It seems that there is a lot of misinformation being spread around about my new book, Life Interrupted published by Zondervan.
Just to set the records straight, I received permission from EVERY quote and poem used in the book. I'm a professional writer, and I would never use quotes without permission. (I have all correspondence archived since 2002.)
Also, I wanted to let you know that if you want to email me personally, please contact me. My email is
My desire all along has been to offer help and hope to young moms.
Sincerely,
Tricia Goyer
How did you know there was "misinformation" being spread? Are you lurking around, or did someone tell you?
As far as my original post, was anything untrue? Have you not been published in the past by Focus on the Family? Id Focus on the Fsmily not anti-choice and homophobic?
Those were my concerns that I thought everyone should know about.
Hi. I read the reviews on Amazon.com that's how I knew there must be a problem.
The book is not pubished by Focus on the Family. It's published by Zondervan.
Honestly, I did not want to mislead anyone on this group. As a teen mom myself, I wanted to provided a helpful resource for young moms. 90% of the book is help for young moms. I do include my personal story which involves finding hope in becoming a Christian.
how about you answer our concerns here instead of being like email me,
how about, you did mislead us, you didn't tell us that this was a christian book, you didn't let us approve what you were putting in there at the end, i told you i didn't want to be in a religious overtoned book that it made me uncomfortable, how come you didnt send me that email huh?
hope your happy making a profit off of me, and all of us other girlmoms....
im sure there were much more appropriate message boards you could have lurked and solicitated from. your book, its publisher and personal beliefs are the complete antithesis to the mission statement of this website.
Wow. Im in total shock that this is happening here. I would be sooo upset if my name was in that book, or my words, and I would be taking legal action. If any Girl Moms know anything about whats legal and whats not..help us out please!
Tricia Goyer-
How DARE you come here, to OUR safe space to lurk around hoping to USE these wonderful, strong women to make a profit!
I don't buy your syrupy sweet posts with your fancy dancing around the subject so you don't have to actualy answer any of these women's questions.
You were told you could NOT use these quotes and yet you still did. What kind of a person comes to a site that's sole purpose is to support marginalized women and tries to turn a profit from their experiences?
That is deceitful, dispicable and from what I know, very UN-CHRISTIAN.
i got your email, tricia. nowhere in that message did i say "yea, i'm cool with you using my stuff."
i also wrote that before i said it would be ok. you hadn't even formulated the concept for the book yet, as i mention in my email (ie: me not being an actual teen mom, cuz i wasn't). how was i to know you'd be aligning yourself with concepts that i do not agree with, and would never allow my words to be used in?
this isn't cool. i'm very upset. how dare you do this, make money off our words. specifically to me, how dare you include a quote from me at a time when i was going through some really hard times, to make money off that in a book with a concept that actually really contributes to the problems i feel??
i never gave you permission to edit my quote either, and i DO have the original quote, so yea. i'm sure we'll both talk to our lawyers about that.
i'm very unhappy with this.
girlmoms, go review that book at amazon. tell them just what the author is made of.
can someone post the link for her reviews on amazon I cant seem to find anything~sorry
Leanne Im sorry that shes coming here to justify what she has done but actually she has not proven her point at all.
I hope you dnt make shit off your book! youve hurt more than you helped, as for being a teen mother do you know what it feels like to be used? I guess not.
Let me see here ... You read reviews on Amazon.com and somehow knew immediately that they were all coming from Girlmom.com? That tells me one of two things:
1) You only took quotes from Girlmom.com and nowhere else, which leads me to believe that you didn't do much research for your book.
2) Your publisher asked you about the plagiarizing and provided you links to the two posts on Girlmom.com that were concerning your misuse of our quotes.
Yes, I sent an email to the publisher, and I made it very clear that I would be boycotting their books from here on out. I cannot trust them not to publish more plagiarized material, and I refuse to support someone who steals another person's work.
I sit here, shaking. I cannot believe someone would come here and do this to the once safe place.
