The Horrors Of Editing

 

Editing, especially editing some stories the way they are written sometimes, can sometimes be horrible and a form of self-torture and punishment.  I always knew that the next time I fully edited The Sound Of her MASTER'S VOICE it was going to be a bitch.  A few months back I had decided I was going to re-edit all the chapters to make them a little more visually arresting and easier to read on Literotica.com, but at that time I had also just finished writing the final chapters for the chapter by chapter posting and was pretty burned out on working with the story (another reason I was choosing not to begin the second novel until the summer).

So anyway, after the whole plagiarism situation came the decision that I wanted to sell the story, because if someone could steal My work and it was good enough for them to sell then why couldn't I.  So almost three weeks ago I began to reformat and re-edit the novel for a more mainstream publication.  I dove right in, not thinking about all the pain and headaches it was going to cause on day one.  Of course for the first couple of chapters it was smooth sailing, but then I got to Chapter Four and the introduction of Bored As Hell and Heather's obsession with internet chat.  Yeah, having chatroom dialogue is pretty fun, and in the beginning it was especially fun when all the chatters (some 40 at least throughout the novel) had their own specific font, font size and color, as at that time I had no thoughts on publishing to a broader audience whatsoever.

Well, posting sites and e-readers do not do pretty fonts and colors, so that was the first thing that had to go.  Of course stripping it out and replacing it was as easy as cutting and pasting.  It was just a matter of spacing things so the reader could tell who was saying what.  Near the end of the chapter by chapter posting on Lit and as I resubmitted the first few chapters to Lushstories.com I came to the decision that it would make it even easier on the reader if I underlined the chat ID of each user.  The thing is for some reason I did not save the changes for those three chat dialogue laced chapters that made it to Lush, and only the last few chapters (where there was hardly any chat dialogue) had been done with the underlining before being posted to Lit.

Uh-hu.  Acres and acres of pages and pages of chat dialogue (some 200-350 pages of it) to go through and underline the chat ID of all the users.  Oh, the fucking horror!  I would almost rather have another kidney stone removed via My urethra without being under anesthesia.

However, I suppose doing so is a labor of love.  The internet chat and the characters Heather meets through it are a major part of the story and how her journey into the BDSM lifestyle truly begins.  The number one subject that most people have commented on is how much they love those scenes because it makes it more real to them.  I know that even when the story is set, 2006 & 2007, that old school internet chat rooms and chatting were very much in their decline, however I know from writing it that it brings back a certain nostalgia.  So, despite the fact that these conversations could be condensed into what Heather sees on her screen and abridged , there is no way I am going to take them out, no matter how big of a headache they can cause.



 

 

Some would say, just get an editor, that there are many people who do it on a volunteer basis, many on Lit and Lush I know.  However I found early on that with free editing you get what you pay for, which is pretty much nothing.  So I would rather do it Myself, that labor of love I am sure a lot of people would love to have the money to say, "I've got someone who does that for me."

The good news for Me is that I am on the last chapter of Book Three: Journey Into Mystery, which has one of the longest chat sequences in the novel, and is the last major part of the book where a majority of the dialogue is in the form of chat room postings.

I know there are other writers out there who just love editing as much as I do.  Anyone want to share their editing horror stories, advice or observations?

Master Vyle

PLAGIARISM UPDATE: VICTORY "Misstress" Ana Phylaxis Last "Work" Removed From Amazon.com!

Victory at last.  "Mistress" Ana Phylaxis's last "work" has now been removed from Amazon.com, and hopefully the dirty thieving bitch gets the message.  Hopefully as well Amazon.com will never do business with this person again, but that remains to be seen as whatever punishment they deam worthy is "Top Secret".

To everyone who was affected by this plagiarizer and struck back to get her wares off of Amazon, good job.  Never be afraid to fight back when some takes something you worked long and hard on so they can make a profit.

I hope you're really feeling it Rebecca Geissler or Becky Bick or whatever the hell your name is.  Oh, and as they say, The best is yet to come, because you can bet your theiving and unimaginative ass that I rarely forgive, and I NEVER forget.

Master Vyle

PLAGIARISM UPDATE! Amazon Responds To My Criticism!

