Quote:
Originally Posted by cromag
I did not have a way for strangers to contact me. I admit that I didn't foresee this sort of thing, which is one of the reasons I started this thread up -- a reminder that if it can happen to me ...
I have since started an "author's page" at Facebook and I reference it at Smashwords, Goodreads, etc. I'll be including it in future work, and editing my existing stories to include it shortly.
I have also opened a new mail account at Gmail. Right now I use it as a way to contact publishers, etc. I specifically opened it for this case.
I didn't specifically ask, but I do not believe that whoever impersonated me was paid -- the website's published terms exclude payment. I think I may have had them over a barrel because they had already invested in the production, but any payment I could have gotten would have been a token payment, and, as it stands now, we're on good terms.
|
Hmph.
But...I am not following something then. Surely, the FauxMag would have expected, what? Some share of royalties? From the "premium" edition you mentioned, some posts back? Otherwise, why go to this rather elaborate scheme? Pirating a book and putting it on a torrent is, I'm told, shockingly easy, so if all he wanted to do was that, he could have. This "swindle," (as the website owner called it) is obviously designed for
some form of compensation, now or in the future. It just doesn't make sense to go to these lengths, otherwise. What's the difference, really, between this and filling out a credit card application in your name, and receiving the card, but having not yet used it? (Nothing, I believe, from any competent legal standpoint).
In any court of law, that's identity theft, or at the very least attempted identity theft, with a whole host of lesser-includeds. I would quite seriously speak to the police about this. No, it's not murder, but for all you know, he's doing the same thing to hundreds of other authors, with all those myriad websites out there existing to earn a living from writers (yes: I worry that this could happen to us, with someone passing off a book as his/her own, trust me. We look up websites, facebook pages, etc., for everyone who comes to us, as best we are able.). I would at the least write up a detailed report and schlep it down to the local constabulary, and look into who deals with "cybercrime," and see if you can get it looked at there.
I don't mean to sound naggy; I just think from a prevention standpoint, it would be worth looking into reporting it some-how/way. Now, that's just my $.02, and worth less than that, I'm sure, but this sort of thing needs some nipping in the bud. Enough (worthy) authors out there scraping along as it is; the idea that if the "premium" book could have done well, he'd have gotten money that was rightfully yours...seems a bit pesky.
And I still don't understand all the language on the YT site, about "supporting authors, blabbety-blab," if NO payment of any kind was involved. 'Tis a logic puzzle: how can both A and B be true? If A (no payment is made, as you mention, in the T&C or FAQ) is true, then B (Supporting artists and authors)
cannot be; and vice-versa. Do you see what I mean?
Hitch