Martina Gercke

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Martina Gercke (born September 14, 1963 in Gelsenkirchen ) is a German writer and purser .

Life

After graduating from high school, Martina Gercke studied at the Karlsruhe University of Education for two years before dropping out to train as a flight attendant in 1985. During this time she met her future husband. According to her own statement, she wrote the first two stories during parental leave, which were children's and youth novels. None of these books was offered to a publisher. It was not until her first adult novel, Elderberry Kiss , which belongs to the genre of Chick lit , that Ms. Gercke went to the publishers, but the book was initially rejected. With a specially designed cover, Gercke then put the novel online as an e-book on Amazon in November 2011 . After just four weeks, the book was in the top 100 e-books. After six weeks, the book was already number 1 on the Kindle bestseller list. According to Amazon, it was the most successful e-book of the first half of 2012 with over 30,000 downloads. With the continued success, Gercke was signed by the Munich publishing group , which means that her book was published by mvg Verlag.

Plagiarism affair

With the publication of her second book, Champagnerküsschen , allegations were raised that Gercke had used the works of other writers when writing her books. Initially, if she said that this had happened “unconsciously”, she later reacted to the fact that she had forgotten to remove “placeholders”. In her debut novel Elder Kiss , published in November 2011, she plagiarized and changed numerous passages of text from nine novels: Don't tell anyone, darling ; The bargain hunter ; Wedding gift ; Goddess in Wellington Boots and Charleston Girl by Sophie Kinsella ; Weightless ; High altitude intoxication ; Heart jump and finally! from Ildikó von Kürthy . For Champagnerküsschen , published in October 2012, she copied and collaged from the Kinsella novels Fast Gifts and Tell It No More, Darling and from the von Kürthy novels Weightless ; High altitude intoxication ; Heart jump and dial tone . Since Kinsella's books are published by Goldmann Verlag , the lawyer for the publishing group Random House was brought in to investigate the allegations and to seek compensation. On November 29, 2012, the delivery of the books was stopped and Gercke's e-books were removed from the program. At the beginning of January 2013 there was an agreement between Goldmann and Gercke. The details of the settlement were kept confidential. In mid-May 2013, Elderberry Kisses and Champagne Kisses appeared as a revised new edition on Amazon in Kindle format . In the new edition of Elderberry Kiss , plagiarism was again found and documented. At the end of June 2013, revised new editions of the e-books were posted on the Amazon platform.

Works

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Martina Gercke: Elder kissing - How to write a bestseller without a publisher - Interview , literaturcafe.de
  2. ↑ Martina Gercke (48) from Eppendorf | This stewardess landed a bestseller , bild.de
  3. ↑ FOCUSED: The attraction of strange shriveliness , focus.de
  4. ↑ Martina Gercke's “Repetitive Kiss” - the next chapter of the neverending story
  5. ^ Vortex around Martina Gercke's bestseller "Elderberry Kiss" / interview with Rainer Dresen , buchmarkt.de
  6. ↑ Plagiarism affair about the Hamburg author | Bestseller written off from bestseller , bild.de
  7. ↑ A self-publishing star dies , buchreport.de
  8. ↑ Disappearing Texts , copy-shake-paste.blogspot.de
  9. ↑ Martina Gercke's “Repetitive Kiss” - the next chapter of the neverending story
personal data
SURNAME Gercke, Martina
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer and purser
DATE OF BIRTH September 14, 1963
PLACE OF BIRTH Gelsenkirchen