Ghost Orchid - is copying the finest flattery?

There's a new Ghost Orchid, published by two older women, about a mother who abandons her daughter and the relationship comes back together...

Sound familiar?

Ghost Orchid by D. K. Christi is about a mother who gives away her newborn daughter who feels abandoned and their relationship forms the theme.

I haven't read the new publication. Hopefully their self-publishing vanity press will bring more attention to my Ghost Orchid. However, it's difficult to know the difference anymore between self-published and small presses or even major presses since everyone has a self-publishing imprint.

I didn't, however, feel happy about the new Ghost Orchid. If you look for Ghost Orchid on Amazon.com, it comes up right next to Ghost Orchid by D. K. Christi - immediately next to it. Mine published in 2009, this one published in 2013.

It seems they could have at least altered the title a bit - but why not capitalize on the major marketing I have been doing since 2009? And it's major.

Anyone with ideas on how I can capitalize on theirs? Apparently, they purchased a marketing package as their printer is sending out press releases.

I didn't add that the sub-theme is that daughter's search for her father - I wonder if that's in the new Ghost Orchid, too.

I guess that answers the question about titles. You can use the same title as often as you wish apparently.

Not only that, the heroine of the new Ghost Orchid has strawberry hair and green eyes....

Not good. I hope they haven't plagiarized your work. Best get a copy and see.

I read the opening as found at Amazon.com. While the life of my Mel (mother of Neev) is not detailed; the mother in the new Ghost lost her daughter due to a substance abuse problem - so it starts with a different backstory for the same theme. The new Ghost also has a Melanie - glad mine's Melani without an e.

My original title as "Once More Before I Die." The publisher, L & L Dreamspell told me to name it Ghost Orchid without a "the" which would make it different from other similar titles. I did as my publisher suggested.

With something this flagrant, either they did copy or they were truly unaware and really did come up with the same title and premise (I'm trying to give benefit of the doubt).

deleted by author

Whether it's a matter of coincidence or what - since the publication of the copy Ghost Orchid, my Ghost Orchid Amazon listing is no longer on Page one when you Google "Ghost Orchid." It has been on page one since 2009. Not only is it no longer on page 1, but it has moved to Page 6 which is never never land for searchers.

Yep, it's their advertising that has bumped me off google's Ghost Orchid page 1 - and they are self-published. They borrowed a ghost orchid photo used on the cover of The Ghost Orchid Ghost And Other Tales from the Swamp by Doug Alderson (Mar 1, 2007) for their web site/blog.

They've been working on the story for several years - obviously they had plenty to read and look at from which they could borrow.

Oh well, I had a good run with great reviews and sales from 2009 through about 2012. They slowed in 2013 - because I started spending my time on the newspaper and writing the prequel.

This is costing me some energy toward the prequel. It is done fortunately, but selling it to publishers is more work than writing it.

Since these ladies live nowhere near the Everglades or Cuba - they got their inspiration for poetry and the ghost orchid from somewhere....

My inspiration came from the ghost orchid itself, surprising me by blooming on my birthday. I went to my office from that experience and began the first draft. It is completely original themes (connection to ghost orchid resulting form its impact on me....) - fortunately, my obsession with the "Super Ghost" of Corkscrew Swamp was also documented by a special in the Naples Daily News in 2008. If it ever came to legalities, the original nature of my novel is clear.

Perhaps since they self-published and I have two works already published in 2006 and 2009 that are in their writing...unbelievable...I guess they enjoyed my books....I think they should worry a bit about legalities. I wonder who owns the photo they are using on their web site. Fortunately, I have a publisher who takes care of the cover legalities and royalty for photo issues. I wonder if these two self-published authors thought about the source of the photo they used that has been used as a cover and by another writer and a person who sells books on making cards.

5/18/2013
Sounds suspicious to me....Ummmm If I found a book
called Dusty, not Dusty Springfield they keep tying my
book to and the story sounded the same ( I have my
copyright document 2004 ) I would " SUE," the hell out
of them.................. Joe

You really need to read it. If there is enough similarity, you might be able to claim copyright infringement if not literal plagiarism.

I searched for "Ghost Orchid" on Amazon.com and pulled up a novel "The Ghost Orchid" published in 2007 with 48 reviews, then your "Ghost Orchid" published in 2009 with seven reviews and a third "Ghost Orchid" published in 2013 with one review. On the copyright page of the most recent book, reference is made to a poem, Ghost Orchid, written by Robin Wright in 2007.

You can read the poem here:

https://www.facebook.com/BWWrighthard/posts/446168842132175

The book opens with the poem. Thanks for the research. /The Ghost Orchid published in 2007 has no similarity to either my novel or the recently published Ghost Orchid. If I remember, the color orchid figures into the mystery.

Here are my two cents on the general issue of copyright infringement.