Yesterday I received an e-mail from Amazon.com Copyright Agent Garth Skovgard in response to My criticizing them it their seemingly sluggish response to remove the works of someone with now multiple plagiarism complaints and DMCA notices against them.  The contents are as follows:

Dear Mr. Laney:

Thank you for this additional information.  We take the intellectual property rights of others very seriously, and are currently investigating this matter.  For privacy reasons, the results of our investigations cannot be disclosed, but be assured we will take any disciplinary actions we find appropriate.

Regards,

Garth Skovgard

Copyright/Trademark Agent
Amazon.com

---- Original message: ----

Dear Amazon Copyright Agent Garth Skovgard,

Thank you for your reply.  It is great to see that you are intending to remove
this work from your site, but what ot the remainder of this "author's"
catalogue.  I am not sure what your policy is, but on the sites I submit stories
to anyone caught plagerizing another person's work, whether in part or in whole
has all their submissions removed and they are banned from that site, and not
just the user name, but their IP address as well. (Simple as that, no questions
asked, whether they had 1000 original submissions and 1 single instance of
plagerism or not).  I can assure you that I, and several other of the victims
this person has used to build "her" short story collections from, will not be
truly satisfied until we can be assured that Amazon.com has no intention of
knowingly doing business with this person again.  So if you would be so kind,
just what is your policy for dealing with a member caught plagerizing the work
of another?  One assumes there must be some consequence as both the "author" and
Amazon profit from the sale of these works while the author gets an e-mail that
basically says, "Oh, sorry about that", or more like "Oppsie, our bad" because
this notice does not even say anything close to that.

Sincerely,
Michael C. Laney

________________________________________________________________________

Well one can certainly respect the fact that Amazon would want to do a full investigation into the claims of plagiarism, however the fact that they would choose not to disclose the results would seem to be an indication they are afraid to let John Q. Public know that there is a problem.  Who's privacy?  Is the privacy of the plagiarizer more important than that of the people they steal from, and if so why? 

So in the meantime writers are submitting their stories to story sites unaware that people are coming along to swipe them and post them elsewhere for profit.  Once posted I am sure they were as complacent as I was and never bothered to check to see if their work was showing up somewhere other than where they intended.

As far as an answer to the question of consequences for being caught selling plagiarized works there was no real answer.  I don't know about you but I get the impression that this does not mean that a plagiarizer would necessarily be banned from Amazon.  Again I would think they would want to spell it out, but after researching publishing through Kindle for the past few days it seems that the rules governing Amazon's member services are likewise vague to begin with.

My impression it that this is yet another brush off letter.  It seems that, at least the Amazon Copyright section, feels itself beyond reproach although they claim to "...take the intellectual property rights of others very seriously..."

That's how this letter makes Me feel.  What do you think?

Shifting Gears? Gear Secondo!

Over the past few days, with everything that has been going on I began to investigate how self-publishing through Amazon.com's Kindle worked.  Although some of the tutorials that Amazon has posted on YouTube are so jumbled and boring they make Me want to saw My own balls off with a butterknife I found the whole process relatively simple.  After thinking about it I discussed the idea with My wife, the lady Vyle, and she agreed with My ultimate conclusion, that if someone could use this method to rip Me off and make a profit from it, then why shouldn't I?

Yeah, okay. It's getting into bed with the "enemy", or it least in as much as getting into bed with a company more interested in (it seems) stretching it's own profits as far as they will go instead of quickly removing the library of a know plagiarist.  Then again what makes that different from any other job?

No, I'm not happy with Amazon, but as far as being published their Kindle does seem to be the best avenue.  All third party e-book publishers are filled with the craziest restrictions and are so clicky that it isn't even funny.  I've browsed subjects and looked at reviews on books Amazon is selling that cater to just as many "deviant" sex practices as Xnxx or Storiesonline, so My stories would actually be somewhat tame as the subjects of several erotic novels they are selling include underage incest, beastiality, adults with underage sex partners, etc. (In other words stuff that I was reading from King and Johnstone in the 90s that most legit erotic story sites won't touch).

I want to go to the next level, and in this economy if it takes getting published through Amazon to put a few extra dollars in My bank account then I will do it.  However, and more importantly, My goal since March of last year was to reach a broader audience, and being associated with a more mainstream site would certainly get My works exposed to a larger potential audience at the very least.

