Dear Author » Foot in Mouth Disease

Wherein Jane Sends Email to Victoria Laurie’s Editor

Jane — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 18:27:04 +0000

Dear Editor:

I read today on your author, Victoria Laurie’s, website that you have been in discussions with her about a voice mail message that you have received from a blogger called NovelReads about a statement Ms. Laurie made on her website. I felt that Ms. Laurie’s accusations of this reader being a “psycho” and a “cyber stalker” should not go unchallenged. The timeline of events occurs as follows:

1. In July Ms. Laurie takes exception to a review left at Amazon by a reviewer with the handle Butterscotch.

2. In July Ms. Laurie blogs about this reviewer and says these things in a blog post has since been deleted by can be read here via Google Cache). The blog post, in case you do not care to read it, includes the following comments:

And you should never pick a fight with an author-.well-.because, honey, we know how to get even. ;)

and

And so, come September-my little “fan” and some of her close friends and family will likely read about a character with a very similar name, (i.e. nearly identical but not enough to get me sued) depicted in one of the most comical and fabulously scandalous scenes within Death Perception. And trust me-this isn’t a scene which in any way flatters that character. :) (Also trust me-.you’ll know it when you read it!)
-

In other words, if in a year you should pick up a copy of Doom With A View and read about a certain transvestite prostitute with a piss poor attitude and a bad case of V.D., who just happens to go by the name of an ice cream topping-.well, you and I and about 60,000 of our closest friends and family will know exactly where that inspiration came from. ;)

and

my editor thinks this concept of mine is hilarious and she’s going to suggest the idea to her other authors who are fed up with being targets for the mentally deranged.

3. I blog about this and Novelreads (and many other readers) i disturbed by Ms. Laurie’s conduct as well as the idea that an editor of a major publishing house approves of this type of action and that the editor is going to suggest to other authors to do the same.

4. Novelreads then leaves a voicemail message expressing her disappointment.

5. Ms. Laurie then gets a call from her editor (which I presume to be you) expressing concern over Ms. Laurie’s safety and suggesting that she contact a lawyer. Apparently she does so.

6. Tuesday, Novelreads receives a letter via email from a lawyer purporting to represent Ms. Laurie asserting that Novelreads is violating Ms. Laurie’s copyright rights to her blog posts and that Novelreads is inappropriately interfering with a contractual relationship with yourself.

7. Ms. Laurie has blogged again with the following:

ANYhoo, to catch you all up, last week I got a very upsetting phone call from my editor who was really creeped out. She said that some crazy woman had called the voice mail of another editor in her department. The caller clearly thought that editor was my editor and had demanded to be called back saying she was “deeply disturbed” (mental diagnosis or state of mind?) about a blog that I’d written and she demanded a comment from my editor.

She also said the woman didn’t leave her name, but left a blog address, http://novelreads.blogspot.com/ and told me to go look at it and probably look into retaining an attorney. Now, the blog that she posted didn’t bother me much, she seems to be a woman who just wants to be noticed – and isn’t getting much attention, (and I know from previous posts that she “dreams of being a writer someday,” hmmm, envious much?)

I can’t imagine that you asserted a reader was psychotic or a cyberstalker and I also thought that you should be in command of all the facts before making up your mind about NovelReads who was merely expressing her thoughts as a reader and blogger about an author’s actions which appear out of the bounds of decency to many.

No response is necessary.

Best regards,

Jane Litte

http://dearauthor.com

What Is Wrong With the C Review

Jane — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 09:00:04 +0000

more cat pictures

Last week we saw yet another author/reviewer contretemps in which an author, upset over a review, engages the reviewer in a comically bad mannered way. When we’ve witnessed this in the past, it almost always seems to be over a C review. An average review. A review that says this book is competent but it’s not for me. Often these reviews articulate carefully exactly the reason a book does not work for the reader.

After some head scratching, I’ve come to the conclusion that a C grade means a failure to many authors. I remember that Jamie Sobrato once wrote that she would rather evoke some strong reaction than a lukewarm reaction, even if the strong reaction was not positive. It might be stating the obvious since I am referencing a post written over two years ago, but Sobrato’s comments really stuck with me. I’ve never really understood it. I might be conflating lukewarm with average, but I don’t think so. Maybe the C review signals to an author that she’s failed to move the reader emotionally and thus is a failure overall.

While readers go in hopeful that they are going to get something better than an average read, the base expectation is that the book is worthy of publication. But let’s be realistic here. No matter how awesome you think your baby is, the fact is with 400 books printed in one month not all of them will be A or B.

We measure books against each other and out of 400 hundred books only a small percentage of those books will be A/B reads for me. I try to pick out the books that are going to be A/B reads and stay away from books that are likely to hit my hot buttons (no lawyer books for me, generally, although I did read the upcoming debut book by author Julie James Just the Sexiest Man Alive which features a female trial lawyer because, well, I had to see how much of it was done right). But back to the topic. Let me give an example

I absolutely adored Kristan Higgins’ Just One of the Guys and I bought ecopies for several people. Catch of the Day, the book that won the RITA was good, but it was not an A book in my estimation. It didn’t have the mirroring of issues that Just One of the Guys had. The hero was a cipher and in the first person, it was hard to see what really was the attraction for the heroine unless it was that she didn’t want to be alone. I felt that one character was absolved of too much sin and the other not enough.

I re-read the Compass Club series this weekend after answering a few private emails about which Goodman book to start with. Let Me Be the One, the first of the Compass Club books, is one of my favorite Goodman books. I think the entire Compass Club series is a phenomenal feat of plotting given that all four books, published in one year increments, have overlapping storylines to the extent that some books contain the very same scenes only from a different point of view.

