How Publishing Really Works:
I do not mean the industry really; I refer to Jane Smith and her site of the same name – a site that I had some respect for once.
Ironically, Jane has a post up just now on editing! Laughing at the idea that editing doesn’t happen these days. She could have provided evidence from her own blog for the fact that editing does happen today!
I recently quoted from Jane’s Blog on the matter of copyright, a subject she had posted information on. I took the liberty of copyin g what she had said for my own information and reproduce the comment in full here:
“The upshot is that you can't protect your idea unless you actually write it. Then your specific arrangement of words (the story you've written) will be protected, but the idea (the storyline) will not be, as ideas are fair game.”
This chimes pretty well with what the Copyright Licensing Agency’ says on its own web page.
Now Jane has edited her own post. Quietly. To make it trap me and what I have done. And her great pal, Doug Cheadle, who shares the same thoughts (!), has posted the new version on his blog. Now it reads:
"The upshot is that you can't protect your idea unless you actually write it. Then your specific arrangement of words and the various specific ways you've expressed your idea, such as your structure, detail and characterisation (which together constitute the story you've written) will be protected, but the idea (the storyline) will not be, as ideas are fair game."
This no longer chimes with what the Copyright Licensing Agency says. So why has she made the change? Because she can. Because she is waging a war against me. Because she is malicious. If that seems libellous then Jane should seek legal representation.
How Publishing Really Works (Jane): dishonestly.
5 comments:
To be honest: I don't know Tania or her writing. I think you are a very compelling writer, and I believe that all of this is bollucks. (I am trying to sound British there.)
I don't read many blogs let alone comment. I am the reclusive sort. But your blog is fascinating, and I don't mean to sound calous, but this blog and the drama behind it is a fascinating story itself. It is unfolding before my eyes. How will it end?
Anyway, I don't understand how Jane could retain copyright to the works you voluntarily submitted to her website.
And besides that, why is she putting so much energy into destroying you and your reputation? You offended the publishing god now you must pay. Eternally. That seems rather cruel.
But this will eventually pass and you will be picked up by a publisher who recognizes your talent for what it is.
Best of luck.
L.A. DeVaul
Dear L.A.DeVaul
thank you so much for dropping in on my blog. I really appreciate that you did, given that you are so reclusive.
Thank you, too, for seeing through all of this 'bollocks'... I thought that was more American than British... shows what I know!
And finally, thanks for being so complimentary about my writing. When all of this eventually subsides, as I hope it one day will, what will remain is the writing.
Please do pop in again sometime.
Best wishes on your own writing.
Douglas
I really feel with you. A week or so ago, James Patterson and the Swedish writer Liza Marklund were accused of plagiarism because they had used a famous painting in a similar context as had another Swedish writer, Klas Östergren. Happily enough, no one in this country seems to have taken the accusation seriously. And why would they? What does it matter if Postcard Killers and Den sista cigaretten (”the last cigarette”) both feature corpses arranged in a certain way? The two stories are nothing alike - different words, characters, styles, and so on.* If a given idea is to be fair game once and only once, then no one should to be allowed to write another book ever again, or make another movie, or daub paint on another canvas, or sing another song, or be creative in any way for as long as humanity exists. No more ideas available, and now we all have to sit still and be quiet until the sun goes boom… That, at least, seems to be what the people accusing you of plagiarism think. Hope you'll soon see a happy end to all of this nonsense!
Best wishes,
Carol
* Odds are it was all a PR thing to increase public interest and sell more copies.
Dear Carol
thanks for coming here again and giving some sense to all of this. I appreciate your support and your optimism that all this will soon end. However, I think there is a way to go yet before this is over. I have not yet revealed the full extent of 'their' malice... I will in due course.
Best wishes to you
Douglas
Doug Cheadle has now taken down his site and his theft of my stories is no longer visible. I complained to the powers that be on blogger and it was much more complicated to make my complaint than you would think. During my e-mail exchanges with the blogger judges, Doug Cheadle took down his posts and his site that was there in my name. Coincidence? Maybe.
But I don't know why Doug Cheadle would do that. It doesn't make sense. Unless he realised that something he was doing or saying was wrong.
William Shears has set up his own blog which unveils the lies of Jane Smith and Doug Cheadle, and I think Shears has had his part to play in the dismantling of Doug Cheadle's site by how tenaciously he has gone about revealing the now oh so obvious collusion between Cheadle and Smith.
I stand by everything I have said on the matter, not backing down from anything and not being dishonest in my representation of what I think or what I have done in my work.
I will go on posting on the absurdly narrow-minded views of Jane Smith et al... not vindictively but provocatively. There will be more to think about on the matter of the ownership of ideas. I have not reached absolute hard and fast conclusions... it is not as easy as that... though there are some who think themselves clever enough to have reached an absolute understanding, instinctively, of what is and is not right.
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