 |
| I think my cover is classier. Just sayin'... |
No seriously, I was checking my sales rank on Amazon as I like to do (so I know when I sold something) and I saw that John Irving's next novel In One Person was listed as things people looked at who looked at my book. Since he's my favorite author, despite that I swore on the old blog I wouldn't read any new books by him again, I decided to check it out.
Here's the book description:
His most political novel since The Cider House Rules and A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving’s In One Person is an intimate and unforgettable portrait of the solitariness of a bisexual man who is dedicated to making himself “worthwhile.”Advance praise for John Irving’s In One Person:Immediately I'm like, "Hey, that's MY book!"
 |
| Told you my cover is classier... |
The kicker is that I sent him a copy of the book and he sent me a letter back, so I know he knows about it. Shenanigans!
I can just see it now: he reads my book and thinks it really good. He passes it on to his editor, but the editor say no one will want to read a book like this from some nobody, so let's just reedit it and pass it off as yours! Ca-ching!
I'm probably just being paranoid, but it's a little coincidental, don't you think? Now I think I'll have to read it just to see how much he's ripping me off. Though suing would be a waste of time. His lawyers would crush me like an empty beer can. I mean, you've seen with Dan Brown and JK Rowling that those lawsuits don't go anywhere.
(Incidentally kids, this is why you never let another author see your book. Now you know, and knowing is half the battle...)
That DOES sound a lot like your book.
ReplyDeleteTrue story: years ago, I got an anonymous email about my story "The Deal," and how it apparently resembled greatly a then-new movie "Jake's Closet."
So I consulted a lawyer in LA who I was referred to, as I don't practice that area of law, and we talked about what kind of similarities would have to be proven up.
Then I finally bought the DVD of the movie and never watched it.
I'm hypersensitive about people stealing my ideas, except when I'm not -- because I post them all -- and so I got all bent out of shape for a while when Non Sequitur looked like it was cribbing from my story "The Window."
If I were you, I would watch this very closely, especially if you sent Irving a copy of your book.
Also: Now that I know you pre-write these, I'm trying to figure out which ones were prewritten and when. It's like time-travel.
I'm going to add another comment, copied verbatim from what I put on Offutt's blog:
ReplyDeleteIf you like winning, here's an easy one for you: Heather is having a contest:
http://mydemonspirits.blogspot.com/
To write a Xmas story in 500 words or less. You can enter until the 31st. Right now I'm winning, which isn't fair because I didn't even follow the rules. Which means pretty much any story you write is going to win. You could write "Christmas" 500 times in a row and beat me, and probably that would win some sort of literary award because we live in a stupid postmodern age. But I'm serious: Go enter! When people hold contests, we should enter, and everyone's got one Christmas story in them. Here, I'll get you started:
1. An elderly woman finds a mysterious package under her Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. She lives alone, and it's signed "From Santa."
2. A spaceship lands in Bethlehem on the night of the first Christmas.
3. Two boxers in the locker room talk about the fight they just had and their plans for Christmas.
Come on, get writing!
I think you should sue him and get some money.
ReplyDeleteYO JOE!
ReplyDeleteI've never read any Irving.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do know that it's super hard to prove that someone stole your idea. There doesn't have to be much variation for a case of that sort to fall apart. I mean, if that wasn't the case, there would only be, like, 2 fantasy series ever. "Oh, wait, you have an orphan with an unknown heritage? Sorry, that's been taken." The point, I suppose, is that you can't copyright an idea. Only plot points.
Really, it all goes back to the Giligan's Island movie where the come home and the Professor "invents" all these things that have already been invented.
Speaking of sueing, did you see that James Cameron is being sued by two separate people both claiming that he stole the idea for Avatar from them?
Who's suing James Cameron? Kevin Costner? The creator of the Smurfs? Really that movie ripped off so many other movies it'd be hard to pick.
ReplyDeleteI know I can't win a lawsuit. I mean he's an established Big Six author who can afford lawyers who cost thousands of dollars an hour. I could maybe get someone like Lionel Hutz.
It's the idea that counts and we creatives shouldn't hand then out like PEZ or something of little value. Just ask the Winklevoss (sp?) twins.
ReplyDeleteWow, I hope he didn't steal your book.
ReplyDeleteHarlan Ellison sued Cameron for The Terminator... now Harlan has a note in the credits that says 'based on the works of Harlan Ellison' or something to that effect. I think Cameron is a bit bitter about it, it's been awhile since I read anything about it, but it seems like the similarities were pretty tenuous between Terminator and whatever it was Ellison wrote.
ReplyDeleteAnywho, did you see that movie from the guy who made Napoleon Dynamite about that kid who took his story to a writer's workshop hosted by his favorite author? He went, was told his story is crap, and then the author, who was fresh out of ideas, changed the characters names and gave it to his editor and it was the biggest hit he ever had... hilarity ensued. Crappy movie, but you should watch it at least once.
Good luck with the lawsuit.
Maybe he read your book, and it was so amazing it gave him an idea for his. Two novels on similar topics can be very dissimilar.
ReplyDeleteOr maybe he didn't read yours after reading the back cover since he was already working on one on a similar topic? He's a god, so I would like to think he has some integrity. I dunno.
...uh, the hardcover version of his book costs less than the paperpack version of yours on Amazon. What's up with that?
ReplyDelete