There is one book in that series that I generally don’t re-read because I find it mostly boring. It is the third book, All I Ever Wanted. That book, if I were to give it a grade, would be a C. Goodman has another series, The Dennehy series, and the only book I’ve ever re-read in the 5 book collection is the last one featuring the lapsed (? don’t know what the word is for a nun that leaves nunhood) nun and the Indian scout, Only in My Arms (captive romance at its best).

The other four were meh to me (to the point I don’t think I could recall the characters or plot if you pressed me). The fact that there are books in Goodman’s backlist that bore me, that I would say are C or average books, doesn’t diminish her in my eyes. She’s a great talent whose writing I find tremendously entertaining. She is a wordsmith and I look forward to reading her books every year.

To any longtime reader of Dear Author, you’ll find that we hand out C reviews for authors we think wrote keeper books (Lara Adrian and Nora Roberts come to mind). I thought Lara Adrian’s first book, Midnight Rising, was a snoozer and her third book, Midnight Awakening, a wonderful take on a tired genre. I loved Angels Fall and High Noon by Nora Roberts but was less than enthused about Tribute. I’m not going to stop reading either author simply because one of their books didn’t resonate for me.

While average means failure to the author (and yes, I am making an assumption here, just go with it for now and take me to task in the comments), to me it means that this one particularly book did not work for me. It was competent. It had good sentence structure. It had a decent plot. It had character arcs, but it lacked something to move it to the next tier of grades.

To some extent I wonder if the grade for the book is conflated with the author. I.e., by saying that a book is average we readers are saying that the author herself is average. Witness Leslie Carroll’s invoking the “ugly baby” accusation to one Amazon reviewer. I’m increasingly concerned about the level of vitriol toward reader reviewers for the average grade. One average graded book means so little to me. It means that this one book didn’t work for me, but I bet I would try the author again under the right circumstances (cover, blurb, recommendation, availability).

So I’m curious to hear what authors think of the C review and what readers think of the C review. Does C mean competent but not Best? or does C mean failure, never to read again?

Does Psychic Victoria Laurie Forsee Lawsuit in Her Future?

Jane — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 17:26:39 +0000

UPDATED: Ms. Laurie has apparently deleted her post. The cached version is here.

Victoria Laurie, a professional psychic and author, engaged in an Amazon contretemps not too long after the Deborah Anne MacGillivray. This led to a mass deletion of reviews and comments at Amazon on all sides.

Apparently Laurie, who says

“Thanks to Candy Thompson and Deborah MacGillvray for their support, advice and for hanging in there and thanks to everyone else who clicked that "not helpful" and "report this" button – I most appreciate it!”

has taken to instructing readers not to pick fights with authors.

And you should never pick a fight with an author-.well-.because, honey, we know how to get even. ;)

The reason that Laurie gives is that if you do decide to “slam an author”, you’ll be inserted into their books in an unflattering way:

And so, come September-my little "fan" and some of her close friends and family will likely read about a character with a very similar name, (i.e. nearly identical but not enough to get me sued) depicted in one of the most comical and fabulously scandalous scenes within Death Perception. And trust me-this isn't a scene which in any way flatters that character. :) (Also trust me-.you'll know it when you read it!)

…

In other words, if in a year you should pick up a copy of Doom With A View and read about a certain transvestite prostitute with a piss poor attitude and a bad case of V.D., who just happens to go by the name of an ice cream topping-.well, you and I and about 60,000 of our closest friends and family will know exactly where that inspiration came from. ;)

The possible remedies include a tort action for defamation (is Laurie saying that Butterscotch is a transvestite prostitute with a bad case of VD) or possibly intentional infliction of emotional distress (a person does something intentionally to another to cause the victim emotional distress and the action “shocks the conscience of the community). After all, simply because Laurie has slightly changed the name of a character, she is making it publicly obvious who the mocking, possibly defamatory language is about.

Anyway, you have to read the whole post to get the flavor of what Laurie is posting about including her publicly bragging of getting negative reviews removed through the “not helpful” and “report this” button. It’s all pretty stomach turning so I hope you eat lunch after reading the post. Hat tip from SB Sarah

Top Ten Things Authors Should Not Do at Amazon

Jane — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 09:00:46 +0000

more cat pictures

I meant to post my Top Ten Things a Publisher Can Do to Help Readers Spend Money this week but over the weekend, an author began to engage readers over at Amazon in a fairly combative manner over a three star, or average, review. I think it serves as a good illustration of just what not to do. I give you the Top Ten Things Authors Should NOT Do at Amazon, the short version:

1. Suggest that the reader does not have good reading comprehension.
Reader: It’s an average, historical read.

Author: but you mention a reason for your disappointment that would be historically inaccurate.

2. Suggest that a reader is only allowed to have a lukewarm opinion of a book if she has published a book. “Perhaps you would also like to show the rest of us how historical fiction should be WRITTEN! I look forward to reviewing your first novel, Lilly.”

3. Insult the readers by suggesting that their opinions are “knee jerk” and that they don’t have the good sense to appreciate work that the professionals do. “I hope you will reconsider your knee-jerk reaction one day. After all, many reviewers, including several professional book critics, have admired my writing tremendously.”

4. Invoke the name(s) of successful authors in the genre to buttress your opinions. “And I take very serioulsly (and to heart) something Jenny Crusie once said at a romance authors convention I attended — which is that trashing authors online is rude, not to mention, bad karma. “

5. Suggest that a reader giving an opinion about a book is tantamount to insulting the author’s child. “it would be the equivalent of stopping another mother on the street just to gloat, “my, you have an ugly baby!”

