/their, your/you're, hair/hare, break/brake, flower/flour, night/knight, affect/effect.

The list is long so if you don't know the correct spelling for the sentence you are writing, look up homophones on line, there are plenty of sites 'spelling 'it out. Don't get too down about this I've read books by famous authors with incorrect or missing words. However, because we are self published we need to think like the women pioneers in a male dominated job, we need to be better than the established authors to rise to the top.

Number three was dubious reviews.

It seems they don't like it if we get too many 5 star reviews because they think we get our friends and family to use reviews as propaganda to improve our sales. Well, as we know, friends and family will always give a good review, although my family haven't so far... :( So, what do we do about our love ones?

I suppose we could always be as honest as one author I read, he commented below the review that it was from a friend. His frank disclosure was refreshing so I bought the book. You could always ask some of those loved ones to give 3 & 4 star reviews, though I doubt they'd be able to force their finger down the star list. Maybe I'll try that, if any of my family or friends, ever get round to giving me a review.

Number four was cover art.

Apparently, according to the trolls, too few Indi’s take the time to obtain a good cover for their book. We all know the saying 'don't judge a book by it's cover' but the trolls are turned off by some of our covers. Ok, this again comes down to cost, and not all of us can afford to employ cover artist.

Of course, you might just be capable of doing it yourself, so think about exchanging skills with another writer. Do you need an editor? Offer to do a cover for their book, and they return the favour.

The only other thing I can think of to combat this is, to capture a geek. Awww! come on people, we all know a geek of some sort, ask around and pick the youngest one, they are the most clued in. They often do it free for the kudos. Just promise them a credit in the book, and don't forget to follow through on your promise. Having said all that, I don't judge a book by its cover, I mostly go by the blurb so make sure it's a killer.

So there we have it, the top four complaints from the Kindle Trolls. Check your books my friends and let's make them the best they can be, our reputation depends in it.

Carol x

PS One of my characters has escaped http://tinyurl.com/bojx2zg

Another Indie Author Tip

Because I've been promoting my books like mad lately, I've come across some useful tips for independent author like myself. Now, this one could be very useful indeed. I found it whilst popping into book seller sites to support and tweet for fellow Indie authors. Several authors had free books to download mostly in the US so being from the UK I copied and pasted the title into the UK site. That got me to the book in question right? Wrong, you would be amazed how many writers use the same titles for their books.

I thought I was being clever when I put together a collection of very short stories and called it 'Five Minute Fiction'. I got a big shock when I pasted my book title into the site search and up came about 50 books all with the same name. Of course my book was nowhere the top of the list and there were probably more than the 50 I saw, but I got fed up scrolling through the pages.

So my Indie friends, when you write that next block buster and you just know you have a kick ass title; go put it into the book sellers search box and see how many other clever writers had the same great idea. Then before you publish, go think up another mind blowing title to fit your block buster and put yourself at the top of that list. Oh, and check out your current titles you might just want to change them.

Carol x

A must do list do for authors

A bit cheeky I know but I’ve decided to write a must do list do for Amazon authors on both sides of the pond. If anyone finds I’ve left out something vital post it here:

1)   Make sure you sign up for Amazon membership on both US and UK sites, trust me it’s worth it.

2)   Get an Amazon US authors page from https://authorcentral.amazon.com/ and make sure you put all your books on here. You also need to add a Blog feed, your Twitter link and any video promotions you have, to this page.

 

3)   Do the same thing on Amazon UK https://authorcentral.amazon.co.uk/gp/landing yes you need this because they only link the reviews if you’re a member on both sites.

 

4)   Join Amazon’s affiliate program US  https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/login/login.html and UK  https://affiliate-program.amazon.co.uk/gp/associates/login/login.html trust me you need both.  With these memberships you can earn money on all your book sales. You can also add widgets for linking your books and something they call an aStore in which you can list not only your own books, but those of others and anything else that Amazon sells, to your website, blog and anywhere else you call home.

5)   Remember to tag all your books on both sides of the pond and don't forget to add your name as one of the tags. Now if you're brave enough, you can also sign into your Amazon account in Germany, France, Spain and Italy where you can also tag your books. However, you won't be able to like your own books (you are liking your own books aren't you) unless you have made a purchase in those countries. 

• Ok, now you need to consolidate all your places on the net. It's not easy people; here is a list of other places to consider joining and posting your books:

https://plus.google.com

www.blogger.com 

www.shelfari.com 

www.goodreads.com

https://twitter.com/

https://www.facebook.com/

www.youtube.com

www.authorsden.com

http://digg.com/register

www.stumbleupon.com
www.angiesdiary.com

Did I leave anywhere out? Every time I think I've got it licked, another place needs my attention.

Whew! When you’ve done all that you’ll need a holiday or as my friends over the pond say a vacation. 

Carol x 

Tags & Likes are they vital?

Yes, for a struggling indie author tags and likes are vital, they help us stand out from the crowd, get us noticed, especially on Amazon. We even  get stumbled across sometimes due to those clever little tags. I've just been wandering round some other blogs, and stumbled upon something else that I think is useful to all of us indie writers. One writer I viewed had their name in the tags on their books, now I might be a bit thick here but, why on earth didn't it occur to me to do this? Not only does it guide readers to you it also shows said readers what else you have up there. Put your own name in your book tags folks and if you haven't yet added tags to your books then tut tut tut do it now.

Now, I have to admit it took me a while to realise tags were useful and it's nice if people click on the 'Agree with these tags' spot at the bottom of the book page and even create their own. You never know, they might even click on my name now, to see what else I've written.






Because I've been banging my head against a brick wall trying to get readers to hit the like button when they download my books. I thought I'd show them where to find it, just in case they don't know. This is what it looks like:

 Carol x

Another Freebie

For all my friends and anyone else who downloaded my free book Five Minute Fiction; I’ve decided to do another special promotion. My children’s book A Titus Adventure will be free to download from Amazon for 2 days starting tomorrow 7^th of March.  If you don’t have a Kindle you can download an app for your PC.  

Here are the links, and if you do download; please take the time to hit the like button and maybe leave a comment if you have a moment.

A Titus Adventure US

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006H3JK32

A Titus Adventure UK

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B006H3JK32

Enjoy.

Carol x