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Stephen
from Raleigh |

Sue her and the publisher. The so called  famous writer can't do this to a blogger by taking credit of someone else's creative work. You should take actions. I stand with you

#IstandWithGangaBharani

Preeti Chauhan
from Delhi |

I went through both excerpts , yours is way better than hers .Your style of narration is very different from hers though the the setting and introduction of the character is eerily similar .

Ganga Bharani
from Bangalore |

Thank you Preethi. I am not saying she has word to word copied. My fight is against the intention of an editor of a reputed publishing house. The way the manuscripts sent to publishing houses are not protected these days.

Mohit
from Mumbai |

Ganga Bharani relax and keep your mind cool as then only you'll be able to find what you need to do. If you're true, then don't worry.

Parichita
from Mumbai |

I agree with that concern. The publishers should have at least replied. 

Subroto
from Brisbane |

Literary plagiarism can often be hard to prove.  The last major case I can recall was of Kaavya Viswanathan was accused of plagiarism and lost her two-book deal.  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/harvard-author-admits-that-she-internalised-an-earlier-novel-475664.html

Is her entire book similar to yours or only the first chapter?  But I can understand your pov.  I am hardly a writer but when someone took my fictional character from my blog and started using it on his blog without my permission I was really upset.  

In your case if the first chapter was copied verbatim then your case for plagiarism is strong.  If only the ideas and some words are common then it is more of a case of unprofessional conduct and you should bring that up strongly with her publishers.

Ganga Bharani
from Bangalore |

Subroto, 

Thanks for that information. It was useful. 

I am not even talking about plagiarism. It's about the intent of an editor and the way the publishers didn't take the plagiarism doubt mail seriously.

Arvind Passey
from Delhi |

Are editors sitting in comfortable air-conditioned cubicles reading ideas sent by writers and then adopting them as their own creative vision? Even if there is no straightforward copy-pasting, there is certainly a high degree of breach of trust here. The publishing house, I'm sure, will be concerned about such a breach and will take appropriate action.

Ganga Bharani
from Bangalore |

Day 8- I have found a few more points. Similarities between Right here, right now and my book, Just you, me and a secret:1. Clearly first chapters are very similar.

2. In the second chapter of my book I have written a scene with the laptop. It can be read here http://scribbledbygb.blogspot.co.uk/…/just-you-me-and-secre… A scene in Right here Right now is very similar to this scene.

My argument here is, it's about a 17 year old girl. She is shown childhood photographs. So when she was a kid, it would have been a year in 90s when Digital cameras were not there. So it is natural for anyone to say that the amnesiac was showed a physical photograph. Why a laptop? I had written laptop because that scene occurred so to me and also it was about the recent photographs. In her defense, she can say it was all digitized form of physical photographs. But why a laptop? It could have been a tablet or a phone. The only conclusion I can come to, with this point also, is that it's taken from my manuscript.

3. Her book starts from 2nd April 2013. I would like to point out that the first five chapters of my manuscript was sent to Grapevine in January, 2013. I received a reply from Nikita asking for full manuscript on 4th, March, 2013. I sent the manuscript immediately as I had it ready. As writers we tend to make use of the date we start the book, we don't write a date too much in future. So, my point is that she has started writing her book after she received my full manuscript. This makes the intention clear to me.

https://www.facebook.com/gangabharaniv/posts/735035536603698

Nitin Balodi
from Chandigarh |

That's unfair. You should drag her in a litigation.  Go ahead we are with you.  One should respect other's work.

Ganga Bharani
from Bangalore |

I will Nitin. Thanks a lot. For now my only goal is to make the publishers and the writer to answer my questions and do justice to the complaint. 

They are too big for me to fight alone. That's why I share all that happens to create records of it on social media. Also, to keep the people who support this fight against plagiarism updated. 

Ganga Bharani
from Bangalore |

To clarify-
I had posted just the first chapter because photographing the other pages of her book and posting it online is not the right thing to do. First chapter was taken from samples Amazon site has.

Secondly, the similarities don't stop with first chapter. It's just an example I had given. There are a lot more similarities. I have a list which I won't post here for obvious reasons.

Ganga Bharani
from Bangalore |

What's more painful is that grapevine publishing house is yet to even respond to this after several mails and tweets. Even Nikita continues to ignore.
Can famous people do things they want and not even bother to address the issue?

Sasidhar Kareti
from Kavali |

I was really shocked to know about this Ganga. i never thought Nikita would do this. She is also a writer after all #LetsStopStealingIdeas 

Pritha Banerjee
from Kolkata |

Really sad reading this. Actually, I never imagined Nikita Singh do this. Because honestly, all her books seem original. Of course, now I get it. It is because of all you great writers. Don't lose hope dear.

Deepika
from Bangalore |

Hi Ganga...What happened.. Did you get any positive response from the publishers ? 

Ganga Bharani
from Bangalore |

Hi Deepika, 

Penguin mailed me justifying just the one similarity i have mentioned myself saying that it could be coincidence. They said a team of experts read the books to just justify the one point i have mentioned as example. They did not even talk about the other 14 similarities and it was expected. 

Nikita did not even bother to address this personally or publicly. 

Now some of the legal expertsi know are reading both the books. Let's see how it goes.

All that said, I am happy with how it is already. All I wanted was people knowing about such things happening to writers and I think i was successful with it. :)  

Deepika
from Bangalore |

That gives a little hope Cool 

As John Lennon said "Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end". Hope you will get justice..all the best!!!

kanuj sharma
from Mumbai |

Best of Luck for your Next Book Ganga.  Hope you are able to cope up with all this, and come out strong.  Would recommend you don't give your script to unknown publisher and editor, share only with well-known persons whom you can trust.