So, despite My differences, as I have with the story submission sites I have worked with over the past year, I am willing to put those differences with Amazon aside and test the waters to see if e-book publishing will be benificial in filling My need to tell a story to as many people as possible and maybe reap a slight financial benefit as well.

So, in the words of Monkey D. Luffy, "GEAR SECONDO!"

Master Vyle

PLAGIARISM UPDATE! Still One To Go!

Well as of this morning there's still one "Misstress" Ana Phylaxis collection left up on Amazon.com.  Yesterday afternoon I sent messages to all the Literotica writers who's stories this collection was made up of.  Hopefully they at least one of them will take the actions required to get the last of this thieving cunt's wares that we know of off of Amazon.

Master Vyle

Alex Severin Responds! My Letter From Plagiarism Whistle Blower!

Earlier today I sent an e-mail to plagiarism whistle blower Alex Severin.  Below is Alex's response, and I think it is a further eye opener in regards to the problem and the lack of response from those who claim to want to protect the works of independent authors:

Hi there, Michael,

I've been following your ranty tweets!  LOL

I've got all her aliases and other details on Google Alerts, so I found
out about your friends blog and subsequently, your blog and Twitter.

Amazon are assholes. They don't give a shit. I can't even believe they've
not removed the remaining content after 5 have been subject to DMCA
notices and I told them the other two were also 100% plagiarized. They
don't remove anything without a formal DMCA notice and it has to be EXACT,
has to have certain lines in it; I knew that and this is why I put a
sample DMCA notice on my site and linked to it in the alert.

It took me days to compile all the stories. But kept on at it - I had
complete conviction that every story in every book belonged to somebody
else. When I get that feeling about something, I ignore it to my peril.

I'm sure Mistress Klepto is going to start up again under a new ID
somewhere else. Since none of us actually hold legal copyright
registrations for any of the works, there's no legal standing to file a
lawsuit. That's not to say that we can't go ahead and and actually do that
- it would only take ONE story to be registered to have grounds to file a
suit if needs be.

I'm really dissapointed at the response I've had. At first, I thought,
great, half of ASSTR's members are e-mailing me - they acted very quickly,
within hours of me sending out the alert. But, alas, none of the e-mails
were from any of the writers involved. It would seem none of them are
still using either the e-mails on file at ASSTR and Literotica, nor
logging into their accounts.  After the first batch of e-mails I sent out
like that (through the Lit interface and gathered e-mails,) I had no
responses whatsoever.  So, I decided to contact both sites directly and
disseminate the info throught my own blogs etc.

I also contacted a couple of writing site like WRITER BEWARE run by the
SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America,) but I've not had a response
from them either. Needles to say, Literotica did not respond to me, nor
did they post it on their forum. That was done by somebody on Lit who had
an ASSTR account also and got the messege from them. Just reading their
forum over the last few days, it would seem the Literotica owner doesn't
respond to anything at all.

The only reason word has started to get out is because a few people have
been incensed enough to repost my alert of blogs and forums. I'm so glad
that there are a few people who care. This has been pretty stressful! I
know nobody is gonna die or anything like that and it's not the end of the
world, but damnnit, it means something to me. And I felt obligated to do
everything I could to get this info out.

Actually, just before the word got out, I was considering doing another
round-up of e-mails and trying again. If the last two books don't
disappear in the next few days, I will do that. She needs to be shut down.

Sorry this is so long!  LOL

All the best...

- Alex Severin.

www.AlexSeverin.com
www.MySpace.com/Vampire_Erotica_Stories
www.Facebook.com/SeverinVampireErotica

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks again, Alex, from Myself on behalf of everyone you have made aware of this problem.



Master Vyle



PLAGIARISM UPDATE! And Then There Was One!

Here's the lastest update on the plagiarist everyone loves to hate, one "Misstress" Ana Phylaxis.  I just checked Amazon.com and only one of her "works" remains.  We will see if it gets taken off within the next few days, and if not then I will go over Alex Severin's initial e-mail and make an effort to contact all Literotica authors whos works were used to create this final rip-off story collection.

On a personal note I am giving My typist ten lashes for each time plagiarism and its various forms have been spelled wrong over the past few days.

