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| Email from Melody Santiago Cummings offering me a deal for Ventanitas Of Miami |
Cuban coffee, side of copycat. Order up. Millionaire literary foundation bites local author out of spite. But is it plagiarism? Short answer, maybe.
In 2017, I made history as the first ever self published author to be featured on the front page of the Miami Herald for my book of documentary photography and interviews about Miami coffee culture through the built environment’s many coffee windows. This made so many people jealous that they’re still trying to find ways to rip me off today.
Cuban Coffee Windows of Miami is my book of documentary photography and interviews all about the “ventanitas” of Miami.
A small local publisher called Jai Alai Books, an offshoot of the O Miami Poetry Festival, was originally going to print this book, but P. Scott Cunningham aka Phillip Scott Cunningham flew the coop during the Zika scare of 2016 and while I was in the streets of Miami putting in work, he moved away to Chicago, and I never did hear from him after that, and I still haven’t. For all I know he’s still there. Since I maintain copyright over my work, and because he failed to exercise their licensing option or communicate with me, I did everything myself.
We had a very clear contract outlining the licensing agreement for Jai Alai Books, related in staff and mission to O Miami, to graphic design, print, market, and distribute a book based on my interviews and photographs.
The book was my idea in name and style as outlined in my book proposal.
We made an agreement. I took a $2000 advance against royalties to create the work. I supplied raw text, photos, and drafts for review, and while Scott was in Chicago trying to avoid Zika, he ghosted, didn’t respond to communications, and that was pretty much it. The graphic designer, I never heard from at all. Melody Santiago Cummings only contributed the idea of a “coffee belt” that runs across Miami, an insipid idea that I did not use.
They were already a Knight Foundation funded organization working out of a free office space in the historic Bacardi building on Biscayne. I don’t know how many millions of dollars in grant money they’ve received over the years, or how they‘ve spent it. But if they ripped me off, who knows who else.
Again, they failed to exercise their licensing option, their executive director was incomunicado, and their graphic designer I never heard from at all. We struck our deal in December 2015, and by April 2016 they did not respond to my communication about the project.
I guess they were surprised when my ebook dropped, and then on March 5th, 2017 I published the hardcover, then I got some radio coverage, the cover of the Miami Herald. But what can I say, they failed to do what they said they would.
I acted in good faith. They failed to exercise. No problemo. They were busy being a foundation that gets millions of dollars in grants, I was busy being the best local author in Florida.
It’s been a long road full of hands-out copycats, and disingenuous foundations; and those are just the rich people who tried to claim my wins for themselves. But guess what, I’m still having fun, I still put my name on everything I do. And I’m still the best writer in Miami. Whether they like it or not.
So I was only a little surprised that they would do a book on coffee, but for a million dollar literary foundation to rip off my idea and pass it off as their own, that’s something else altogether.
Some people would probably describe it as plagiarism. That is a bold statement.
All I know is they created a book with the same concept, the same style, a very similar prospective title, and the same basic idea on how to do it, lots of pages, photos, and interviews.
There is way more to the story. Let’s start here.
p.s. -they dropped on 3-05-2024 and i didnt find out until last night, i guess their marketing is not that strong
