Plagiarism. It's an author's worst nightmare, and it's as widespread and annoying as mosquitoes. It gets our blood boiling since someone stole our book.

It happens everywhere and anyone can be targeted, even when books are traditionally published. No site or app is safe from a truly determined thief.

About half the time, it's a reader who doesn't understand that they aren't allowed to 'share' your book with others by reposting it. The other half of the time, it's intentional, and they were hoping you wouldn't notice.

The only upside to plagiarism is that someone thought your story was good enough to be worth stealing.

If you wish more details on copyright, there are many sources out there, including this one on Wattpad: support.wattpad.com/hc/en-us/articles/216192503-Copyright-FAQ

Fanfiction is a grey area with a lot of the decisions being left to you. I touch on this at the bottom.

How to Check:

Sometimes we find out about a stolen story from friends or followers. More often, we have to go searching for them. I do this about once a month or so.

Open your story, and in your summary and first chapter, select several unique sentences that do NOT contain character names. (Most thieves change names and a few minor details to slide under the radar).

Go to Google, and paste that sentence between quotations marks. (Quotation marks make Google search for an exact match and not just look for key words)

Then scan the search results to see if any might be your story. Some results are to be expected, such as Goodreads (a review site), other reviews, and links to your real story.

Often, we also see results for things like 'download pdfs', and when we go there, it's a sketchy site with a weird name that wants an account or a credit card number. These places usually don't have your story - it's a fake ad tied into your search terms to try and lure you in. You can ignore these or submit a Google Search Removal Report (below).

For Wattpad writers, we'll often see results for illegal mirror sites like Truyen, Teenfic, NovelHD, and a few others.  (These sites pop back up as fast as Wattpad takes them down, which isn't easy since they're often hosted in countries that don't care about copyright). (If they show your name as the 'author' and the reads/votes from Wattpad, it's a mirror site)

Sometimes you'll get a match on a site like Amazon or another writing app where someone posted your story. 

How to Report:

It's great when a book takes off, but a letdown when it gets stolen. Thankfully, Most sites are honest, and if alerted to a stolen work, they will remove it if you submit a DMCA takedown request. (The author or agent has to submit this)

The details on how to submit this will vary by website. They will have a Copyright Infringement links somewhere with instructions.  Some, like Amazon, have a form to fill out (more details on Amazon below). 

Some want a specifically-formatted DMCA takedown notice emailed to them. There are many DMCA templates on Google. Some you just replace a few words and others are fill in the blank.

Edit template version: www.pixsy.com/how-to-send-a-dmca-takedown-notice/

Fill-in-the-blank version: sfwa.org/2010/07/27/sample-dmca-generator-for-authors/

Most sites will remove the stolen work within a few days. So far, the only ones I haven't seen honor a DMCA takedown were mirror sites. Mirror sites are a constant headache. They target Wattpad and various other sites and writing apps. As fast as the sites are taken down, they pop right back up. It's an arms race, just like where musicians try to keep their songs from being illegally copied and people just as determinedly find ways around the new protections.

 In all honesty, most mirror sites are littered with viruses, so I don't think many people read stories there. If you go to these sites, make sure you have good virus protection.

There isn't much you can do about mirror sites if they don't honor DMCAs. Really determined authors will track down the hosting servers and report the violation, but that is a long, drawn-out headache that most authors can't be bothered with.

One option is to remove the link from Google's search results. This doesn't actually remove the story, but it can prevent people from finding it while searching. This also works to remove those fake pdf downloaders. support.google.com/legal/troubleshooter/1114905?hl=en

Another option is to use footnotes that also get copied, so readers know where the original story is supposed to be. Many will go there to read it. (More on this below in the 'Prevention' section)

Amazon DMCA Takedown: Amazon is one of the easier ones to get it taken down.

www.amazon.com/report/infringement?language=en_US

- as a tip from experience, include links to your book, and mention the publish date on it. (Also mention HOW to find the date - by hovering over the publish button) Amazon is obsessed with first-post dates. Be sure to note where the similarities are and quote a few. Word for word, just a name change, etc. Expect Amazon to email you and ask for more details. This always seems to happen.

Ways to Prevent:

I'll admit that most prevention methods are somewhat of an exercise in futility since if someone is determined to steal something, they'll find a way, even if they have to type it out word-by-word. But since so many people don't know they're NOT allowed to copy a book, some of these tips can help reduce the thefts.

Add a copyright blurb to the bottom of your first chapter. Include things like year, where the real book is, whether you allow fanfictions, if you allow translations (I have to add this - not a wise idea to allow it, and if you do, make them DM you for a contract), etc.

Adding details like 'Exclusively on Wattpad' as a banner will keep mirror site robots from changing the words. NoveldHD is infamous for changing 'Wattpad' to 'NovelHD' to make such notes look like the stories were meant for NovelHD.

Here is a sample from one of my werewolf books. You are welcome to copy the image, format, wording, and tweak the words to suit your needs.

Fanfiction and Spinoffs:

Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery. And thus, fanfictions and spinoffs abound.

It is up to you whether or not you allow these. Some people do, some don't.

In my opinion, if a reader loved my story so much that they wanted to continue living in that world with their own characters, then I have no problem with that. I do require them to give credit in the summary and/or Chapter 1.

It's also a form of free advertising. So as long as they don't overstep the copyright bounds or try to sell their books, I'm fine with them writing fanfictions and spinoffs.