hey lovelies,
it's a decision that i'm extremely disheartened about but my hands are forced.
this book debuted on 31st july 2023 and has been up on wattpad for a little more than a year. this was the book i started my writing journey with on wattpad and i've met so many wonderful readers & writers as a result. unfortunately, this book will not stay on wattpad from august 15th 2024.
the reason behind it is plagiarism or covert plagiarism. the explicit meaning of plagiarism is "presenting someone else's ideas as your own, without proper credit or citation". fortunately, i've not been on the recieving end of explicit plagiarism, where someone else has copied my story word to word.
at least, i've not seen any such case so far. if anyone has seen this work on someone else's profile or website, please inform me.
what i HAVE been a victim of is covert/subtle plagiarism. what does that mean? it means the work has not been copied word to word but many of the key ideas of the novel has been stolen. in the case of this novel, here are the key ideas :
- tutor arrangement in the last year of highschool
- female lead is a hardworking PCM student but is more interested in literature
- male lead is a physics nerd who also happens to brilliant at academics
- ✨ paper planes ✨ every novel of the Under The Skies series has a certain symbol or what i call "love language of the male lead". in the case of this book, the male lead writes little paper plane letters to the female lead. i want to emphasize that this is MY ORIGINAL IDEA, inspired from peder elias's song 'paper planes'. this whole novel was born from that idea.
- the key conflict of this chapter is academic pressures, comparisons and sibling conflicts.
- this book, along with every other book of mine, is set in fictional cities based in india.if any work on wattpad or other websites have used at least 3-4 of these keys ideas in their novel, it is extremely hard to rule it out as a co-incidence. it quite definitely means that my book has served as an inspiration to said author.
if author credits this story or me in the preface, prologue or first chapter, it can be completely excused, provided they don't continue to use scenes from this novel or copy anything else. i don't own tropes or general themes such as sibling comparisons, etc. but if you do use those themes in the exact setting as i have, IT IS STILL CALLED PLAGIARISM.
unfortunately, this has already happened thrice now for other books in the UTS series along with this one and it's been extremely mentally taxing. the only reason i came to find out about it is because the users had previously read a couple of my works and have showed up on my notifications.
this could mean that there are countless other users who may have stolen key ideas from this novel but haven't popped up in my notice because they have not engaged with this story in any way that would show up in my notifications.
i'm a sensitive person who gets very easily upset and i have a huge distaste for getting into arguments or any sort of confrontations. i am also extremely protective over my story content. so to minimize chances of getting plagiarized (it is impossible to completely avoid plagiarism, unfortunately),
i have decided to move all of the UTS series books to scrollstack, where it will be available ONLY to followers. this way, i have reduced the chances of me not finding out if someone has plagiarized my novel. hope that makes sense. note that the first two chapters along with the introductions will still be available on wattpad.
i'm not keen on monetizing any of my stories (quite frankly, i don't think they deserve money) so you will not have to pay anything. all you will have to do is drop a follow and the works on scrollstack will be automatically available to you.
if you've been inspired by my novel for an idea of your own, please do credit me and tag me. i will be flattered, honestly and i will do my best to help support your novel. let's not undertake such cheap means for a little engagement, please.
to readers who have loved and supported this story, thank you so so much. if it is possible, you can try creating a scrollstack account and you will be able to re-read the book on that platform. if you are caught in a situation where you cannot read on that platform, i'm terribly sorry but my hands are tied.
also, if you guys are writers on scrollstack, do drop your usernames here or links to your profiles. let me give you a follow and support your works ^ ^
link to the full version of the book is in this comment :
thank you for reading this note.
see you in another story,
adelaide.
YOU ARE READING
Under The Clear Summer Sky (Book 1 Of Under The Skies Series)
RomanceAnu and Vineet's relationship can be summarized in many ways - tutor and student, friends, grade-mates, neighbors. After 10 years, they can confidently add another to the list - lovers. [ FULL NOVEL AVAILABLE ON SCROLLSTACK ]