#Authors © Copyright Infringement – Latest Victim seeks Help / Advice…

Posted on by Chris The Story Reading Ape

Hello Chris,

I am sorry to bother you, but I am writing to you to ask for help. Something really strange has happened to me.

I am selling my book on Amazon ONLY.

Two days ago I found my book on lots of different internet book selling pages, which I have never heard of before. I did not upload it there. Who did? Is somebody pretending she/he is me?

I also saw all my books in all formats for free download. Accompanied by a really horrible article about the importance of reading, supplied with lots of grammatical mistakes.

I asked Amazon if they own these pages. Amazon replied was this:

Please note that CreateSpace is not affiliated in any way with the websites mentioned in your message. I recommend contacting them directly to acquire additional information. I apologize that we are not able to assist you further. You may also contact your attorney if the websites doesn’t remove your work from their website.

But then I found this article in The Guardian.

I do not know what to think.

I contacted all the internet bookshops where I found my book and asked them to explain and to tell me who uploaded my book there. I am waiting for the answer.

I still can not believe that somebody could upload my pdf to some book shop and pretend he/she wrote the book. Terrifying thing is that it would actually be easy. In the time of internet, nicknames, . .

The only people I send pdf, mobi file or ePub (depends what they wanted) were my reviewers. I was also working for a short time with a different (and not very reliable) designer.

I would be happy if you could write me what you think about this. Thank you!

Iva  Vyšohlídová

Czech Republic

(Eva B. Kids)

PS – here are the links to the pages I was talking about:

WARNING from TSRA

I will not embed the links, but here are the sites FYI ONLY

Do NOT attempt to access them

bookdepository(.com)

whitcoulls(.co.nz)

bokus(.com)

bookutopia(.com.au)

msgeocachers(.com)

and more.

Here are the ones for free download (I did not write the article):

They even have Word file???

Be careful, these pages look like a kind of virus.

google(.com)/site/lcugcllo

google(.com)/site/mjicvoea

google(.com)/site/aaplgas

Iva is already aware of my article HERE, but if any of you who have had to deal with copyright infringement issues like this and can help or advise Iva, please contact ME to get her email address.

thestoryreadingape (AT) gmail (DOT) com

42 thoughts on “#Authors © Copyright Infringement – Latest Victim seeks Help / Advice…”

  2. My book is available on The Book Depository, Booktopia, and Bokus, but I assume it’s because I have expanded distribution. To be honest, since I’m a nobody in the book world, I don’t mind the exposure and Create Space has paid for expanded distribution sales, though those take longer. Honestly, the more stores selling your book, the better, but if they’ve changed names and covers, that’s another story. Electronically, mine is only available on the Kindle right now (as I have KDP select). If you have KDP select, then your book can’t be available electronically from any other site, so maybe you could do that as safety. Perhaps, one of us could try and purchase a copy of said book through the site and in a couple of months you could verify the royalty payment through Create Space (they take up to 60 days to post expanded distribution sales). It might be a way of verifying if this is legit. I really hope you get the compensation you deserve for your hard work.

    Liked by 5 people

    Reply

    • Hi Maricel, I have just received this message from CS:

      “When you publish your book with CreateSpace, you will have an option to make it available on CreateSpace eStore and Amazon marketplaces. Apart from which you will have the option of having it enrolled in Expanded Distribution.

      It is more like, when you enroll your title in the Bookstores & Online Retailers or Libraries & Academic Institutions channels, CreateSpace provides your book’s information to third-party distributors Ingram and Baker and Taylor, respectively. These distributors make your title available to purchase through their channels, but the decision to buy your book lies solely with individual retailers, libraries, or academic institutions.

      For ingram to make your books available through other distribution channels, you would need to make your book directly available through Ingram and have it removed from Expanded Distribution. If you would like for this to happen, please write to us and we will be happy to help you.”

      Do I understand it well that I would have to upload my book myself to Ingram and then they could make my book available to other distibution channels???