6. Ignore one’s own good advice to walk away from the encounter. “Let’s drop this, now and enjoy our holiday weekend.”

7. Call the readers a bunch of witches. “In attacking me like a coven, you’ve all missed your own point.”

8. Tell the readers to do something more constructive than read and write reviews. (and invoke another big name author if possible and get it wrong) “Why not then, channel that passion into your own manuscripts — seriously? I read somewhere that many years ago, before she wrote her first novel, Nora Roberts wasn’t too moved by the romance fiction on the market, and so she said to herself something along the lines of “heck, I can write as well as this, if not better.”

9. Complain about Harriet Klausner’s consistency. “Harriet Klausner posted the same exact review on BN.com and gave the novel 5 stars! What gives, Harriet??”

10. Post a glowing five star review for a fake profile that links to your bridal registry that was filled out in May of 2007. Then suggest that the reader who recognizes the reviewer is a bit, um biased (read: related to the author), is totally making things up. “You couldn’t possibly seriously think that only people who are related to me would post a good review.”

***

The Longer Version. I present to you the case study of Leslie Carroll or The One Where the Bridal Registry Did Her In.

The latest sad tale began when Reader Rebecca left a 3.0 out of 5 stars review of All For Love: The Scandalous Life and Times of Royal Mistress Mary Robinson by Leslie Carroll on July 2, 2008. The review is a detailed examination of the book and the reader’s response toward the book. The review is so carefully constructed that it makes the book interesting despite the grade.

Author Amanda Elyot tells the story of a woman who grew up in near poverty and turned herself into a celebrity in late eighteenth century England. . . It’s quite a tale, going from rags to riches to love and abandonment, over and over again. For Mary longs to fall in love, but that elusive security always seems to vanish just as it’s nearly in her grasp. And she keeps struggling to survive with her daughter, turning to acting and writing to support them both, despite having to cope with a crippling illness.
. . .
While a great deal of the story would seem to improbable, but the story of Mary Robinson is quite true. Many of her works survived to this day, including the memoirs that she wrote at the close of her life, and what Amanda Elyot based most of her novel on. Told in first person, it’s a lively excursion through Georgian London, filled with plenty of witty talk, details of daily living and especially clothing, and quite a few insights into Mary’s own plight and that of women as well.

Ultimately, though, the book disappointed the reader

The reader is reminded continually that men of this time were perfidious louts, using their wives as not much more than breeding stock or a bank account. . . . And Mary? Instead of showing both of these ‘gentlemen’ to the door, instead pines away, and hopes that they will finally turn and be faithful to her. It’s this that ultimately ruined the book for me — I so wanted to see her develope some kind of backbone and give these men a good kick of the backside before slamming the door. . . .I was hoping for something more, but this breezy, chatty, gossipy novel really didn’t rise to the mark. That’s too bad, as it could have been much more in the hands of the author.
. . .
It’s an average, historical read. Three stars overall.

Within a day, Leslie Carroll aka Amanda Elyot responded and while it’s not the best example of a response, it could have died there.

Sorry the novel didn’t entirely work for you, Rebecca, but you mention a reason for your disappointment that would be historically inaccurate. Mary Robinson DIDN’T show her lovers the door and for me to have given her the sensibilities and decisions of a twenty-first century woman (or in fact any woman other than Mary Robinson) would have been to defile the events of her biography, something any historical novelist worth her salt would never do.

Rebecca took great pains to state the book was historical but that the manner in which the story was told wasn’t satisfactory to her. For example, Rebecca finds that the heroine lacked backbone but while Carroll initially states that Mary Robinson can’t be given “the sensibilities and decisions of a twenty-first century woman” she did fight back against the Prince’s abandonment. “She didn’t take his abandonment lightly at all! In fact she fought for what royal mistresses before her had always been given: an annuity, even after they had been dumped by their noble lovers,” writes Carroll. Obviously this fiestiness didn’t show itself within the pages for Rebecca.

Another reader responds to Rebecca’s review with the following:

Hum. I see overall that Elyot hasn’t improved since her first novel (Helen of Troy.) It’s too bad because she does write about intresting people and plots (especially the Jane Austen Actress sent back in time) but I could never finish her books after the first one. She makes good choices on what to write and then messes up the writing. Thanks for the heads up on this one.
PS- I see you’re close to the top 1000! I am too-heres hoping we both make it soon and show them how historical fiction should be reviewed!

Carroll can’t leave well enough alone. This is the part where I begin to half cringe and half shake my head in disbelief. Carroll assumes that the two reviewers are authors and starts striking back:

Perhaps you would also like to show the rest of us how historical fiction should be WRITTEN! I look forward to reviewing your first novel, Lilly. And all the rest after that, should you be fortunate enough to get published again.

Two other readers respond with the fact that they don’t really appreciate Carroll’s tart response to which Carroll replies with the standard “I’ve got lots of other people who love me.” Why not pay attention to those professionals then? Why care what a few readers at Amazon think?

Sorry about that, Misfit and YA Lib. I hope you will reconsider your knee-jerk reaction one day. After all, many reviewers, including several professional book critics, have admired my writing tremendously. So there are as many opinions in the world as there are people.

But things that smack of personal attacks should be avoided at all costs. And I take very serioulsly (and to heart) something Jenny Crusie once said at a romance authors convention I attended — which is that trashing authors online is rude, not to mention, bad karma. There are many books I have begun to read and couldn’t finish, and many more that I didn’t care for at all, but, being an author myself I am not comfortable, nor do I feel compelled, to share my opinion in a public forum. After all, it’s only mine, and it would be the equivalent of stopping another mother on the street just to gloat, “my, you have an ugly baby!” It’s an unnecessary and unpleasant encounter.

