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Notice about fradulent Amazon MoL sale (Patreon)

Published:
2021-01-25 22:33:04
Edited:
2021-01-29 09:42:01
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Content

So. Recently someone started selling Mother of Learning on Amazon, completely without my permission or knowledge. I have send a request to Amazon to take this obvious case of plagiarism/scam down, and they've said they would respond in '1-2 says'... but I still haven't heard back from them.

I won't link to offending Amazon sale, as that would just give it traffic. I just want to make it clear to everyone: this has not been done with my support, and is not official in any way. I am working on publishing MoL, but things aren't done yet. When they are, I will surely notify people here well in advance and not just quietly put the story on Amazon like this.

tl;dr It's a scam, don't buy.

Edit: Amazon has taken the story down. Goodreads has also taken down the person impersonating me. I guess this situation has been resolved, then. Thank you all for reaching out to me and helping out.

Comments

Armo

Scumbags. I hope editing is going well for you! Patiently waiting for some sign of Zenith on the horison.

Young Youghurt

You would expect Amazon to have some quality check.

JDG

Woah, how did you catch the scam? I'm so glad you did. What garbage.

ShadowTitan 22

Damn that's sick. Still plan on buying the book when you release it just so I can have it on a shelf and reread every now and then.

JDG

I just searched Amazon. There are at least TWO such entries, plagiarizing not only you, but MoL fan art.

Luke Hanks

The Zenith is by definition never on the horizon. 😉

Jeff091

i am waiting till there is an audiobook (hopefully)

JDG

Same.

Domagoj Kurmaic

Thankfully, I still have a prety active fanbase and they notified me very quickly. I'm very grateful for their diligence. However, since I've gotten a lot of questions asking me if this is legitimate as well, I figured I would make this post as a basic precaution.

Domagoj Kurmaic

I'm not the only person that account has done this too, and they haven't managed to get it taken down either. I understand they can't check every upload, but the slow response once they are made aware of the issue is kind of concerning.

JDG

Sounds like it's on us to plaster the review section with warnings.

Young Youghurt

If it was a stolen music/movie they would immediately send FBI/CSI/NCIS/NSA but when it's not a corporation nobody cares. Double standards.

Corwin Amber

I just posted a single star review on amazon (still awaiting 'approval' to show up) with the comments that it is a scam/stolen/not supporting the author. Hopefully amazon takes it down soon.

Corwin Amber

Also I just realized that the 'author' listed as being used for this might be connected to other stolen books. Is this one yours too? The Legend of the Timelord: The Vanished Village

Yoram Beer

They're claiming to be you too?! Shows your name as the author! Any way we can help by reporting it or something?

Domagoj Kurmaic

They definitely are. The author of Epilogue (Etzoli on Royal Road) also had his book stolen by him. But Timelord isn't one of mine; I'm not sure where that particular book is lifted from. As from some old fanfiction, MoL is the only story I published on the internet.

Domagoj Kurmaic

Yeah, me and another person I've never heard about. I don't really know to be honest - this is the first time this has happened to me, so I'm not sure what to tell you.

Domagoj Kurmaic

Do you mean the 'World and Character Guide'? First time I hear about this. What could that even be? It says its 200+ pages. Of what? I'm not even sure what they're copying there. Weird. In any case, I didn't even know about that one until you told me about just searching amazon. I guess I should get into a habit of periodically doing that search myself.

JDG

Yes, that. Do you want me to reach out to the artists who made the fan art that's also being used without permission?

J H

Sorry you're going through this. People are the worst.

Faren

If they don't get back to you by the third day, contact them over the phone. You are harder to ignore when you don't give someone the chance to ignore you.

Sid_Cypher

Big market players bully the smaller ones and tread carefully around each other. Such double standards can be fully explained by cost/benefit analysis, I believe.

DiabolicalGenius

Everything I posted in this comment before I edited is a brainfart. Please refer to my reply below.

Domagoj Kurmaic

It's still up as far as I can tell. Both the search for 'Mother of Learning' and a direct link still take me to the page. Not sure why you can't see it but I can't. Does Amazon have some sort of filtering where you can see content depending on what you visited in the past?

Domagoj Kurmaic

Umm... wow. I don't think there's anything actually illegal about naming yourself Domagoj Kurmaic, and I suppose it could just be a fan... but the fact the exact same novel is also published on Amazon by the same account that plagiarized my story means there's probably more going on than that. I don't intend to do anything about this in particular, but it's a curious thing and I thank you for calling my attention to it.

DiabolicalGenius

You're right and I'm feeling a bit of an idiot. I'm afraid I was looking at the UK site, not amazon.com. Usually kindle novels are available on both regardless, so it never occurred to me he'd have only put it on the main site. My bad. Disregard everything I said in the previous comment. Instead I recommend posting a link to the store page here and asking all your patrons to post reviews revealing that it's been stolen and that you have nothing to do with it. Being nice, reporting it and then just waiting quietly for them to get back to you rarely works out. The more fuss you make the better. That's the only way to make them actually care. There's a good chance they won't bother unless they're actually contacted by a lawyer and threatened with legal proceedings. I was being way too charitable before. I think I'll edit all that stuff I said out of the comment to stop my embarassment. This is what I get for forgetting to be cynical and actually giving these people the benefit of the doubt. So yeah, post about to to your fans here, on fictionpress, royalroad, wherever anyone reads your novel and let them know. You need to make a scene. Hopefully you won't have to actually start a lawsuit but it may really come to that.

Kalliope

There are also posts with both your name/nobody103 and MoL on amazon.de. - the one time i want to report something i can't find the button... i'll look harder. Such frauds!

Leveticus

I tried posting a one star review and was just notified by Amazon that my review was denied. Here is what I wrote: *WARNING* This is not legit! This is a fraudulent listing, the author has confirmed he has not published Mother of Learning on his Patreon. That being said, the story is truly amazing and currently available for FREE to read on Royal Road.

Kalliope

Why was the review denied? I can see that not a single review was posted, at all.

Leveticus

As far as I can tell, it’s just a generic response: Thank you for submitting a customer review on Amazon. After carefully reviewing your submission, your review could not be posted to the website. While we appreciate your time and comments, reviews must adhere to the following guidelines: Amazon Community Guidelines

Leveticus

The Amazon (US) listing I’m looking at now has three reviews, all five star.

Jason

Thanks for the info.

HenryMorgan

I cant find the US listing of MoL, i think they've taken it down.

Domagoj Kurmaic

They have. I guess I should edit the post to note it, now that I think about it.

Leveticus

Glad the situation has been resolved, but maybe beat the next scum trying to steal MoL to the punch and publish it for real.