Welcome to Writers Talkback. If you are a new user, your account will have to be approved manually to prevent spam. Please bear with us in the meantime

My story has been published with another author's name on it

edited July 2012 in - Writing Tales
I was very disappointed (and pretty bloomin' cross too) to open 'My Weekly' (July 10-16 2012) to find my story 'Where's Jack' has been published UNDER SOMEONE ELSE'S NAME. Someone called Helen M Hunt has been credited with my work.
I e-mailed my editor expressing my displeasure but there's nothing to be done - it's there now. ALCS are not going to accept that this is my work but I'm going to e-mail them too in the hope that they will investigate and attribute my work to my account.
BAH!

Comments

  • Your story, your name, your cheque.
  • I was paid ages ago, BB, so at least that's sorted!
  • Helen Hunt has a good name as a writer, she will feel your pain and be mortified at the error.
  • edited July 2012
    I'm sure they will put it right in the next edition. Small consolation, I know. I can understand your fury!

    (Sorry, my mind went blank and I used 'compensation' to begin with. I couldn't live with it, so I've edited it.)
  • I think any writer would feel like that, seeing someone else's story attributed to them, or their story with someone else's name attached.
  • Maybe in the next issue, your name will be on one of Helen Hunt's stories, Ceka - unless they stop it in time...
  • That may be the explanation...
  • I e-mailed her, just a friendly jokey 'Oy, guess what?' e-mail and she replied and was unaware of the error. She's a good writer so I should maybe be pleased that my work carries her name ...
    but I wannit to carry MINE, that's why I bother putting it there at the end of a story!
  • [quote=ceka]She's a good writer so I should maybe be pleased that my work carries her name ...[/quote]

    She will have heard of you too. Bet this turns up in one of her articles.
  • Thank you for that!
    I await with bated breath
    Yes, bated. Not baited!
  • Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I feel your pain. I want to go into the Co-op here in the village and take every copy of My Weekly and paste your name over hers. (I don't mean to be mean to her - she is probably feeling bad, too.)
  • Oh no, what a blunder. How infuriating! For both of you, I should think.
  • I sort of know how you're feeling, ceka, in that my one-and-only letter to Writing Mag appeared over someone else's name. I got an apology the following month, but it wasn't the same. I think if it had been a story I'd have topped myself !
  • How awful Ceka. Not much can be done unless they put an apology in the next issue. That’s all that can be done, I think.
  • That is awful Ceka. I think the one thing you look forward to is the satisfaction of seeing your story credited with your name, how infuriating.
  • ceka, I feel OUTRAGED on your behalf. Shameful of the mag to make such a stupid mistake. They should accept and publish at least your next three submissions in compensation!
  • Oh that's awful. I really feel for you.
  • Liz got back to me today with many apologies and an explanation of how it might have happened. She says they've now added another layer of checks to try to make sure it never happens again. They can't correct it, obviously!
    Never mind, another experience notched up in this great world of writing!
  • [quote=ceka]. They can't correct it, obviously![/quote]

    So what ARE they going to do? Print an apology in the next issue or what?
  • Free subscription for a year? Big box of cake? They should offer something nice.
    One writer I told about it has crossed out Helen's name in her copy of the mag and replaced it with yours in biro, ceka, so at least one copy of MW now has the right name against the story!
  • [quote=Viv]They should offer something nice.[/quote]

    I do think a special apology should be made because it is Ceka, a writer who is a regular and trusted contributor.
  • That's an awful thing to happen. I wrote a piece some years ago for a magazine and they credited it to someone else. I was so annoyed and upset, so I know how you feel.
  • edited July 2012
    The nearest thing I know of to this is a clergy friend in Derbyshire, with whom I was ordained eleven years ago, was asked by his vicar to write an article for their parish magazine. When the magazine was printed, the article appeared much altered, and the vicar's name was at the end of it. This, however, was no mistake, it was deliberate. My friend, who was his curate, complained, but was simply told that he would have to accept it, as in the Church, ideas belonged to no-one. They never got on after that, and although my friend made a complaint to the bishop, he had to sit out his three years minimum in that parish before moving to his first post in charge. He has sworn that there is no way would he do that on anyone himself. He subsequently found that the vicar concerned had since done the same thing to his successor.
  • Ceka, that's dreadful; I'm so sorry to hear it. I hope you are recompensed correctly and they print an apology.

    John - how appalling! Vicar or not, that's plagiarism; surely the church is not above the law?
  • [quote=LilyC]John - how appalling! Vicar or not, that's plagiarism; surely the church is not above the law?[/quote]

    You're right, it isn't. I'm just glad it didn't happen to me, because there is no way I would have let it go as my friend did. In my situation at that time, my vicar similarly asked me to write the monthly article for the parish magazine on alternate months with him. When I told him what happened to my friend, he was appalled. He knew the vicar concerned, and said to me that it didn't surprise him, as the man was "an arrogant prig! and wondered how he had ever become a clergyman."
  • That John is disgusting and not the right kind of behaviour for a vicar.
  • Too right, Stan. I'm glad I wasn't his curate. He would have had a fight on his hands. By contrast, my vicar during my time as a curate was brilliant, and we remain good friends to this day.
  • Imagine: in the right corner: The Vicar: In the left corner: The curate with smoke coming out of his nostrils. ;)
  • edited July 2012
    :)

    I hope they at least print a correction notice, Ceka.
  • How aweful Ceka, the only consolation (small I know) is at least you know it was a mistake and not plagiarism. Who knows maybe in the end it will work in your favour.
  • Thank you, everyone, for your indignation on my behalf. It was a genuine (and I hope unusual) mistake and my editor with her apology did give me a run-through of how it happened - something about templates and someone forgetting to alter a byline (the author's name) so I assume that at some time in the recent past HMH has had a short story published in exactly the same place in the mag as mine - and the name didn't get moved and the oversight wasn't picked up.

    The ALCS problem should be easily sorted - I've told them about the mistake and my editor is happy to be contacted to confirm authorship.

    It's an interesting experience, one I hope will never be repeated - MW have added an extra layer of checks to make sure of that - but I don't think a printed correction is going to happen and I admit I'm sorry about that. It's just one of those things one has to put up with and let's face it, nobody died or was injured so does it really matter in the great scheme of things?

    Thanks again, everyone, good old support-network on TB

    JohnWho's experience is far more indignantatious (glorious new word!) and to think that was in the clergyworld. Shocking! Defrock the rotter!
  • [quote=ceka]JohnWho's experience is far more indignantatious (glorious new word!) and to think that was in the clergyworld. Shocking! Defrock the rotter![/quote]

    As far as know, he will have retired around two years ago, so should not be in a position to do anything like that again.
  • [quote=ceka]It's an interesting experience[/quote]

    Can you make an article out of it?
  • Wow Ceka - just been reading this from an apartment in Bulgaria . What an experience and as you say one you don't want repeated!
  • That's a really annoying thing to happen, ceka.
    Helen is a very good writer and a very nice person, too, but that's not really relevant.
    I have also recently heard of this happening to another writer for MW and they were also told that additional checks had been put in place. Seems like the new checks haven't had much effect yet!
Sign In or Register to comment.