Writers pour their heart and soul into their writing. Anyone who has ever written a book or even attempted to write a book knows that it isn't easy. The characters I create are from my imagination, research, blood, sweat, and tears as it were. So, the thought of someone else taking my work and slapping their name on it as the author is abhorrent to me. Yet that is exactly what happened to Rachel Ann Nunes.
Rachel wrote a Christian romance back in 1998, called Love to the Highest Bidder. Last year, she digitized it and released it as A Bid for Love. Then, last weekend, a reviewer contacted her to say that she had read an ARC called The Auction Deal that was exactly like Rachel's book, A Bid for Love, except that strong language and sex scenes had been added. Rachel tried to look into the situation, to see if the plagiarism concerns were warranted, and sadly started to unravel a string of lies and deceit like no other. It truly has been stranger than fiction to watch this unfold as the plagiarist, once caught, tried desperately to hide what she'd done.
Thankfully, a reviewer came forward with proof and laid out screenshots of Rachel's book and the plagiarized version and Rachel can now move forward with legal action. She is standing up for writers' rights and we need that in today's day and age when it seems easy to copy and paste. I think the writing and reading community needs to really band together when plagiarists are found to shine a bright light on these people and say "We will not accept this. We will not support you." The only way to do that, it seems, is to share stories like this and make sure no one supports/buys/reviews any work that has been plagiarized. Writers work too hard to have their original stories stolen.
If you want to read the entire bizarre story, Rachel Nunes posted a blog about her ordeal. You can click here to read it.