My comment to Lilly was not intended to be rude, but rather to encourage her to imagine the shoe being on the other foot. A problem with online communication is that the tone can often be misinterpreted.

Let’s drop this, now and enjoy our holiday weekend.

Oh, but if only Carroll would have taken her own advice. Instead, she keeps on responding:

In attacking me like a coven, you’ve all missed your own point. Just because a book can be not to your taste for whatever reasons, (and as you’ve said, all literary tastes differ); it does not automatically make the writing bad — or the author untalented. Constructive critique is welcome when it is indeed constructive, rather than a comment like “gee, she still can’t write.” I’m more interested in hearing what works for you in historical fiction. You’re all very passionate about historical fiction, which is fabulous, even if mine doesn’t personally float your individual boats; and you each have a good deal to contribute to a discussion about it, and probably have a lot of creativity and imagination as well. Why not then, channel that passion into your own manuscripts — seriously? I read somewhere that many years ago, before she wrote her first novel, Nora Roberts wasn’t too moved by the romance fiction on the market, and so she said to herself something along the lines of “heck, I can write as well as this, if not better.” And now she’s probably one of the wealthiest and most prolific women in our industry.

Actually, Carroll, I think Rebecca laid out pretty well what she likes and doesn’t like in historical fiction and unfortunately it isn’t your writing.

And Carroll doesn’t stop there. She takes umbrage with the fact that Klausner gives her a four star rating on Amazon and a five star rating at Barnes and Noble:

Harriet Klausner posted the same exact review on BN.com and gave the novel 5 stars! What gives, Harriet??

The coup de grace, though, is the mysterious five star review that appears on July 7, 2008, by La Riva Gauche. It is the only five star review for the book and it is the only review of La Riva Guache whose only identifying information is a List of a Bridal Registry for one Leslie Sara Carroll dated May 19, 2007. *

In sum, this is actually a fairly entertaining set of links and comments by a disgruntled author. It’s also a good illustration of what not to do at Amazon. At least delete the bridal registry if you are going to pretend to not be related to the author when giving a glowing five star review.

*This review has since been revised and now says it is written by the author’s husband after a reader’s unmasking. The exchange following the five star review is priceless because one commenter calls out the reviewer (pre edits) for being related and Leslie Carroll responds, totally disingenuously, “You couldn’t possibly seriously think that only people who are related to me would post a good review.”

Mainstream Media Embarasses Itself

Jane — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 22:50:35 +0000

MSNBC decided to run a poll about romance novels in conjunction with its feature of fiction writer Danielle Steele. Why MSNBC jumps from Danielle Steele to romance, I’ll never know but it just goes to show how culturally illiterate the MSNBC poll writers are.

Apparently MSNBC believes that romance books are still called “bodice rippers.” Hello, MSNBC, the 80s called and they want George Michael and your poll writers back. See, bodice rippers don’t identify romance books anymore. It’s man titty. Can you get that right? Let’s have culturally relevant insults. It works better, you look smarter and it makes it harder for us to make fun of you.

And perhaps you haven’t heard yet, but millions of women spend nearly a billion dollars on romance books each year which means you are pissing off a huge segment of your viewership. Rock on with your bad, deluded, out of touch selves.

Links to other bloggers who think you are as stupid as I do:

Smart Bitches (with new poll)
Barbara Vey’s blog with an alternate list of poll answers

How Not to Gain New Business

Jane — Fri, 16 May 2008 16:32:43 +0000

Theo Black, web designer and husband of author Holly Black, took to criticizing the websites of his former clients. I think Black is a talented guy but his vision of website design is style over functionality. I much prefer the functional and generic websites that he disdains because these sites are easier to navigate and faster to load.

But whatever your tastes in website designs are, it makes no sense to publicly criticize an author for leaving you. It’s bad for business and tacky.

I think that there are some schools of thought that because these are sites for authors who are artists, then the site should reflect their vision. I think sites are for readers and should cater to their preferences. Teddy Pig wrote an article on site design for epublishers and I think the comments at the Smart Bitches site are also instructive of what readers are looking for.

Publishing House Alert: Yaoi House LLC

Jane — Sun, 11 May 2008 18:38:28 +0000

Update. Kira Takenochi has alerted people to new changes in her Yaoi publishing role.

Hello Everyone,

For most of you, this is going to come as no surprise, as I’ve been discussing this situation for a few weeks now in my journal at the site.

As of tonight I will be shutting down the Yaoi House site and putting up a new site for my writing.

What may be surprising to some is that I am going to be removing all the yaoi from the site. I will not be continuing those stories at this time. It’s possible I may revisit them and and rework them to be non-yaoi stories, but for now they are going to sleep, until I decide what to do with them. I will only be working on new fiction from this point on.

Tonight I will be putting all future recurring billing on hold. You will continue to have access to the new site and the new fiction through the end of your billing period. I will be putting up a new sign-on page and changing the price to $4.99. This price cut makes sense as there will be less fiction, since I will be building a new fiction archive.

I will not be publishing any of my yaoi books. For those of you who are new to the site and have no idea what is going on, you may email me for a refund, if you like, as I know you purchased access to the site for the yaoi.

For those of you who are going to continue on with me in my new direction, I will see you on the “other side”. To the rest of you, I thank you for your years of support and wish you all the best.

