The book thief III - Jemma's Redemption

Redemption, when you can get it, is a truly wonderful feeling indeed!

For those of you who are regular readers, I'm certain that you will recall the saga undergone by my good friend Jemma Grey as an aspiring author. For those who are unfamiliar, you can read about it in The book thief and The book thief II.

Mondkar The Manuscript Mountebank in action!

I have some positive news that I wish to share with you, as Jemma has extracted a bit of personal redemption in the situation and, in doing so, has simultaneously realised one of her dreams. Ms Grey has moved from the realm of aspiring author to that of published author!

A dream made reality!

That's correct - Ms Jemma Grey is now a published author. Pretend With Me, the first instalment of the Midnight Society series, was officially launched at the Tattoo Fest event at the Centre of Excellence on August 2nd (last month). Given the goth nature of the novel, it fit right in at that event and Jemma did some brisk business that afternoon.

Our newly-minted author signs a copy of her novel for a fan.

She also had herself a stall at the recent GamesCon at UWI, St. Augustine as well on August 29th, where she not only enjoyed some good sales of her paperback but also got to see one of her favourite characters, Kickass, 'live' in the flesh via one of the Cosplay enthusiasts there. Don't be fooled by her apparently calm demeanour in this photo; she could barely contain her delight!

To cap off a wonderful time, Jemma got to pose with Kickass!

ScottyPedia had a small hand in helping her achieve these goals. My contribution? I had the arduous task of proofreading her manuscript before publication. That was no easy feat (Jemma apologised for this up front) in that this was my first official proofreading engagement of major consequence and the pressure was on for me to deliver on time. Needless to say, ScottyPedia delivered to a thankful client who reciprocated in the manner below!

Alas, Jemma never spells my real name right ... Too much The Omen movies, perhaps?

I hope that you will, in turn, also help and support a local author by purchasing a copy or two of Pretend With Me and the upcoming novels (yes, plural) in the Midnight Society series. You can find copies (paperback and Kindle versions) at Amazon. At present, Jemma is deep into the completion of the second instalment, which should become available early next year. And, if there is any doubt in your minds, I am very proud of my friend's achievement and the small role that I had in helping to bring vision to reality. in this world where hopes and dreams can take decades to realise, if at all, yet can be dashed and shattered in a heartbeat, it is good to see one come true and it is a wonderful feeling to know that you're partially responsible for making it happen.

Jemma Grey interacting with a fan at her book launch.

And thanks must be given to the book thief, Mr. Mondkar - The Manuscript Mountebank, for it was your damaging acts that brought about a cascade of positive vibrations and encouragement that has culminated in the above. While we may never recover what you have already stolen, Jemma has indeed reaped her just rewards otherwise, despite yourself.

From thought to paper to sales!

Finally, there is another reason I chose to put up this post today - September 5th happens to be Jemma's birthday. So please join with me in wishing my author friend a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

Happy Birthday to you, Jemma Grey!

The book thief II

I'm sure you all remember my post on The Book Thief from February. In it, I  told you all of the saga of my dear friend, mass communication colleague and author, Jemma Grey, and her recent unsavoury experience with a brazen-faced plagiarist. I have two updates arising out of that incident.

Spotlight's on you, Vishal Mondkar!

Firstly, Jemma did get some relief from Amazon (the avenue through which the pilfering plagiarist peddled her works as his own). Amazon's fairly prompt response was as follows:

Thank you for your e-mail.  The ability to purchase the Kindle title you reference below has already been disabled.  The detail page may still exist for a period of time, but the title is no longer searchable on our site.  We trust this will bring this matter to a close.

What are you really telling me, Amazon?

If you're like Jemma and I, I think Amazon's response begs more questions than it answers. The title being unavailable for purchase is but one aspect of the problem that is within Amazon's remit to resolve. 

• Did Amazon instruct the thief take it down in response to the complaint or did they do so themselves?

  

  Caught out but what was done?

• Or did the thief remove it after several of Jemma's friends (including yours truly) confronted him directly?
• Was this response solely to appease Jemma's complaint or was it also in response to the other plagiarism claims against the thief?
• What of the sales that the thief had already conducted? Were those customers reimbursed for their purchases?
• Should Jemma be entitled to some financial relief from Amazon, even if it is limited to the monies paid by the unwitting customers?
• What sanction(s) did the thief himself receive?