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

  3. Not sure about all of those sites, but I have my books through Amazon and paperbacks through Createspace. You can opt into expanded distribution with Createspace for free (it used to cost something like $20). Createspace then sells your paperbacks through The Book Depository, Barnes & Noble, and Books-A-Million. They are made available in other places as well, I believe. You can opt out of those if you want.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  4. I have found my books on loads of sites like these. I used to stress, but I strongly suspect that most are not actually selling our books but trying to get credit card details. There are so many that if I used my time trying to get rid of them all, I’d never have time to write, not to mention giving myself a nervous breakdown, so I try not to worry now.
    Re the unauthorised paperback sales – I used to use expanded distribution, until I realised that for each book sold, I would get 1p. That is not worth my while, so I closed down that Createspace channel. Sadly, it means people in some countries will never be able to buy my books, but 1p (or 1c) per book is just a joke. If I put my prices up to get a decent royalty, it makes them too overpriced to buy. I may find another way of producing paperbacks at some point, but for now, I’m just concentrating on writing and marketing through the channels I have.

    Liked by 6 people

    Reply

  5. It’s a huge problem, and is one of many, ( obviously) per this article, not easily isolated and corrected. Specifically, as it pertains to electronic documents: e-books, pdfs, Cds and the like. It started, I believe in the early eighties with music. With the advances that have been made in modern technology, it has since spread to the publishing industry.

    Practically every musician alive today, starting with those from the eighties, have bootlegged copies of their music out there. Most of which, they’ll never receive compensation. I’ve been aware of the problem for years. I know for a fact, that ( rough drafts) related to a number of my yet to be published works are out there. Some of which have been used as story lines for television shows, commercials, magazine articles and the like.

    On one level, somewhat of a bitter/ sweet experience.
    On another level, ( ” A Tribute, ” ) depending on how you look at it.

    Back to your point.
    For that very reason, as of this writing, I’m torn between making my first publication print only. Although not foolproof, a bit more expensive to duplicate. I’ve heard stories of pirated print versions on unauthorized websites as well. I’ve heard stories of unauthorized copies books sold in both formats. Most of which the author has not, and may never be compensated.

    There are two schools of thought on the subject matter. One: Use the print only option to publish your books. Those interested in you work will buy it. Once you’ve made a profit, or at a minimum, have covered the cost of production, make it available in the electronic formats.

    The second school of thought: To obtain maximum exposure, make your books available in both formats. Give your readers the option of choosing the format they prefer. As stated at the top of this response, it’s a huge problem, with no signs of correcting itself in the foreseeable future.

    The smart money, is on not worrying about it.

    Take care, hope this helps

    Sherman L. Bailey

    Liked by 5 people

    Reply

  6. I found my book over in Australia as a paperback and wrote to the eBay retailer. They told me they get those listings from Ingram. I called Create Space and they told me I was signed up for the expanded distribution so that lets wholesalers post your book because with POD now…the retailer can just order on POD and ship to the customer…who knows if any of them actually pay royalties? It says I make $0.64 per sale…so is it really worth offering it on expanded distribution? I took off one of the wholesalers but left the one that listed it on Ingram. Evidently, they told me that Ingram sends out a directory of books and that is where they get the listings. This one site had 3 different versions of my cover on ebay…guess they didn’t get the update? Who knows if the author ever gets any money for those listings…It took me all day to find out this and I could probably spend a lifetime trying to find all of the outlets where it is listed and track down the sales…but then again I wouldn’t have time to write…Hats off to you for creating something special!!

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  7. I was unaware that Amazon had bought The Book Depository. That should mean Iva will be reimbursed by Amazon for any sales of her book made by the other online site. I recently discovered that the Irish chain Eason (no relation to Jack, I believe 😉 ) is selling eBooks online and have mine listed, but they are affiliated with Kobo. My eBook formatter assures me that any sales through the Eason online site will be reimbursed by Kobo. So I do believe it’s a good thing when our titles are listed by more sites providing us with a larger market, as long as those sites are affiliated with other sites that are contracted to sell our eBooks.

    Unfortunately, I still believe that most of the other sites listing our eBooks illegally are not actually pirating, but are gathering our personal information, and that of any unsuspecting readers who click on them, as we discovered long ago, and as Chris warned us was the case in his blog post. Whatever you do, don’t write to these sites! No matter the number that are taken down, there seem to be umpteen more prepared to start up and act like they’re stealing our IP when all they’re really doing is gathering data to sell and infecting our computers. Best not to worry about them and just get down to writing more great books!

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

  8. Many times these pages don’t even have your book. If you contact them you risk them having actual details of yours, they’ll then sell your email address and you’ll be inundated with spam.
    If people try and download what they think is your book they usually get a virus etc…or their address is collected as above.
    It’s a shock for a new writer, but they’re better ignored and you concentrate on your real readers.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

Leave a reply to Lorraine Pearl Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.