Kira Takenouchi is a Yaoi author who made a name for herself with Ai no Kusabi fanfiction, including a long and popular saga called ‘Taming Riki’. She formed a publishing house called Yaoi House or Yaoi Underground, LLC.

She signed a number of authors including Becca Abbott and took money in form of subscription fee payments by readers anxious to read her Taming Riki work. In March of 2008, Kira found Jesus and decided to stop publishing and declared all contracts null and void. She promised to refund money paid for the Taming Riki work which was never delivered.

On April 8, 2008, other investors in the Yaoi House stepped forward (the first comment), claiming that they would be honoring contracts and resolving the issue of outstanding orders that seemed not be filled.

On May 1, 2008, Kira reappears and claims that she did not find God but was instead suffering hallucinations as a result of bi-polarity.

I know now that God wasn’t acutally talking to me with Divine imperatives..that was in my head. It just seemed so real. And…some things happened to me, that I gues I won’t tell you about, but they go along the lines of hallucinations.

I think that we know, having seen the signs before of bad publisher behavior what happens next. Yep, people voicing their upsets with Kira bailing on them speak out and Kira responds with

Have fun with your rant. Anyone who participates will of course be banned from my site.

On May 4, 2008, in response to what is happening with the contracts and the money that was taken from readers, Kira denies that there has been any transfer of power:

Let me be clear about one thing. Legally I am still the manager of both Yaoi House and Yaoi Underground so what I say goes, with regard to my fiction. I have the power not to sign the final contract that would transfer those rights to Harial, which would mean nothing would change with either company and both would remain in my control.

A number of advisors and business partners leave Yaoi House because of, well, the instability. And Kira responds with accusations toward the people who want their refunds and contracts honored. I mean, the nerve of those people.

I admit I’m very angry about this because it’s clear from the posts in this group that people KNEW or at least SUSPECTED I was not in my right mind and yet everyone was proceeding to take away everything I’d worked on for the past few years, in a matter of DAYS. Almost no one here stood up for me and gave me the benefit of the doubt! No one except Esther! You all FUCKING KNOW ME and you KNOW I would never desert you or my stories or these companies! You KNEW that this “Kira Morningstar” was not the same person as “Kira Takenouchi”. And you didn’t even care that I was mad, that I was all alone in the horror of my mind with no one to help me–my shareholders knew I was sick and yet they deserted me, everyone deserted me and just chose to believe the worst, that I’d actually just thrown everything away and walked away. You didn’t stop to think…Okay wait…she’s bipolar…maybe she’s just ill. Let’s give her a chance to come out of this. And then all you cared about was getting your refunds or getting A BOOK with one of my titles on it, written by anyone else under the sun apparently.

On May 8, 2008, Kira seems to have calmed down and wishes her former business partners the best of luck and actually offers up an apology.

I’ll be dismantling the YH subscription site because I suspect all the writers have gone with Harial to her new domain. I hope so. They got the raw end of the shaft, too. I’ll be too busy with my own writing to try and maintain such a subscription site–and I don’t even want to, because it’s Harial’s baby. To be honest I’ll mostly be focusing on my own books now, unless we’ve signed new contracts with authors I’m not aware of. Or if we have, perhaps they can follow Harial. Maybe she’ll
publish print books too.

Harial…I just want to say publicly that I am so sorry for what I put you through

This olive branch is thrown down and trod upon three days later:

In case some of you are unclear about what has happened, Harial has started her own company.

Apparently some of my investors who joined her thought they could secretly keep shares in my companies while they invested in a competing company! They would be privy to my plans which they could then use to their advantage at their company. They apparently also thought they could take my authors, not realizing that the contracts between Yaoi House and its authors are still legal and have not been legally voided by new signed documents. So, for instance, posting Learning to Serve on their site is completely illegal, because a signed contract with Yaoi House is still in effect.

(Um, what about the post that all contracts were voided?)

Other authors are getting threats of legal action if they try to move their works to another subscription service.

Apparently, our contracts are still valid and will be so for two years after we hand in the manuscript. Which goes against what my contract says, but let’s not get into details here. Apparently, what Kira is trying to do is prevent any of the authors to sell the manuscripts or post the stories in question on the new publishing house’s subscription site

It sounds like some Yaoi authors are getting some raw treatment and that Kira Takenouchi is still trying to remain in business. Wonder what ever happened to those unfilled subscription payments?

Update: We’ve opened the comments at this time.

What’s Wrong with Massachusetts? (Or Lie To Get Laid and You Might Go to Prison)

Jane — Mon, 05 May 2008 19:58:17 +0000

In our ongoing coverage of what is wrong with the United States (soon to be expanded to cover wrong headed laws being enacted or pushed to be enacted in foreign countries), we include Massachusetts. A proposed bill would allow individuals who obtain sex by lying to be charged with a felony which would, you know, probably implicate 75% of bar patrons and one night stands.

Whoever has sexual intercourse or unnatural sexual intercourse with a person having obtained that person’s consent by the use of fraud, concealment or artifice, and who thereby intentionally deceived such person so that a reasonable person would not have consented but for the deception, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for life or any term of years. As used in this statute, ‘fraud’ or ‘artifice’ shall not be construed to mean a promise of future consideration.

As Eugene Volokh states, its probably not the intent of the drafters of the law, but the language essentially makes the elements of the rape by fraud act as follows:

Any time someone has consensual sex (1) having gotten the consent through (a) lying or (b) concealment, and (2) a jury (or perhaps a judge) concludes that “a reasonable person would not have consented but for the deception,” that’s a felony, labeled as a form of rape. Promises (“I’ll marry you”) are excluded, but other statements -’ or silences -’ are not.

