Dating a renowned playboy isn't always a good thing.
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After dealing with internal complications of Nami and Mark's relationship comes another complication that tests, yet again, the foundation of their love. Thirteen girls, all of which Mark dat...
(This will be long but please read until the end because I have an announcement here!)
We'll be having a short lesson, dear Markers.
So today, I have discovered that one of my creations has been taken into an inspiration for another author. I cannot express how distinguishable the similarities are to my book, Marked. The book (which I will link to in the comment section below) share similar events, plot and even conversations from mine. Go check out the story and be the judge yourself and tell me what you think afterwards. Am I overreacting? I don't know. Coincidence? *shrug*
There's a huge line between taking inspiration from someone and copying a work. You don't copy the exact narratives from another book, you don't take lines from characters of the same book, you don't change the characters and the title of the book and say it's original - you just can't and it's never okay.
We, authors, dedicate our time and passion into writing these stories for readers to enjoy. Coming up with plots that are different and catchy and fresh, coming up with lines that can make an impact, distinct profiles of characters that set them apart from each other is a lot of work too. It takes a lot of time to perfect a craft.
Don't get me wrong. I'm very okay with taking inspirations from other books because I am inspired from other authors as well. I'm inspired by Kiera Cass' writing style so I try to adapt her way of writing but not to the extent of copying her words and writing structures.
If you're rereading Marked, you'll notice the difference of the chapters today and how they were published the first time. I developed a lot of my detailed narratives by reading a lot of books and I think it helped me grow as an author. I put a lot of work to my works and it's a little painful to see your work being published by someone else without giving you the credit.
I started writing Marked back in 2017. Shaping the story of MARKED, twisting the concept of 'Player Stories', is my work of art. I am very proud of how it turned out. I wanted this player story to be different from the player stories you read and I think that's one of the biggest strengths of the series - that Mark is a player to play his role in trying to win Nami's heart.
If you're an author who finds joy in creating stories that inspire readers, the least you can do is to show something that you're proud of. Not something you would be ashamed of. I don't tolerate plagiarism - especially when mine's on the line. So I'm really grateful for the two readers (which I won't be mentioning for the sake of their privacy) for informing me about this or I never would have found out.
I wasn't going to say anything about this and reach out to the author for this matter but I wanted this to be a reminder to every reader that if you witness something like this, to any author you support, it's best you let the author know so they can take action - like how my readers reached out to me.
The following screenshots are from the story. Of course, not every chapter is here but I made sure the screenshots show the similarities of the story with Marked in terms of dialogues, conversations and plot - especially. (It's a lot of blur so you can just read the story provided in the comments)
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The only account who will be posting a revised and non-fanfic version of Marked (and any other books I've published under this account) is my second account royalepain. In that account, everything is the same but non-fanfiction. I will be posting Loving Lisbeth Salander there as well and a few stories that aren't Fanfiction but teen fiction, science fiction, and fantasy books I'm trying to work on. So if you're into other stuff, you can support me there as well!
The Webtoon for Marked, which I planned around last year, didn't push through because of my heavy schedule. I have a lot in my hands and drawing, animating Marked just couldn't fit. I'll try to make this possible in the future though!
The next announcement is that MARKED WILL BE SELF-PUBLISHED VERY SOON! I've been editing Marked a lot and the edited version will only be available with the self-published book. I've added a lot of scenes that didn't make the cut in the Wattpad version so I hope you all support me with this step as well. Rest assured that I'll be doing a giveaway for this so stay tuned!
Also, I did not post this to shame the author or throw shade, this is a lesson I want everyone to really look up to. I'm happy that I inspire people but not this way.
