Imagining A Story In Your Head:

[ID: canon? We don't know that bitch]

credit: @redbeantofu on twt

Fanfiction Authors: HEADS UP

(Non-authors, please RB to signal boost to your author friends!)

An astute reader informed me this morning that one of my fics (Children of the Future Age) had been pirated and was being sold as a novel on Amazon:

(And they weren't even creative with their cover design. If you're going to pirate something that I spent a full year of my life writing, at least give me a pretty screenshot to brag about later. Seriously.)

I promptly filed a DMCA complaint to have it removed, but I checked out the company that put it up -- Plush Books -- and it looks like A LOT of their books are pirated fic. They are by no means the only ones doing this, either -- the fact that """publishers""" can download stories from AO3 in ebook format and then reupload them to Amazon in just a few clicks makes fic piracy a common problem. There are a whole host of reasons why letting this continue is bad -- including actual legal risk to fanfiction archives -- but basically:

IF YOU ARE A FANFIC AUTHOR WITH LONG AND/OR POPULAR WORKS, PLEASE CHECK AMAZON TO SEE IF YOUR STORIES HAVE BEEN PIRATED.

You can search for your fics by title, or by text from the description (which is often just copied wholesale from AO3 as well). If you find that someone has stolen your work and is selling it as their own, you can lodge a DMCA complaint (Amazon.com/USA site; other countries have different systems). If you haven't done this before, it's easy! Here's a tutorial:

HOW TO FILE A COPYRIGHT COMPLAINT FOR STOLEN WORK ON AMAZON.COM:

First, go to this form. You'll need to be signed into your Amazon account.

Select the radio buttons/dropdown options (shown below) to indicate that you are the legal Rights Owner, you have a copyright concern, and it is about a pirated product.

Enter the name of your story in the Name of Brand field.

In the Link to the Copyrighted Work box, enter a link to the story on AO3 or whatever site your work is posted on.

In the Additional Information box, explain that you are the author of the work and it is being sold without your permission. That's all you really need. If you want, you can include additional information that might be helpful in establishing the validity of your claim, but you don't have to go into great detail. You can simply write something like this:

I am the author of this work, which is being sold by [publisher] without my permission. I originally published this story in [date/year] on [name of site], and have provided a link to the original above. On request, I can provide documentation proving that I am the owner of the account that originally posted this story.

In the ASIN/ISBN-10 field, copy and paste the ID number from the pirated copy's URL. You'll find this ten-digit number in the Amazon URL after the word "product," as in the screenshot below. (If the URL extends beyond this number, you can ignore everything from the question mark on.) Once this number has been added, Amazon will pull the product information automatically and add it to the complaint form, so you can check the listing title and make sure it's correct.

Finally, add your contact information to the relevant fields, check the "I have read and accept the statements" box, and then click Submit. You should receive an email confirmation that Amazon has received the form.

Please share this information with your writer friends, keep an eye out for/report pirated works, and help us keep fanfiction free and legally protected!

NOTE: All of the above also applies to Amazon products featuring stolen artwork, etc., so fan artists should check too!

”oh so how did you get into writing?-“ no, writing got into me. Actually it infiltrated my brain, starting with the slow takeover of my room with books to the extremely fast claiming of my notes app and now there’s no way to stop it and no way for me to stop.

reading over ur own stuff and finding sentences that make no sense, a lot of typos, and random words that aren’t capitalized sucks. but i know i won’t go back and fix it. not for the life of me

hi, lady gaga anon here. Do you have any masterlist for your prompts?

comforting a lover after a nightmare

caring for a sick character

only one bed prompts

hurt comfort prompts

saying goodbye to a dying character

i hate everyone but you/sunshine + grumpy prompts

enemies with benefits

apology starters

best friends to lovers prompts

unresolved feelings prompts

fake dating dialogue prompts

prompts that hit in all the right places

intimacy in a relationship (some prompts work for platonic relationships as well)

going to a cooking class dialogue prompts

arranged marriage prompts

build-a-blurb ask meme

reasons for banishment

a hundred different kisses

confessing your love starters

reasons for a break up

milestones in a relationship

sacred romantic moments

confessing to your oblivious best friend

reasons to not confess your feelings

friends to enemies to lovers prompts

separated childhood friends to lovers

angst, i guess

falling out of love starters

expressing love without saying i love you

reassurance starters

intimate romance prompts

bonding with your rival

falling out of love scenario prompts

small romantic gestures that make me swoon

a hundred kissing prompts

oblivious idiots in love

for a lover's reassurance

me: yeah i really like reading fanfiction because the similar characters and tropes are comforting for me

*screams at screen*

*throws phone across the room*

*fills folders with screenshots of the most heartbreaking literature ever written*

*cries violently*

*throws up*