When John Shooter shows up at Mort Rainey’s door in Secret Window, it is more than a tense exchange between character actors John Turturro and Johnny Depp. It is every writer’s nightmare, and it’s not just because it’s based on a Stephen King novel. It’s much worse. One author accuses the other of plagiarism.

How would you respond to such a charge?!

Of course, the story has layers. Every good story does. Regardless of what happens in the movie (worth a watch!), it raises ethical issues about the written words you release into the world. You damn well better make sure they are yours or give credit to those you “borrow” from. Keep an eye on copyrights and trademarks too.

Types of Plagiarism

You may think of plagiarism as the direct and intentional copying of someone else’s work word for word. This is known as direct plagiarism or verbatim plagiarism. However, there are other types of plagiarism to consider.

• Paraphrasing Plagiarism: This happens when you paraphrase someone else’s work, not just their words but their ideas, but do not credit them with a citation. Changing a few words but keeping the same sentence structure is especially egregious, but don’t think that moving sentence fragments or paragraphs around makes it any better.
• Mosaic plagiarism (also known as patchwork plagiarism): This is when you use a patchwork of sources without properly citing them. This could mean you use someone else’s phrases as your own or you paraphrase without giving the original author(s) credit. Even if you interject their words with phrases of your own, it’s not okay. You are still claiming someone else’s ideas as your own.
• Self-plagiarism: Yes, you can plagiarize yourself! Even though you wrote those words, it does not mean it is right to present them as a new idea if they have already been published elsewhere. This becomes especially important when your work is not yours alone. For example, you have a contract with a publisher or you presented a research article with other authors.

Famous Cases of Plagiarism

If you’re looking for plagiarism horror stories, Nora Roberts is a great example. A prolific author who has sold millions of books, she has both been plagiarized and accused of plagiarism.

Self-published Brazilian romance author Cristiane Serruya and former lawyer (so don’t tell me she didn’t know it was wrong!) was busted in 2019 for copying from as many as 10 of Roberts’ works, including passages from The Liar and Whiskey Beach. As it turns out, she has stolen from as many as 40 authors! Understanding that many of her fellow romance novelists do not have the financial means to go after her, Roberts has taken it into her own hands to sue. She plans to donate any proceeds to a literacy program in Brazil.

What is perhaps most disturbing about Serruya’s plagiarism is her tenacity. Instead of acknowledging her mistake, she blamed it on a ghostwriter she hired from Fiverr. Even if the ghostwriter was at fault, Serraya paid for the service, did not check for plagiarism, and claimed the work as her own. She is still responsible. However, it has come out that Serruya may not be telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. In fact, two ghostwriters have come forward and stated that Serruya fed them specific lines she wanted to have included in their stories. It’s not a pretty picture.

Then there are folks who call plagiarism when there is no plagiarism to be had. In this case, it came down to book titles, not actual story content. In 2018, first-time author Tomi Adeyemi charged Nora Roberts of stealing and trying to profit off her book titled Children of Blood and Bone. Roberts’ book was Of Blood and Bone. It turned out that Roberts’ book had been submitted and approved by her publisher a year before Adeyemi’s book even came out. How many times have you seen books with the same title? Hint: you cannot copyright a title.

Preventing Plagiarism

No one wants to find themselves in a scandal like this but it happens more than you know. What can you do to make sure it doesn’t happen to you?

It’s possible to get so caught up in your research and taking notes that you are unduly influenced by the material. You may start to think ideas are your own. That’s when you may be steering into dangerous territory. Keep tabs on all your references as you go along. Learn how to cite properly. Use quotation marks when you use anything verbatim. Consider using an online plagiarism checker to check any work before you submit it anywhere. Grammarly has one as do Chegg, DupliChecker, EduBirdie, Quetext, and Small SEO Tools among others.

As long as you stay true to yourself, as long as you give credit where credit is due, you should do well.