This blog consists of 2 parts; business and personal (from a personal and business perspective)
Part 1 – Personal
Also in Dutch: CLICK HERE
Similarities with the traumatized lives of both my grandparents
When I was writing my autobiographical book “Everything starts with THE EMOTIONAL INHERITANCE of our (ancestor) parents” at the time (2018), I discovered many similarities between my own life and the traumatic lives of my grandparents on both sides (i.e. 4 people) !
As a therapist, I had been doing inner child work for about 18 years and knew and worked with copied parental behaviors and child pain. It was only when I joined Stichting Werkgroep Herkenning (https://www.werkgroepherkenning.nl/) in 2018, as a grandchild of so-called “wrong” grandparents, that I discovered that all those similarities had a name; transgenerational transmission, which I later came to call, the emotional inheritance. I was so proud of this title…
It also became my new methodology in my work with clients and my mission.
Many blogs about this followed and these were well read, also by people from other countries, including America!
One of the first
In my opinion, I am one of the first to write so openly about the transgenerational transmission, with all my own examples from 3 generations within my family. In addition, in my book I also provide practical tools that I had developed as a therapist when working with clients as from 2005.
In that sense I see myself as a pioneer, even though transgenerational transmission was already known in some therapies. I could find almost nothing about it online. Except for the foundation mentioned above. I was also allowed to use information from their website for my book, which was released in 2019.
Assistance for people with ancestral trauma
Proper care has long remained scarce for people with ancestral trauma. Fortunately, it is becoming more and more known and I was also able to give my view on this in a study by the National Psychotrauma Center: Arq. CLICK HERE
Shock
My book hasn’t sold for quite some time. There could of course be several reasons, but it kept standing out, so I went to investigate. My shock was great when i did some research on google and discovered that there was another book with the words emotional inheritance as its title. Hey??
For a moment it was black before my eyes and I experienced a kind of shock and I could only stare at the screen. I know you shouldn’t react from your strong emotions, so I waited until I had calmed down.
See below a photo of our books online; my book on the left and the American author’s book on the right. My book was published in 2019 and her book was published in the Netherlands in 2023.
The next day I kindly contacted the author.
Denial
The author denied knowing about my book, despite my reasons for suspecting that our titles in particular were so similar. It is not relevant to go into this in more detail. My hope was that my name and book could also be mentioned somewhere. I then also approached her publishing house in New York and Amsterdam, which yielded no results.
They know that legally I have (almost) no leg to stand on. Anyone can just copy your book title (consciously/unconsciously) and that is precisely what I am surprised about and want to write about. See also ‘part 2 – Business’, in which I explain a bit more about copyright, which I do not have on the title and/or other similarities. As with me, many others have experienced the same thing.
Is this allowed?
Yes, this is allowed! I think you should be able to protect a title anyway. Unfortunately, this is not possible yet, unless it is creative enough??? So what is creative? Indeed, it is more difficult to describe than you think and often a lawyer must be consulted, which I did (link below).
What I find particularly difficult is that the titles are so similar. This may cause confusion and cause my book to stop selling.
You are also not entitled to other similarities, unless entire sentences are literally copied.
I certainly think that someone should have the freedom to build on something, but please include someone’s name or book in the list of sources (references). Recently someone asked my permission to publish one of my blogs in her new book. You see, it can be done that way, and this is normal practice in technical/scientific literature.
My own ancestral trauma
My blog readers and clients know my history of intense trauma. For me, the last ancestral trauma that needed resolving has to do with manifestation. This incident with my book triggered this trauma again. I was just planning to have an ebook and audiobook made of my book, in Dutch and English…. and suddenly, emotionally, this wish was suppressed… is this possible/not possible/how/with whom?
I have processed my pain again and I notice that with each new piece of pain presented, I deal with it differently and become more and more empowered!
Besides wanting to write about this, I also want to let life take its course in a natural way.
I do hope that justice will prevail and copyright will change, in order to provide more protection for (new) writers.
So morally I can do something about it, namely write about it and hope that many (new) authors read it.
Does anyone recognize themselves in my story? It would be nice if you let me hear from you.
Send an email to praktijkhappyworld@gmail.com
Warm regards,
Monique Angèle van de Laar
Part 2 – Business: CLICK HERE
Source:
- Click here; Charlotte’s Law about copyright. I have also consulted Charlotte.
Click on this link to buy a card at cost price at Charlotte’s Law, that contains all kinds of terms with which a publisher or author can give all kinds of excuses to use your book title or content. See photo in part 2! - Click here; Stichting Werkgroep Herkenning (SWH) Do you find SWH’s work important? Then register as a donor. We desperately need your support.