It is not copyright infringement to use a book title--even for a similar book--or to use a similar plot line. There is a thin line between borrowing an idea and copyright infringement that can only be determined by examining both texts closely. An author has the right to make all derivative works based upon their copyrighted works, but unlike patent law which can protect an idea and its expression, copyright protects only the expression of an idea but not the idea itself. Thus Jaws does not infringe on Melville's Moby Dick despite the obvious similarities even if Melville's copyright were still in effect. If Shakespeare's plays were still protected by copyright, West Side Story could well be a derivative work (albeit updated and in musical form) of Romeo and Juliet. The distinction is a fine one, and reasonable lawyers could/would disagree on whether infringement exists in either of the cited examples, which I hope illustrates both the law and the problem. Photographs are also protected by copyright--as are cover designs. If the attempt is to capitalize on an author's work by purposely confusing readers--especially if a copyrighted image is used--it can constitute direct, willful infringement that provides significant statutory penalties and can include attorneys' fees and court costs.

One cautionary note, though. One needs to be careful in claims of plagiarism or infringement as these are also actionable as libel--and the person alleging the plagiarism has the burden of proving it.

Thanks Victor for the objective eye. I guess my original question is still valid: how do I capitalize on what appears as directly capitalizing on my theme? The title is not an issue because it is the name of a flower - not likely an ownership issue. However, the other people who have used that title had poetry, short stories, a story of the color orchid, or other themes that were far removed from mine.

No one used my theme because it came from my own original inspiration, standing beneath the cypress canopy in the Blair Audubon Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in Naples, Florida. Since 2009 I could just say, "Google Ghost Orchid" and up it would pop on Page 1. Go to Amazon.com and it was at the top of the Ghost Orchid list.

However, in commerce there is little honor. Wall Mart builds across the street from Target wherever they can. We had a big box hardware that was going to build next to Home Depot but changed its mind. I guess that's good for customers.

I guess it's good for readers that they have two Ghost Orchid books around the theme of the mystical ghost orchid that deal with a child's roots lost because of the mother and the follow-up rebuilding of a relationship. I guess it's good that the ghost orchid as a metaphor for roots and family love gets honored twice, first by me and then four years later by a self-published set of authors, two women under the combined pen name.

There's a definite advertising and promotion track record that I spent four years building that will just fall in their lap.

I agree. Movies and books repeat themes all the time. It's just that this one is so blatant by using the title exactly for a similar work. Usually, the title is modified a bit and so is the theme.

By the way, the author of the new Ghost Orchid has a business ghost writing. I can see where she might be quite adept at taking another person's ideas and putting them in writing.

I didn't think up the story of Ghost Orchid. I didn't create a story as a choice. It's hard to believe, but the story poured from my pen immediately after observing the ghost orchid and its affect on me - and all the other people observing it in awe. It was a moment of spiritual inspiration, a flower that spoke to my creative muse. I don't explain that part often because it was such a mystical experience that it sounds like someone else besides practical me.

I had never seen the ghost orchid, knew about it or cared about it. It reached out to me and told me to write the story. I wrote the story core in one afternoon, non-stop, and little of it changed in the final novel. It was an almost surreal experience. I was driven, compelled, to finish, working one week with little but catnaps because I had the time off from work.

I had to rewrite it to get it published. I had to move it from first person to third person. I still prefer the first person version.

Oh well, four years was a good run. Thanks for letting me vent. Commerce is commerce. My spirit is a little damaged, though, just as my Page 1 on Google is lost by a newcomer with my title and my theme who surely didn't stand under the same cypress and experience its first discovery - on my birthday.

I would get a copy and read it. Actually get a copy and have someone who hasn't read your book read both.

HaroldLee wrote:

I would get a copy and read it. Actually get a copy and have someone who hasn't read your book read both.

I agree.

You are right. However, as Victor so clearly points out, ideas are there for the taking with little recourse. With the proliferation of authors and no vetting by publishers anyone can write anything these days. It's become a free for all - and I guess that's a sort of democratization of the writing industry.

At least in the past, there was some convention to using the ideas and themes of other others - a twist to the title, a change to the characters, a location difference, a time difference... and at a minimum the passage of time.

Today, anyone can put their blog on Kindle and sell it. I think I may be too much of the past to compete where there is no honor. I may have to find other ways of expressing ideas - and surely not try to sell them.

I gave up on that too. Thank heavens, There are far easier ways to eat.

It's a pity. I wonder how many true professionals are leaving the market. You can what you want about being driven and a true writer must write - those things are true. However, a professional writer doesn't have to share what they write in a field of muck. At one time, there was a type of professional society among writers, at least of the same genre. Now, it's each man or woman or child for themselves with a plethora of ebook people to put them on Kindle and the like.

Just a bad day. Tomorrow, I'll see the light. You know writers, emotional and ego-centric.