I wonder, since it is a sex crime case, whether the offender would have to register as a sex offender.

What’s Wrong with Indiana?

Jane — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 19:21:42 +0000

First there was the Indiana Censorship Bill that requires any seller of sexually explicit material to register with the Secretary of State. You know, like bookstores that sell romances and such.

Now the Republicans have the opportunity to vote for Tony Zirkle who is in a primary race for a House seat in Northwest Indiana. Apparently, Mr. Zirkle is either none to bright or totally disingenuous. If it’s the former, I don’t think he should be making laws that affect the rest of this country. If it’s the latter, ditto plus ten.

What did Zirkle do? A white supremacist group decides to hold a party commemorating the birthday of Adolf Hitler. Zirkle is one of the speakers. When questioned about this, Zirkle claimed that “”I’ll speak before any group that invites me. . .I’ve spoken on an African-American radio station in Atlanta.” When asked his thoughts about the group, he said “he didn’t know enough about the group to either favor it or oppose it.”

and

He also told WIMS radio in Michigan City that he didn’t believe the event he attended included people necessarily of the Nazi mindset, pointing out the name isn’t Nazi, but Nationalist Socialist Workers Party.

Nevermind the visual clues like the big picture of Hitler or the swastikas. If Zirkle wins, I’ll have to wonder if his opponent was Bill Napoli. Who’s worse?

Via Respectful Insolence.

Edited to add: Have decided that Zirkle is a dangerous kook. South Bend newspaper reported his views on segregation. Sounds like after a congressional study, Zirkle would like to herd us all into different communal camps.

He went on to tell the Kokomo Perspective, "While we are brainwashed with respect to integration and forcing everyone to be together and basically all arguments to the contrary are silenced, historically it’s very often been the case that you have to segregate and apartheid people to stop the continual war."

….

"I don’t have enough facts to support it," Zirkle said of his proposal, speaking with The Tribune. "I think it would need a congressional study to see if I support it. It may mean the cost of transferring people is too high."

On the other hand, he said, maybe it could also save the costs of the crime rate -’ and reduce claims of racial profiling. Granted, he said, it could take a century for the move to really fall in place.

So how would you divvy up Hispanics?

You can pretty much lump them in with whites, he says.

What about black Latinos whose black roots go back several generations in Latin America? And what about the ever-growing number of mixed races?

"You’d have to let people declare what culture they want to be living in," Zirkle said.

I’d like to live in whatever culture that Zirkle has denounced and rejected.

Update on Amazon Situation: Amazon Petition

Jane — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:36:55 +0000

Most of the blogosphere has been mouth agape in reaction to the Deborah Anne MacGillivray harassment of an Amazon reader over a 3 star review that the reader left for a book of MacGillivray’s. In my link backs, though, I saw a post called “Authors Who Bite Back” from Tess Gerritsen’s blog that left my mouth agape. This is a three star review. Three stars! It’s like an average grade. From a reader who loved the first book.

My first reaction to this story was: "What? I can get the bad reviews taken off my Amazon pages? How do I do that?" Because I didn’t know an author could do that. I thought you just had to live with them and suffer heartburn every time you scroll past them.

My second reaction was: "There but for the grace of better self-control go I."

Because, let’s be honest here. Really. Is there an author alive who hasn’t wanted to hunt down the identities of those who’ve written bad Amazon reviews of our books? Is there an author alive who hasn’t harbored fantasies of revenge, even if it only involves sticking a few pins in a voodoo doll? Is there an author alive who hasn’t wanted to fire back a response along the lines of "what could you possibly know about good writing, you illiterate slut?"

If you haven’t harbored such fantasies, then you’re a far better person than I am.

Now, I’m not saying that Ms. MacGillivray wasn’t out of line here. But her major foolishness was that she got caught at it.

As an astute commenter pointed out,

I guess I would argue that her "major foolishness" wasn’t in getting caught – because that implies her actions would have been OK if she hadn’t been caught. I would argue that her problem is that she crossed the line of what most people believe is acceptable behavior in our society.

Ms Gerritsen defends herself in subsequent posts by saying she was trying to be funny;

Humor involves a certain amount of exaggeration, and the actual story I cited is about the exaggerated lengths a certain author has gone to to protect her turf. Yes, she went way over the line into the creepy. But am I the only one who found black comedy in the story? The only one who could see it as a wacky film about people who get carried away into committing absurdities?

And then says that she was just being honest about her sensitivities to negative reviews written by cowardly anonymous reviewers.

So okay, maybe I’ve said things here that sound neurotic and hypersensitive. But at least, damn it, I’m brave enough to OWN MY OWN WORDS. On this blog, you all know exactly who’s writing these thoughts.

Unlike the cowardly anonymous reviewers who throw bombs and scuttle back under their rocks.

If a reader did this to an author would Gerritsen find the black humor in it? If a reader, to a reader’s group, said “vote down this bitch” and “Well, thanks to XXXXXX our PI , we now have her name, her husband’s name, her chidrens’ names, her grannies and great grannies name. Her address phone number and email lol- quite interesting.”

Please Note that the Following Petition Is not in any way related to Tess Gerritsen, her blog or anything on her blog. Instead the petition is directed at Amazon’s inaction toward Deborah MacGillivray and the unfair treatment of reader, Reba Belle.

In any event, we’ve got an iPetition up for those who believe that Amazon’s inaction toward the author and the banning of the reader are inappropriate. You simply need to provide your name and email address and you are given the choice of signing anonymously. One you hit the “sign petition” button, you are done. You will be directed to a page asking you for a donation. You absolutely do not need to give any money to iPetition.com in order for your signature to show up.

