Hey guys. I no longer work on Fiverr that much, but when I saw what was going on, I thought fellow ghostwriters should be aware of potential backlash coming out of a particular case. I made the transition from avid ghostwriter to self-published author last year, so I’ve been hanging around the author circles, and this cropped up a couple days ago. A popular romance author was caught plagiarizing from other authors. So far there are over 19 authors that she has plagiarized and published these books. She has won awards and one of these books was also on RWA list for a prize. It was pulled recently given the complaints. She is also a NYT bestselling author. Why do I mention this? Because she has reach. It’s trending on social media. When she was found out recently and her sins all spiraled before her, she tried to shift the blame. Guess where? To Fiverr. This author claims that she hired a ghostwriter from Fiverr and had no idea the ghostwriter plagiarized content and submitted it to her. It’s not that I think this isn’t possible, but the way she conveniently adds that the ghostwriter had already closed their Fiverr account is a lot more than fishy to me. Plain and simple, I believe this author is using us ghostwriters on Fiverr as a scapegoat. So, right now, the author world is discussing the topic of ghostwriting very hard. There is bashing both of ghostwriting and Fiverr. I know several people use ghostwriters to maintain rapid release but given the scrutiny, Fiverr and ghostwriters here may be treated a little suspect, even more than usual. Romance writers may take the most hit in clients giving things a while to simmer down before they hire ghostwriters. Or they may try to be more stringent about certain checks before they approve work submitted by us. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had to set a few people straight about this site. The world seems to think we are all crooks who don’t take pride in our work. I call b.s on it. I may not be here working a lot anymore, but I use services here, and I earned a lot here too. I may not be around a lot anymore, but I remember this is where I started before I started earning enough self-publishing to branch out on my own. Keep striving for excellence and maintain integrity in our work.