We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Pamela DuMond a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Pamela, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about one of the craziest things you’ve experienced in your journey so far.
Craziest story positive:
I’ve always been a storyteller. I’m fascinating by people’s stories, especially when someone is an underdog and fights back.
As a chiropractor/ bodyworker, I spend about an hour working with each client. In 1993, a patient was referred to me for pain she had following a car accident.
Erin would come into my office. I’d work on her as she told me stories about her life, her kids, and the job she had taken as an assistant to a personal injury lawyer.
Part of her job entailed traveling to small, remote California towns to talk with people who had cancer clusters. Because Erin is a good listener and because she is so smart, she realized that there was something in the environment that was poisoning these people.
Erin Brockovich tracked down the source of the poison — the water – and collected evidence. A lawsuit was filed against Pacific Gas and Electric that ended up settling in 1996 for $333 million — the largest amount paid in a direct lawsuit.
I told Erin her story was a movie and asked for her permission to share with a producer I knew. With Erin’s permission I pitched her story to Carla Shamberg at Jersey Films.
“Erin Brockovich” movie starring Julia Roberts was released in 2000. It was nominated for four Academy Awards and Julia won best Actress. ABC 20/20 featured me on one of their shows in June 2021.
Craziest story negative:
In 2016, I discovered my PG-13 romantic comedy book ,Part-time Princess, had been repurposed into an erotic royal romantic comedy by an author I did not know.
My entertainment lawyer read both books, agreed with my assessment, and sent a Cease and Desist to the author. Through her lawyer, she denied there was any copying.
My lawyer did not litigate, and I had to track down an IP lawyer who understood novels, and words, and plagiarism. This wasn’t easy.
Plagiarism isn’t simply copy and pasting words. Plagiarism is also rewriting someone else’s material and scrambling words here and there. This is called “patchwork plagiarism” or “mosaic plagiarism” Here is a definition from “Grammarly”
“Patchwork plagiarism. Also known as mosaic plagiarism, patchwork plagiarism refers to instances where plagiarized work is interwoven with the writer’s original work. This kind of plagiarism can be subtle and easy to miss, and it may happen in conjunction with direct plagiarism.”
I spent hundreds of hours researching, compiled 100 pages of side-by-side graphs demonstrating the repurposed material. I finally hired a litigator.
I believed “Text spinning” computerized software that flips words around was used in the repurposing of my book. In 2023, everyone has heard about AI writing programs. But in 2017 – 2021 – hardly anyone knew what text spinning was. No one could wrap their heads around a computer program that could write/ re-write portions of a book.
My statute of limitations was expiring and I sued for copyright infringement in 2019. This was the scariest thing I’ve ever done. I’m not wealthy. But if I didn’t stand up for my intellectual property — if I did not stand up for my rights as a small business owner — who would?
Armed with a mountain of evidence, the case stalled during Covid. In January 2021 the judge ruled against me WITHOUT reviewing my evidence. He wrote a 43-page decision why he did not have to review my evidence.
In the judge’s decision he denigrated the romance industry (a billion dollar a year industry written primarily by women for women) and compared us to “twelve monkeys typing.”
If both authors involved in this lawsuit had been male and had written crime novels – – would this judge have refused to look at the evidence? I doubt it. I’m researching filing a judicial complaint. According to the US Courts site and the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act of 1980 ”U.S. Federal judges are not allowed “treating litigants… in a demonstrably egregious and hostile manner.” “Intentional discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, gender…”
Devastated, I filed for an Appeal and was granted one. At that point I lost confidence in my attorneys and decided to mediate in federal appeals court. The case was signed off on in June 2021.
In a press release signed off on by both parties, the defendant still denies all wrong-doing and I continue to stick by my claim.
Other than the death of a loved one, sticking up for myself in this fashion was the hardest thing I have ever done. I had severe insomnia and developed DCIS, a very treatable form of Breast cancer. (There is no breast cancer in my family.) My surgeon told me the DCIS was most likely due to the stress of the litigation.
I’m now cancer free. I pulled up stakes from my thirty years in Los Angeles and moved to a more healing environment in North Carolina.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I’m a screenwriter as well as a USA Today bestselling novelist of over thirty-five published mysteries, thrillers, and romances and have been published since 2010.
I pitched Erin Brockovich’s real life story to Jersey Films and received “Special Thanks’ credit on the Feature film. That story was nominated for four Academy Awards. In June 2021, I was featured on “ABC 20/20.”
I’m currently working as a contracted writer for Pixelberry Studios for their Storyloom platform writing / adapting content. To date I’ve adapted seven of my novels into Visual Novels/ Interactive games including:
PART-TIME PRINCESS (Romantic Comedy)
MY BIG FAKE MAFIA WEDDING (Romantic Comedy)
TO KILL A COURTESAN (Romantic Thriller Series)
Crazy Maple Studios adapted my book Cupcakes, Spies, and Despicable Guys as an interactive game.
Two of my book series were optioned for Film/TV.
I’ve worked with producers developing story pitches for film / TV.
I’m represented by Italia Gandolfo of GH LIterary Managment https://ghliterary.com
My website: http://www.pameladumond.com
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Having your work, your IP and or your brand repurposed is a horrifying and crazy-making experience. I did not have a lit agent at the time and I was indie published. I did not have powerful folks in my corner. I didn’t know what to feel or where to turn for help or knowledge.
After my litigation ended, I started compiling a FREE list of resources on my website (www.pameladumond) for others who might find themselves in my shoes.
There are links to stories of other writers who have had to fight this battle, links to blogs and experts who regularly write about plagiarism, copyright infringement, and what to do about it.
Now that writers are increasingly being exposed to AI copying their material, I am linking to more on that topic.
It’s my hope that those of us who have been through this copyright/ plagiarism fight can help others along the way. Why tear each other down when we can build each other up?
Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
I wish I had known about The Author’s Guild years ago.
They are a powerful resource for both traditionally published as well as Indie published authors.
https://authorsguild.org
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.pameladumond.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pameladumond.storyteller/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pameladumondauthor/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pamela-dumond-a5ab5a119
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/PamelaDuMondAuthor
- Other: Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Books-Pamela-DuMond/s?rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_27%3APamela+DuMond
Image Credits
Regina Wamba — Author headshot.