Is there anyway we could password protect the majority of the boards? And only have like the greetings and another board board like , "general chat" open?
Hey- when you go to her book on amazon, the authors are listed as Tricia Goyer and Zondervan, the company whom she claims published her plagarism. Click on the name Zondervan, and what do you see? Why thats right! God this, bible that, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Ms. Goyer, this "publisher" is clearly not of a breed that most girl-moms would be comfortable having their stories associated with. What you did was deceitful and wrong, and you aren't likely to see the end of this any time soon.
More about this tomorrow when I've had some sleep and had a chance to speak to my company's attorney about this matter. It's revolting that someone would do something like this though. Jesus fucking Christ...
Err, yeah, they're called Zondervan BIBLE publishers. Not that any of this is really relevant I suppose, but it pisses me off that she tries to make us look ignorant by saying the book "is not in fact by the publisher another Girlmom mentioned, it's by Zondervan!" Woohoo, big fucking difference. A bible publisher is a bible publisher, regardless of the name. The message and the source of funding (read: anti-choice homophobic chauvenistic republicans) goes directly against what girlmom stands for. Oy. Still tired, still can't make this coherent. Goodnight for now girlmoms, with a big fuck you to Trisha Goyer.
Ms. Goyer-
Not only, does it seem, that you have used peoples words without permission and in a context that they disagreed with, you also did not site them well at all.
As anyone can learn in a basic highschool or college english class, all quotes both in person and on-line must be sited. There are proper ways to do this as well and you didn't do them. You did not mention girlmom at all, and being that you took the quote from this web site, that in and of its self is REALLY unethical.
I think that in order to protect what little integrety you have left, you need to come back here and answer the questions that these women have posed to you. Otherwise, we will know that you are a fake, and just wanted to use us.
Sincerly,
Kat
Apparently, our group - a group of young mothers, is your target audience. Do you really expect to make an impact with something that has thus far only alienated who you wished to 'help'? Clearly your intentions are not materializing.
If you truly are interested in helping young mothers, you will consider the hurt, distress and alienation that your book is actually causing, and find some way to correct it.
Someone with the intentions you have asserted would not act in such a way to her target audience.
The killing line may be the paragraph in the Publisher's informations:
"Zondervan does not attribute the life of this book to the websites listed"
If that were true, it would take out ALL material listed on the website. While it may be easier to plagiarize from a website, it is the fact that someone who claims to be christlike is doing so that pisses me off.
Some Christian. It's Xtians like her that make me despise Xtianity.
"We can lie, and plagiarize, because we are Xtian and dress nice and talk about Jesus. But when YOU lie, it's a sin, because you are teen mothers and secular"
and i find this paragraph from the synopsis of the book from zondervan's (and what the fuck kinda name is that anyway?) website especially condescending.
"Sharing stories from her own experience as a teenage mom and from other young mothers, Tricia Goyer shows you what to do about meeting nine basic needs that all young moms have. Needs such as the need to be appreciated, the need to know your life is not at a dead end, and the need to be loved. In Life Interrupted, youâll meet lots of young moms just like you. Youâll also meet God, who cares about you very much."
People how use other people's experiences (i dont want to say crises, or problems) as an open door to spread their own propaganda are fucking scum. people should want to support others without the hidden, some not as well as others, agenda of scoring brownie points with their deities.
and i would say that if a young mama is feeling shame or depressed about her pregnancy it could possibly be from the religious bullshit that is spewed by society, especially to young women, about their bodies, their choices, their sexuality.
Instead of emailing you, why don't you address any problems or concerns we have as a group here on the message board? Then it's out in the open and people can add on to what others have already said. You're only going to get the same thing through email that you're witnessing on this board with one difference; we'll be able to see your responses.
yeah tricia, why are you so afraid to address the group that you didn't have a problem stealing from and lieing to? could it be because you got caught????
