You all know that plagiarism is my biggest pet peeve as a writer--it ranks just about up there with googling my pen name and discovering that someone is selling unauthorized downloads of my book. It's thievery--plain and simple. Today I cruise into my writers' critique group and discover that one of my compatriots in the Dragon's Den has been moved up from third to second place due to the fact the the WINNER of the contest stole someone else's work and posted it as her own.
And took off with 1500 bucks I might add.
Give me a fucking break. How dishonest do you have to be to realize that plagiarism is STEALING? Holy hell! It makes my ears steam to see something like that. Not an attractive look, by the way, red hair and steamy ears.
In a related topic, more e-books are showing up on Ebay. How freaking wrong is that? About two weeks ago, I googled my pen name and discovered that someone was offering FREE reads of my book. FREE READS? Ha! Wasn't free when my attorney got ahold of him. As writers, all we have is the copyright and good faith. If we're lucky, we have a publisher or agent who looks after that stuff for us---but that's all! Once again, let me just say this: if you consider yourself a *writer* because your purloined material brings you benefits or either glory or money, cut it out. If you plagiarize, youre not a writer; you're a thief. If you purchase an e-book download and then sell copies of that download for personal gain, you are also a thief. A HUGE thief. As such, you should be prosecuted (and will be by this author) to the fullest extent of the law. Unlike most people, I have a passing fancy for attorneys. Trust me; you DON'T want to go there. Really.
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