Being an Asshole, Liar Does Pay; at Least at Lonely Planet.

Jane — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 14:10:51 +0000

As you can tell by the title, my impatience with publishers is rising. Their loose association with integrity becomes more evident every day. Last week, it was discovered that Lonely Planet, a travel guide publisher, was putting out books by an author who a) plagiarized and b) didn’t even travel to the places he wrote about and c) took money and freebies from businesses included in the guides.

Lonely Planet apparently has no intention of pulling the guides off the market because it “stands by the accuracy of its travel guides” and has “thus far found no inaccuracies.” Well, how about the copying? Or the fact that the entire Columbia section isn’t based on his own travel experience but what some intern he was banging told him in during coitus? The author says his initial admissions of wrongdoing were taken out of context and not true.

Author DeborahAnne MacGillivray Harasses Amazon Reader

Jane — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 01:57:07 +0000

Apparently, there appears to be a breakdown in the comment box on the previous thread. Ms. MacGillivray was the recipient of a three star review on Amazon. She chastises the reader for not understanding the book correctly.

Reba,

Thank you for letting me know you enjoyed "A Restless Knight" so much you read it twice. It’s always nice to hear this. I appreciate when people take the time from their busy lives to let me know what they feel about my books. Sorry, you didn’t let me know before. As it was my debut book, I was very interested in responses.

I think perhaps, as Anne posted, that you are a bit too much in love with Challon, and thus resistant to Damian. It does me credit that I can create a character who conjures such loyalty from you.

However, I fear you did missed the point of Damian wanting to fight Dirk. He was not fighting for Tamlyn, he was going to take Challon’s place – to protect Challon.
-

I am think you skimmed the book, sitting in an auto place, worry about big bad men sniggering, and didn’t bother to see why the characters did things, just took surface reactions. You are keying into Aithinne’s POV, which at many times is not accurate to what was really happening.

-..

And where you got he was hung up on Tamlyn by the middle of the, that is SOOOOO wrong. He knew from his return he was mean for Aithinne, she was THE ONE. You are reading your quick assessment into that. He was NOT hung on on Tamlyn at any point after his return and he saw Aithinne. For you to keep saying that, shows how totally you are missing the true emotions of these characters.

As for accusing Athinne of asking Dirk into her room – he is MALE. Male do silly thinks when they are upset and jealous. This is so TM – Typically male. Men do silly things at times of high emotions. Damian is human, not perfect.

P.S. Thank everyone for the lively discussion. Sales have jumped!

She has since deleted the review, but not before it came to light that MacGillivray uses yahoogroups and author groups to encourage, browbeat, or by other means, individuals into taking down negative reviews by reporting that the review is a) not helpful and b) abuse. MacGillivray also appears to have taken even further steps to ascertain personal information about Reba

2c. Re: vote down this bitch please
Posted by: "DeborahAnne MacGillivray"
writer@DeborahMacGIllivray.co.uk scotladywriter
Date: Tue Aug 21, 2007 10:17 pm ((PDT))
Well, thanks to XXXXXX our PI , we now have her name, her husband’s
name, her chidrens’ names, her grannies and great grannies name. Her
address phone number and email
lol-quite interesting.

Hilary Sares, MacGillivray’s Kensington editor, purportedly ” is very aware of this situation and said only people with nothing better to do plays in this mess.”

As a reader, I hope that this is not true, that an editor wouldn’t be so cavalier about an author hunting down a reader’s personal information in this manner. I also hope that MacGillivray and her pals would stop using the Amazon system as their own little playground. This sort of thing works to devalue the very product that MacGillivray is working so hard to build up. I’ll be blogging more about this on Sunday.

Recently Received Publicity Don’t

Jane — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 19:54:47 +0000

I received an email this morning that contained the following words. I did verify that this was not a hoax but an email from a new publicity intern.

Hi,

I’m from [major New York publisher]. I would like to spread the word on two of our new Vampire novels. The first is [name of Book 1], and the second one (that I just began to read) is [name of Book 2].

Vampire literature is my favorite reading genre, and I think your website is great for people like us, who are true fans of vampirism. However, as of late a lot the genre has been oversaturated with smut, than overall content.

I assure you these two new novels offers something innovated and exciting.

We’ll send free copies of the books if you’re interested.

Thanks

For the record, we are not requesting the books because they don’t sound interesting to any of us, but it shows the danger of the mass emailed publicity inquiry. Because if the publicity intern had read the blog, she would know that we are all about the smutty vampire novels. The FiMD is spreading. Need more lolcats (although I read at Gawker or Wonkette that lolcats are so 2007).

The Frustrating Part of Internetizens: Everyone’s a Lawyer

Jane — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 09:00:14 +0000

moar funny pictures

A little brouhaha went down over the past week within the Young Adult author community. When this was first sent to me, my immediate reaction was “thank goodness it’s not us this time.” Then I went to read. Another friend of mine commented that the internet makes it so easy for people to make themselves look bad.

Exhibit 1 would have to be Young Adult author Rosanne Parry’s “cease and desist” letter (a definition I use in the broadest terms as C&D letters go).

The backstory, as far as I understand, is as follows. Author Jackson Pearce had some problems with how Class2k9 was being run. Class2k9 is a limited membership organization for young adult authors. The group is primarily a group marketing effort that started with Class 2k7 and was then succeeded by Class 2k8 and so on. It claims to be “well known by authors, publishers, booksellers, librarians, and teachers.” Class2k9 is purportedly a trademark owned by author and lawyer Greg R Fishbone. One problem, though, the trademark is not a federally registered one.