Pay careful attention to section 3. Which dispells myths about copyright on Usenet etc.
Additionally, under section 8. "...in the USA commercial copyright violation involving more than 10 copies and value over $2500 was made a felony."
So if more than 10 copies of the book were published or sold without appropriate documentation allowing verbatim use of words it can be a felony offense.
Just because someone changes the word GOD to the word GOODNESS doesn't mean a substantial change to the original work was made.
i hope ms goyer checks the link but ill post some of the things i think are especially important in this case
Quote:
Myth #11 (I didn't want to change the now-famous title of this article) is actually one sometimes generated in response to this list of 10 myths. No, copyright isn't an iron-clad lock on what can be published. Indeed, by many arguments, by providing reward to authors, it encourages them to not just allow, but fund the publication and distribution of works so that they reach far more people than they would if they were free or unprotected -- and unpromoted. However, it must be remembered that copyright has two main purposes, namely the protection of the author's right to obtain commercial benefit from valuable work, and more recently the protection of the author's [veg speaking - in this case the girlmom's] general right to control how a work is used.
While copyright law makes it technically illegal to reproduce almost any new creative work (other than under fair use) without permission, if the work is unregistered and has no real commercial value, it gets very little protection. The author in this case can sue for an injunction against the publication, actual damages from a violation, and possibly court costs. Actual damages means actual money potentially lost by the author due to publication, plus any money gained by the defendant. But if a work has no commercial value, such as a typical E-mail message or conversational USENET posting, the actual damages will be zero. Only the most vindictive (and rich) author would sue when no damages are possible, and the courts don't look kindly on vindictive plaintiffs, unless the defendants are even more vindictive.
The author's right to control what is done with a work, however, has some validity, even if it has no commercial value. If you feel you need to violate a copyright "because you can get away with it because the work has no value" you should ask yourself why you're doing it. In general, respecting the rights of creators to control their creations is a principle many advocate adhering to.
In addition, while more often than not people claim a "fair use" copying incorrectly, fair use is a valid concept necessary to allow the criticism of copyrighted works and their creators through examples. But please read more about it before you do it.
wow this makes me feel so nervous about the GM play.
i did get permission from everyone involved, and all are now in the script anonymously. but all my permissions were saved on the old board in my PM folder, i still need some permissions (again) from some GMs...
i hate it when people take advantage. this is just so evil.
see this is what i have issues with, i didn't get to okay it at the end, i would have never okayed my writing to be in a book that is so religious,
you Tricia Goyer, lied to us from the begining of your motives, and that just isn't cool,
you used us, and for someone wanting to "support teen moms" you did a pretty shitty job of that by taking advantage of us....
Hi. Did you get those emails okay? I just want to make sure I have your correct email address.
Thank you,
Tricia
no questions were answered, and I dont feel comfortable having someone like this among us in our safe spot! do ya'll?
no.
and i've been checking it for a while now. send again?
you can also pm me here, on girlmom.
Hi. I read the reviews on Amazon.com that's how I knew there must be a problem.
The book is not pubished by Focus on the Family. It's published by Zondervan.
Honestly, I did not want to mislead anyone on this group. As a teen mom myself, I wanted to provided a helpful resource for young moms. 90% of the book is help for young moms. I do include my personal story which involves finding hope in becoming a Christian.
Feel free to email me at
if you have any more questions or concerns.
Thank you,
Tricia Goyer
how about you answer our concerns here instead of being like email me,
how about, you did mislead us, you didn't tell us that this was a christian book, you didn't let us approve what you were putting in there at the end, i told you i didn't want to be in a religious overtoned book that it made me uncomfortable, how come you didnt send me that email huh?
hope your happy making a profit off of me, and all of us other girlmoms....
im sure there were much more appropriate message boards you could have lurked and solicitated from. your book, its publisher and personal beliefs are the complete antithesis to the mission statement of this website.
