Writerly Ways

[cornerofmadness]

Let's talk rules for being an author. Rule #1: Don't be a total asshat.

Really that's the most important rule. Don't be an asshat. Everyone's life becomes so much easier. There was a saying in my former job: 'Podiatrist eat their young' In other words, the established doctors would cut the throats of anyone up and coming. It was horrifying true. Academia isn't much better. Maybe NO job is.

How sad is that?

So what brought this up. Why this ROMANCE AUTHOR GETS UNDULY COCKY OVER REGISTERED TRADEMARK

If you haven't heard some complete ass has trademarked the word cocky. At first people thought she meant the flourishy version she used as a series title because in theory you can't trademark random words. Which is why Coca-Cola is trademarked but coke isn't (that and coke means other things). But no she trademarked both the font and the word and has been sending out bullying letters to people including those who published using the word as a title before she did.

But it gets better. She apparently doesn't understand how stock photos work for cover titles. She thinks people are stealing or copying from her. Um no, that's how stock photos work. The elf picture I turned down as the cover for Conned has appeared on two other stories I've seen recently. I'm sure the cover model that will be Arrigo on Blood Red Roulette has been/ will be on other books.

This blog sums up most of my thoughts on this (profanity included) Don’t Do This, Ever

Naturally the whole internet has blown up with this. I was amused with her statement that her fans are buying wrong books because they had the word 'cocky' in the title. OMG are there that many people who don't even look at the author before buying if that matters to them? Apparently yes because someone put up a tweet about how Stephen King and another author (woman) published books at about the same time with the same title. King laughed it off (but yes he can afford to do it I supposed)

To be honest I've never heard of this author before unsurprising since I only read het romance if friends write it. But it's not true all publicity is good as the second blog article points out. Yes, she's definitely on my never buy list now. I've done that before like after some blaming comments Tamora Pierce made or when Anne Rice talked about how she never needed editing and wouldn't allow it (no loss by then her stuff was pure crap) or Orson Scott Card outed himself as a misogynistic homophobe.

I'm fairly amused by all the pot shots being taken. I've never wanted to use the word cocky in a title but now I kinda do.

RWA is getting lawyers involved. I did see a lot of squawking about how terrible the RWA was for only including their own members and not everyone and how elitist that was. Yeah I call bullshit. Is RWA (and SFWA) elitist? Not as much as they used to be, that's for sure and they are a bit pricey but membership has benefits. Lawyers are insanely expensive to hire so why should we expect them to hire a lawyer for someone who hasn't paid into the funds that would pay for those lawyers? In the long run if their lawyers crush her (which seems likely) you'll benefit anyhow.

So enough of that. Let's get to something more interesting, the links.



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I'm too tired to dink with the word count right now