  

  You'd hate to think that he just skulked away unscathed ...

• Did he, in the face of evidence presented, admit his plagiarism to Amazon?
• And, perhaps most importantly, what is Amazon doing or going to do to ensure that situations like this don't happen again with other literary works in the future?

We may never know the answers to those questions (even though she did ask them), as the tone from Amazon indicates that they consider this matter closed and their actions in it as decisive. But I hope that Jemma's experience puts you on your guard concerning your published works and the possibility of copyright violations of your intellectual property.

Always proceed with a pinch of caution.

Secondly, I'm pleased to state that every cloud does have a silver lining. In this case, the book thief episode had an unanticipated benefit for Jemma. Based on the demand she saw for the unpolished copies of her book from the thief's sales, that has encouraged her to actually go through the publishing process and bring her works to ink-and-paper reality. She is now in the process of getting Pretend With Me (she has chosen to rename the novel) officially published. I will update you as to its local availability - print and electronic - and the prices. If you're a lover of vampire-themed stories, you'll surely want to pick up a copy.

Pretend With Me by Jemma Grey. Coming soon to bookstores! (Actual cover may vary but this is one Jemma likes.)

All in all, I want to continue to encourage Jemma and the other budding authors reading this to keep on writing and reaching for your literary dreams. Without you and your efforts, this world would indeed be a much more boring place.

Keep on writing, folks! We need to have our imaginations stimulated by your work!

The book thief

Quite recently (as in a few hours ago) a good friend of mine experienced the ugly side of the Internet. With her permission I am sharing her story with you.

Jemma Grey, whom I have mentioned before, is a budding author. Her themes are usually gothic, with vampire romance being her go-to topic. She has even produced full-fledged novels, one of which she first self-published in 2011 - My Vampire Love. Mind you, it is a rough draft that wasn't really proofread before the upload (this was admittedly from her pre-ScottyPedia era). Nevertheless it is an enjoyable read, with the revised version promising to be even more riveting.

This is the cover design Jemma chose back in 2011

Early this morning, Jemma received a message from one of her faithful Wattpad readers, who alerted her via comment that someone was selling copies of her work on Amazon, claiming it as his own. When she checked on Amazon, to her surprise Jemma found that this was in fact the case. A "Vishal Mondkar" had copied the early 2011 draft wholesale and was trying to pass it off as his November 2014- published work.

Not only that, but this Mondkar was selling Kindle version copies of the book at US $5.99 a copy. And the book had four customer reviews unanimously praising the story, while decrying its unpolished finish - spelling errors, clumsy phrasing, grammatical imbalances and other uncorrected errors. Having access to the initial draft only, Mondkar lifted the text verbatim, never bothering to proofread the work or make any alterations, including character and local place names with which Mondkar would be very unfamiliar.

As you can imagine, Jemma was horrified at this discovery! I'd love to say that she immediately enlisted my assistance but truth be told she had already contacted Amazon concerning the copyright infringement. She also decided the befriend the fraudster via Facebook in a bid to directly contact him. I urged her to start a dialogue with him in a bid to get him to say something incriminating. In the meanwhile, as an active Amazon client, I did what I could to help her cause (you can see my post here).

While that was going on, Mondkar 'befriended' Jemma on Facebook and they had quite an interesting chat. After some preliminary bluster Mondkar not only freely admitted to the plagiarism but sought to defend and justify his actions while issuing an extortion demand as well. Can you believe this guy's nerve? The following are screenshots of the exchange between them; you can see for yourself how brazen this person.

I must commend Jemma for keeping a cool head and resisting the urge to hurl some obscenity-laden invective behind Mondkar. So now she is awaiting a response from Amazon concerning the infringement, as well as forwarding the above to them for perusal. Initially she was seeking an immediate cease and desist from Mondkar and an apology to all of the duped buyers. However, I wondered aloud about how many purchases he may have already processed. If a mere 10% of buyers were moved enough to comment, that means he may have already made $239.60 from his self-confessed nefarious deeds! That represents a considerable sum that should really belong to the real author, don't you think?

I'll try to update you on the situation as it develops. Please let us know what you think about the situation via the comments below.