Wow. Im in total shock that this is happening here. I would be sooo upset if my name was in that book, or my words, and I would be taking legal action. If any Girl Moms know anything about whats legal and whats not..help us out please!
Tricia Goyer-
How DARE you come here, to OUR safe space to lurk around hoping to USE these wonderful, strong women to make a profit!
I don't buy your syrupy sweet posts with your fancy dancing around the subject so you don't have to actualy answer any of these women's questions.
You were told you could NOT use these quotes and yet you still did. What kind of a person comes to a site that's sole purpose is to support marginalized women and tries to turn a profit from their experiences?
That is deceitful, dispicable and from what I know, very UN-CHRISTIAN.
i got your email, tricia. nowhere in that message did i say "yea, i'm cool with you using my stuff."
i also wrote that before i said it would be ok. you hadn't even formulated the concept for the book yet, as i mention in my email (ie: me not being an actual teen mom, cuz i wasn't). how was i to know you'd be aligning yourself with concepts that i do not agree with, and would never allow my words to be used in?
this isn't cool. i'm very upset. how dare you do this, make money off our words. specifically to me, how dare you include a quote from me at a time when i was going through some really hard times, to make money off that in a book with a concept that actually really contributes to the problems i feel??
i never gave you permission to edit my quote either, and i DO have the original quote, so yea. i'm sure we'll both talk to our lawyers about that.
i'm very unhappy with this.
girlmoms, go review that book at amazon. tell them just what the author is made of.
can someone post the link for her reviews on amazon I cant seem to find anything~sorry
Leanne Im sorry that shes coming here to justify what she has done but actually she has not proven her point at all.
I hope you dnt make shit off your book! youve hurt more than you helped, as for being a teen mother do you know what it feels like to be used? I guess not.
Let me see here ... You read reviews on Amazon.com and somehow knew immediately that they were all coming from Girlmom.com? That tells me one of two things:
1) You only took quotes from Girlmom.com and nowhere else, which leads me to believe that you didn't do much research for your book.
2) Your publisher asked you about the plagiarizing and provided you links to the two posts on Girlmom.com that were concerning your misuse of our quotes.
Yes, I sent an email to the publisher, and I made it very clear that I would be boycotting their books from here on out. I cannot trust them not to publish more plagiarized material, and I refuse to support someone who steals another person's work.
Here's the link to the reviews on Amazon.com for those who would like to read them. Notice that they don't mention Girlmom.com...
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0310253160/qid=1093405326/sr=8-1/ref=pd_ka_1/103-8463468-1812644?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
So I have to wonder why she knew to come HERE.
I sit here, shaking. I cannot believe someone would come here and do this to the once safe place.
Is there anyway we could password protect the majority of the boards? And only have like the greetings and another board board like , "general chat" open?
Hey- when you go to her book on amazon, the authors are listed as Tricia Goyer and Zondervan, the company whom she claims published her plagarism. Click on the name Zondervan, and what do you see? Why thats right! God this, bible that, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Ms. Goyer, this "publisher" is clearly not of a breed that most girl-moms would be comfortable having their stories associated with. What you did was deceitful and wrong, and you aren't likely to see the end of this any time soon.
More about this tomorrow when I've had some sleep and had a chance to speak to my company's attorney about this matter. It's revolting that someone would do something like this though. Jesus fucking Christ...
-J
Err, yeah, they're called Zondervan BIBLE publishers. Not that any of this is really relevant I suppose, but it pisses me off that she tries to make us look ignorant by saying the book "is not in fact by the publisher another Girlmom mentioned, it's by Zondervan!" Woohoo, big fucking difference. A bible publisher is a bible publisher, regardless of the name. The message and the source of funding (read: anti-choice homophobic chauvenistic republicans) goes directly against what girlmom stands for. Oy. Still tired, still can't make this coherent. Goodnight for now girlmoms, with a big fuck you to Trisha Goyer.
-J
Ms. Goyer-
Not only, does it seem, that you have used peoples words without permission and in a context that they disagreed with, you also did not site them well at all.
