By now, I'm sure most of you are aware of #copypastecris that's been going on in the romance community. In short, "author" Cristiane Serruya has been accused of plagiarizing lines/paragraphs from other published authors. According to bestselling author Nora Roberts, the total count is up to 51 books and 34 authors plagiarized. Serruya at first claimed a ghostwriter was at fault on twitter, but she's since closed virtually all of her social media accounts. In another instance (and I hate that I can't find the article for this), at least one ghostwriter claimed that Serruya fed them lines/phrases to put into the book, but the ghostwriter had no idea they were plagiarized text.
It's been quite the scandal, and it has writers up in arms, and for good reason. No one wants to have their work stolen. Writers spend days, weeks, months, and years perfecting their craft. To see it in someone else's book...I can only imagine how that must feel. I know I'd be enraged and feel betrayed as well to see the language from The Purple Door District pop up somewhere else.
So what do we take away from all of this? What can we do to fight against these acts?
Well, first off, if you notice that a book you're reading has familiar phrases from other books, please report it. The more we catch plagiarizers, the better chance we may have of exposing them and taking them out of the market.
When it comes to ghostwriters, let's take a breath. I've seen a lot of facebook frames going around that say, "I write my own books," which is great. But at the same time, I think it can belittle ghostwriters. Sadly, I'm sure there are ghosts who plagiarize on purpose, just as there are named authors who do the same. But many ghostwriters are also just trying to make an honest living. They write for people who don't necessarily have that talent but still have a story to tell. They create articles, posts, books, and more. Just like authors, they're trying to survive on their skill without even having their name on their written piece. And, in some cases, established authors will become ghostwriters if a publishing house has a similar idea as a query they pitched and the house wants to keep the rights.
Ghostwriters aren't bad, just as Indie authors aren't bad. There are ghostwriters, indie authors, and traditional authors, however, who give everyone else a bad name. There's been a lot of hatred towards ghostwriters as a result of this debacle, so I ask you all to remember, not everyone in the business is like that.
Plagiarism is a very serious issue. Even when we were kids in school, teachers always warned us about the horror and dishonesty of plagiarizing. It's hard to see it happen to authors, people who have spent their lives perfecting their craft and world.
You're not just stealing someone's words. You're stealing their hours of long work, their many sleepless nights agonizing over their plot, the tears of anguish and laughter they shed, the countless days they crafted the book until it was ready to go to the publisher. And with a little action of copy and pasting, someone can just take all of that hard work away so they can make a quick buck.
The publishing industry is a competitive one. We shouldn't have to worry about our work being stolen. All writers are just trying to find a way to survive and share their stories with the world, but the best way to do it is honestly. Stand by the authors and ghostwriters who create their own work, especially those who have had their literature stolen. And if you're a writer, be an honest one and create your own stories.
Additional Sources:
https://www.latimes.com/books/la-et-jc-cristiane-serruya-courtney-milan-plagiarism-20190219-story.html
https://bookriot.com/2019/02/19/round-up-of-copypastecris/