When a newspaper uses your words without your permission.
I interviewed the fascinating John McAvoy back in October 2014. John’s story is a story of redemption. A life lived in two parts — armed robber in his younger years but champion athlete and Ironman in recent years.
John was one of a number of inspiring people I interviewed as part of a site that I helped to create called Zidilife which was geared towards helping people achieve their goals by sharing the stories of inspiring people, people exactly like John.
Fast forward two years and John sent me a link to the Mirror — they’d written an article about John. The article was written by Lewis Panther and was marked as an “exclusive”. I read the article and was amazed to see that they’d used hundreds of my words.
In the article they’d claimed that John “had spoken to the People” and this is where, therefore, his quotes came from. John did no such thing. The article includes over 25 different quotes by John but every single one of these quotes appears to come from my interview with John. It wasn’t just the odd word here or there. It was over 500 words that I had written after having that chat with John back in 2014.
The article includes over 25 different quotes by John but every single one of these quotes appears to come from my interview with John.
The Mirror’s article was to all intents and purposes my article. Almost 50% of the article’s words were in fact my words. No attribution was given, no permission sought.
To make it worse this article then appeared in the Sunday People as a double page spread. Again, marked as an exclusive.
I contacted the editor of Trinity Mirror Group and after some back and forth they amended the byline to include my name. They included a link to the Zidilife website and importantly a link to John’s book which you can buy here — it’s a brilliant read and well worth a purchase for Christmas!
I work in IT but I love to write in my spare time. I am not sure when, or why, I started to write but I found that I loved it so I carried on doing it. I don’t claim to be any good but the blank page excites me — it’s an opportunity to create anything you want with the only limit being your imagination.
I’ve written and filmed a sitcom that you would never have heard of — possibly because it is painfully unfunny.
I’ve written a book — it features all the inspiring interviews I’ve held with some remarkable people. I even turned it into an eBook but perhaps because my skills lie in fixing servers the book remains somewhat unknown.
I’ve written, and conducted, over 25 interviews that sit on the site I co-created with my friend Christian Sommer. Some of the interviews I’ve done include conversations with people like Kevin Briggs who spends his days talking down suicidal people from jumping off of Golden Gate Bridge. Dave Jacka, a quadriplegic who flew solo around Australia and people like Sophie Holmes who told me she was going to climb Kilimanjaro, despite suffering from Cystic Fibrosis. These interviews are, on the most part, largely unread. This isn’t because of the quality of interviewee but rather because I can’t seem to get my website out there to the masses.
Now this isn’t where I ask you all to feel sorry for me!
There are reasons why this stuff hasn’t been read. Some of it very much looks like it was written by someone who works in IT! But then some of the other stuff I’ve written has not quite had that break yet. Maybe I need to work harder, maybe I need to meet more people in the know or maybe I just need to get better. One thing is for certain — I’d give anything to have an audience.
One thing is for certain — I’d give anything to have an audience.
And I think this is the most disappointing thing about this story. In the cold light of day I am not annoyed at the journalist for copying large parts of my work — mistakes happen I guess. I would just love to have the audience Lewis Panther has at his disposal — that’s what is more frustrating than anything. If my blog post somehow gets out and about and gets that thing I’ve read about called “an audience” then rather than castigate the journalist and the paper why don’t we instead read some “unknown” writers’ works? After all, what I can take from this episode is that on this occasion my work was good enough for the Mirror and Sunday People. So if my work was good enough, then I am sure thousands of others’ works are good enough as well. So the question I want people to ask is how many other writers are out there who have created something wonderful, but just who haven’t found their audience yet? Rather than spending our time reading Redtops, we can read and listen to some stuff by people who really want their material heard. Here’s a starter for ten:
The Rich Keeble Vanity Project — A quirky web series about a struggling actor.
The Hopeless Ramblers Podcast — discussing everything A to Z — very funny, and perfect for that boring train journey.
Noel Wrighter Screenwriter — A comedy web series about an aspiring screenwriter and his misguided attempts to make a documentary about the craft of screenwriting.
Joel Whybrew Artist —Some incredible drawings and sculptures from the artist Joel Whybrew.
Swimming the Atlantic — Ben Hooper is currently swimming from Senegal to Brazil! His story is an amazing one, his site details his progress and how you can get involved.
The Entrepreneur Journey — Martin Adams takes us through his experience of building a startup from scratch.
Happy listening and reading!
Steve
