Right of a budding writer.
Hello all,
This is my story. I sent the first few chapters of my manuscript to Grapevine 2 years ago (Early 2013). I received a reply from Nikita Singh, who was an editor of the publishing house. The mail said that the editors enjoyed reading my manuscript and would like to take a look at the entire manuscript before making the final decision. I sent the entire manuscript. A few months later another editor replied saying they are not taking it up.
Then I met with Tales4 publications and they published my book in December 2013.
6 months later Nikita published a book titled 'Right here, Right now' with penguin india. I saw some of the posters released before the publishing date. The plot sounded so similar. I mailed penguin and grapevine asking for a copy to be sent to me as I doubted it to be my story. They did not respond, I am not famous enough to be taken seriously, right.
Then, the book got published. I bought it, helping her raise her royalty, read it and found the plot, narration and the first chapter to be very similar.
Isn't it too much to be coincidental? She read my book in march 2013, published a book with same plot, same first person narration, concept and same first chapter but a changed story in mid 2014. How can I not call it plagiarism?
To clarify- I had posted just the first chapter because photographing the other pages of her book and posting it online is not the right thing to do. First chapter was taken from samples Amazon site has. Secondly, the similarities don't stop with first chapter. It's just an example I had given. There are a lot more similarities. I have a list which I won't post here for obvious reasons.
I have all proofs. I have shared it on twitter ganga_bharani s my handle. I have also shared it in Facebook.
All I want is to prove to them that they are not free to copy from struggling writers who are not as famous as they are. I don't want them to take us for granted assuming we wont become a pain by voicing it out.
If X makes a short film, uploads in youtube. say some famous director makes a movie with same plot we can't question. But say X was the famous director's assistant. He showed the movie to famous director to get a producer. Then if the famous director makes a film quickly in the same plot with the same opening scene is it acceptable? When this X makes a feature film, people will say it's just like the famous person's film. Also, the impact will be lost. People will say they have already watched a film with similar opening, wont they?
Reason: Clarification
Sue her and the publisher. The so called famous writer can't do this to a blogger by taking credit of someone else's creative work. You should take actions. I stand with you
#IstandWithGangaBharani
I went through both excerpts , yours is way better than hers .Your style of narration is very different from hers though the the setting and introduction of the character is eerily similar .
Thank you Preethi. I am not saying she has word to word copied. My fight is against the intention of an editor of a reputed publishing house. The way the manuscripts sent to publishing houses are not protected these days.
Ganga Bharani relax and keep your mind cool as then only you'll be able to find what you need to do. If you're true, then don't worry.
I agree with that concern. The publishers should have at least replied.
Literary plagiarism can often be hard to prove. The last major case I can recall was of Kaavya Viswanathan was accused of plagiarism and lost her two-book deal. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/harvard-author-admits-that-she-internalised-an-earlier-novel-475664.html
Is her entire book similar to yours or only the first chapter? But I can understand your pov. I am hardly a writer but when someone took my fictional character from my blog and started using it on his blog without my permission I was really upset.
In your case if the first chapter was copied verbatim then your case for plagiarism is strong. If only the ideas and some words are common then it is more of a case of unprofessional conduct and you should bring that up strongly with her publishers.
Subroto,
Thanks for that information. It was useful.
I am not even talking about plagiarism. It's about the intent of an editor and the way the publishers didn't take the plagiarism doubt mail seriously.
Are editors sitting in comfortable air-conditioned cubicles reading ideas sent by writers and then adopting them as their own creative vision? Even if there is no straightforward copy-pasting, there is certainly a high degree of breach of trust here. The publishing house, I'm sure, will be concerned about such a breach and will take appropriate action.
Day 8- I have found a few more points. Similarities between Right here, right now and my book, Just you, me and a secret:1. Clearly first chapters are very similar.
2. In the second chapter of my book I have written a scene with the laptop. It can be read here http://scribbledbygb.blogspot.co.uk/…/just-you-me-and-secre… A scene in Right here Right now is very similar to this scene.
My argument here is, it's about a 17 year old girl. She is shown childhood photographs. So when she was a kid, it would have been a year in 90s when Digital cameras were not there. So it is natural for anyone to say that the amnesiac was showed a physical photograph. Why a laptop? I had written laptop because that scene occurred so to me and also it was about the recent photographs. In her defense, she can say it was all digitized form of physical photographs. But why a laptop? It could have been a tablet or a phone. The only conclusion I can come to, with this point also, is that it's taken from my manuscript.
3. Her book starts from 2nd April 2013. I would like to point out that the first five chapters of my manuscript was sent to Grapevine in January, 2013. I received a reply from Nikita asking for full manuscript on 4th, March, 2013. I sent the manuscript immediately as I had it ready. As writers we tend to make use of the date we start the book, we don't write a date too much in future. So, my point is that she has started writing her book after she received my full manuscript. This makes the intention clear to me.
https://www.facebook.com/gangabharaniv/posts/735035536603698
That's unfair. You should drag her in a litigation. Go ahead we are with you. One should respect other's work.
I will Nitin. Thanks a lot. For now my only goal is to make the publishers and the writer to answer my questions and do justice to the complaint.
They are too big for me to fight alone. That's why I share all that happens to create records of it on social media. Also, to keep the people who support this fight against plagiarism updated.
I was really shocked to know about this Ganga. i never thought Nikita would do this. She is also a writer after all #LetsStopStealingIdeas
Really sad reading this. Actually, I never imagined Nikita Singh do this. Because honestly, all her books seem original. Of course, now I get it. It is because of all you great writers. Don't lose hope dear.
Hi Ganga...What happened.. Did you get any positive response from the publishers ?
Hi Deepika,
Penguin mailed me justifying just the one similarity i have mentioned myself saying that it could be coincidence. They said a team of experts read the books to just justify the one point i have mentioned as example. They did not even talk about the other 14 similarities and it was expected.
Nikita did not even bother to address this personally or publicly.
Now some of the legal expertsi know are reading both the books. Let's see how it goes.
All that said, I am happy with how it is already. All I wanted was people knowing about such things happening to writers and I think i was successful with it. :)
That gives a little hope 
As John Lennon said "Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end". Hope you will get justice..all the best!!!
Best of Luck for your Next Book Ganga. Hope you are able to cope up with all this, and come out strong. Would recommend you don't give your script to unknown publisher and editor, share only with well-known persons whom you can trust.
Thanks Kanuj. :)
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