As anyone can learn in a basic highschool or college english class, all quotes both in person and on-line must be sited. There are proper ways to do this as well and you didn't do them. You did not mention girlmom at all, and being that you took the quote from this web site, that in and of its self is REALLY unethical.
I think that in order to protect what little integrety you have left, you need to come back here and answer the questions that these women have posed to you. Otherwise, we will know that you are a fake, and just wanted to use us.
Sincerly,
Kat
Apparently, our group - a group of young mothers, is your target audience. Do you really expect to make an impact with something that has thus far only alienated who you wished to 'help'? Clearly your intentions are not materializing.
If you truly are interested in helping young mothers, you will consider the hurt, distress and alienation that your book is actually causing, and find some way to correct it.
Someone with the intentions you have asserted would not act in such a way to her target audience.
The killing line may be the paragraph in the Publisher's informations:
"Zondervan does not attribute the life of this book to the websites listed"
If that were true, it would take out ALL material listed on the website. While it may be easier to plagiarize from a website, it is the fact that someone who claims to be christlike is doing so that pisses me off.
Some Christian. It's Xtians like her that make me despise Xtianity.
"We can lie, and plagiarize, because we are Xtian and dress nice and talk about Jesus. But when YOU lie, it's a sin, because you are teen mothers and secular"
Way to witness to Christ, lady.
jujistsu - where is that quote from?
and i find this paragraph from the synopsis of the book from zondervan's (and what the fuck kinda name is that anyway?) website especially condescending.
"Sharing stories from her own experience as a teenage mom and from other young mothers, Tricia Goyer shows you what to do about meeting nine basic needs that all young moms have. Needs such as the need to be appreciated, the need to know your life is not at a dead end, and the need to be loved. In Life Interrupted, youâll meet lots of young moms just like you. Youâll also meet God, who cares about you very much."
People how use other people's experiences (i dont want to say crises, or problems) as an open door to spread their own propaganda are fucking scum. people should want to support others without the hidden, some not as well as others, agenda of scoring brownie points with their deities.
and i would say that if a young mama is feeling shame or depressed about her pregnancy it could possibly be from the religious bullshit that is spewed by society, especially to young women, about their bodies, their choices, their sexuality.
Wow. It seems there are a lot of accusations going around, especially from those who haven't read the book.
I'd be happy to send a copy to anyone who's interested.
Just email me at
and I'll make sure you get a copy.
Sincerely,
Tricia Goyer
yeah there are a lot of accusations. please respond to them.
Instead of emailing you, why don't you address any problems or concerns we have as a group here on the message board? Then it's out in the open and people can add on to what others have already said. You're only going to get the same thing through email that you're witnessing on this board with one difference; we'll be able to see your responses.
yeah tricia, why are you so afraid to address the group that you didn't have a problem stealing from and lieing to? could it be because you got caught????
Does anyone want me to ask my family lawyer about this?
I'm leaving today till Monday, but I'll be happy to look into this furthur.
this is so beyond fucked up.
Ames
Anyone who wants some info regarding internet posting copyrights can check out a good site http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html here.
Pay careful attention to section 3. Which dispells myths about copyright on Usenet etc.
Additionally, under section 8. "...in the USA commercial copyright violation involving more than 10 copies and value over $2500 was made a felony."
So if more than 10 copies of the book were published or sold without appropriate documentation allowing verbatim use of words it can be a felony offense.
Just because someone changes the word GOD to the word GOODNESS doesn't mean a substantial change to the original work was made.
thanks for the info, tiffany.
i hope ms goyer checks the link but ill post some of the things i think are especially important in this case
wow this makes me feel so nervous about the GM play.
i did get permission from everyone involved, and all are now in the script anonymously. but all my permissions were saved on the old board in my PM folder, i still need some permissions (again) from some GMs...
i hate it when people take advantage. this is just so evil.
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