LOL

Master Vyle

First Battle Won, Plagerizer Ana Phylaxis Is One Work Down

This morning I received an e-mail response from Amazon.com reguarding the plagerism of My short story Fungi by "Misstress" Ana Phylaxis, that she used as part of one of many short story collections she was selling through Amazon.com's Kindle device:

Dear Mr. Laney:

Thank you for your message.  Please be advised that we are in the process of removing the following Kindle titles from Amazon.com:

"D... E... F... (The A,B,C's of Discipline and Horror) [Kindle Edition]" ASIN: B004G5Z3C0

It typically takes 2-3 days for a listing to disappear once it has been removed from our catalog. We trust this will bring this matter to a close.

Garth Skovgard

Copyright/Trademark Agent
Amazon.com

Well that's nice and short and to the point.  I won My first battle against "Misstesss" Ana Phylaxis.  I should be all warm and fuzzy and happy happy right?

Nope.

That last little line I found a little burny: We trust this will bring this matter to a close.

Oh, so what am I dismissed?  Hey Amazon, I'm an old fashioned kind of guy.  Why don't you kiss Me before you fuck Me?  It goes a lot better that way.

I sent a response to their response:

Dear Amazon.com Copyright Agent Garth Skovgard,

Thank you for your response.  It is good to see that you are removing this work form your site, but what about the other works in this "author's" catalogue.  I am not sure what your policy is on dealing with plagerism, but on the story sites that I submit to if someone is caught plagerizing another work, whether in part or in its entirety, that member has all their works removed from the site and is banned, not just their username but their IP address as well. (No questions asked, no if ands or butts, whether that person has 1000 original stories and 1 instance of plagerism or not).  I and the other authors who this person has plagerized stories from to create "her" works want some kind of assurance that Amazon.com would never willingly do business with this person again.  So if you would be so kind, just what are the consequnces for plagerism on Amazon?  I am sure there must be consequences as both the "author" and Amazon profit from the sales of these works while the real author only gets an e-mail that says, "Oh, sorry about that", and actually it more like, "Oopsie, our bad," because this notice does not even say that.

Sincerely,
Michael C. Laney

Okay, I know what you think.  The story collection using your story is being taken down, you should be happy.  Yes I am happy.  It's a battle won, but to admit you've just won a battle only means that you're fighting a bigger war.  I mean is this how you deal with someone who has told you that someone else is making a profit off their work, especially when it is a profit that you're sharing in?  Let's face it, Amazon is not publishing books to Kindle out of the goodness of their hearts.  They get their precentage from books sold through their Kindle devices, of course, and it makes sense because that's good business.

What isn't good business is brushing off the messenger without anything like an apology.  Hello, guess what Amazon, writers like to read.  And, despite the fact that bookstores are closing left and right there are still plenty of sources to acquire reading material other than Amazon.com.

I'm proud of the fact that I am a writer.  Despite the fact that I am a true starving artist who has never made a single dime off anything I've written.  I've put hours upon hours writing stories, spent months and years working on stories to get them just right.  I love and cherish each and every one that I have written, and in My book there's no fucking such thing as a throwaway story that its okay from some unimaginative thief to come along and sell for profit.  I would rather be obscure and totally unknown, posting stories on free sites, than to steal someone else's lifeblood to be just as equally unknown and make a few quick bucks.

And yet, here I am, one of few voices yelling at this literary giant, and I'm being told it's going to be taken care of without any sort of apology and pretty much dismissed like I'm their bitch.  Most people expect that from the people they work for, but it just so happens that I am not on Amazon.com's payroll.  It doesn't seem to Me that they care all that much for, or take seriously, the implications of plagerism.

So I suppose for the next few days we can just watch and wait to see whether the "works" of the Great "Misstress" Ana Phylaxis a.k.a Rebecca Geissler a.k.a Rebecca Bick a.k.a. BizzareBettyXXX a.k.a. Thieving Cum Belching Crack Whore Douchenog Condom Recycler, are removed from Amazon.com and their Kindle Store.  I am sure in that time anyone who has ever written anything they do not want stolen and sold to line someone else's pockets will have time to think and wonder what Amazon cares about more: Writers or Profits?

I Ain't Scared Of Plagerizers Or Amazon.Com!

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Neither A Dominant, Nor A Writer

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2010 I Barely Knew Ya'

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