Jackson Pearce looked it up on the federal trademark database and found nothing. Believing that she was not violating any right, she apparently set up a livejournal with the same name. Tempers flared. Rights were asserted. Threats were handed out like candy at Halloween.

Rosanna Parry is apparently the co-president of class of 2k9′s. Emboldened by her faint knowledge of common law trademarks and her prestigious position, Parry went forth and posted on closed yahoo groups about how Jackson Pearce was trying to co-opt the 2k9′s marketing effort (only in not very nice terms).

The truth behind Pearce’s motives is probably only known to Pearce herself, but Parry’s attempts to shut down Pearce’s livejournal did not leave this reader with a very good impression of Parry. First, if Parry’s writing skills are evinced in her letter to Pearce, I have grave concerns about Parry’s book.

Jackson, one of the most common illusions that comes from the frequent use of the internet is that because much information is instantly available; therefore, all information is instantly available.

Wow, awkward phrasing much? But it’s not just the text that is jarring, it’s the context. The letter is full of embarrassing condescension.

You are not old enough to be a patent lawyer. You are old enough to be held legally and financially responsible for violating another person’s intellectual property.

There isn’t any age limit to taking the patent bar so Pearce (whose age I know not) could be old enough to be a patent lawyer. She would have to have some kind of scientific/technical background to be eligible to sit for the patent bar but is not required to be of any particular age.

I wish to the core of my heart that you had taken my repeated warnings to change your 2k9 site on livejournal seriously.

I am glad that Parry wrote this sentence because I cannot take any warnings seriously unless they come from the core of someone’s heart as opposed to “depth of my heart” or other such cliched reference to the heart, mind, soul.

Parry does recognize that online activity as an author can have an impact and worries that Pearce’s lack of a mentor will be her downfall. (Srsly? Lack of mentor?).

However, as an author you are a more public person than you have been and your words and actions must be weighed with more care. Do you have a mentor? Is there anyone in your life, besides your livejournal group, who is in a position to give you solid council about conducting yourself in a professional manner? I would hate for this lapse in judgement to have a negative effect on the reception of your writing.

Parry graciously offers to counsel other members in the Class 2k9 to say nice things about Pearce if Pearce does what Parry wants but ~~threatens~~ cautions her on how to comport herself in the future.

I would strongly caution you to be judicious in how you talk about the 2K classes even in a closed journal community.

I am no trademark expert but the whole C&D struck me wrong. The use of the word trademark appeared inaccurate based on my limited knowledge so I did a spot of research.

It is true that unregistered trademarks have protection, but it generally isn’t protected afforded by federal law. The Lanham Act does allow for protection of some unregistered marks but most case law involving unregistered marks is on the state level where the state’s unfair competition laws either formally (legislatively enacted) or informally (judicially adopted) enforce the owner of unregistered mark’s legal rights.

Technically, the type of mark that Class 2k9 would be is a “collective mark” not a “trademark.” Trademarks are for things of a tangible nature: goods and products. Trademarks are not for services like marketing or advertising. The legal designation of Class 2k9 is probably a service “collective mark” :

The term "collective mark" means a trademark or service mark–
(1) used by the members of a cooperative, an association, or other collective group or organization, or
(2) which such cooperative, association, or other collective group or organization has a bona fide intention to use in commerce and applies to register on the principal register established by this chapter,
and includes marks indicating membership in a union, an association, or other organization.

15 U.S.C.A. § 1127.

I wonder, too, whether Class 2K9 can even be protected. I venture to guess that any number of students, secondary and post secondary, will be using that phrase to emblazon their yearbooks, tshirts, and so forth. Service marks fall into four different categories, with each category afforded different levels of protection. A descriptive mark, as opposed to a fictitious or fanciful mark, is protected only when a “secondary meaning” is shown. Class 2k9 looks to me to be a descriptive mark and therefore would need to have a commonly understood secondary meaning in order for Fishbone to successfully prevent its use by others.

There are generic terms which “communicate information about the nature or class of an article or service” which are never afforded protection. It might be that the use of Class2k9 as a marketing tool toward publishing insiders might be confusing, but as a general blog to readers on the internet? Probably something the court would have to decide.

Also, I wonder about the validity of the C&D letters. If the cease and desist letters came from Parry and not Fishbone who is ostensibly the owner of the collective mark, Parry does not have the legal right to challenge the misuse of a mark she does not own. Simply because she has the right to use the mark with permission of Fishbone does not give her the right to challenge others’ uses. That right belongs to Fishbone.

I think Parry’s ” lapse in judgement” might “have a negative effect on the reception of [her] writing. See, the Foot in Mouth Disease? It is spreading.

Oh Noes! Borders Offers Romance Book for Free; Takes Advantage of Emotionally Weak Women

Jane — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 17:00:05 +0000

Borders is running a Buy 4 Get 1 Free special for romances. When I first saw this discount notice in my inbox (which works out to about $1.25 off per book), I thought, “Sweet.” But apparently, I should have thought “those rat bastards.”

According to blogger at TensionBreaker:

Offering consumers 5 romance novels for the price of 4 (and making the offer a week before Valentines Day) crosses the line from “meeting the consumer’s untapped needs” to “exploiting the consumer’s human frailty at a time of emotional weakness.”

I think offering the coupon on St. Patrick’s Day would be particularly insidious given how liquor can also “exploit a consumer’s human frailty”. Perhaps Columbus Day would be an appropriate time for Borders to run the special?

I went to the Borders site to see if it was engaging in any other nefarious business practices and it was. It is offering Hogfather, the movie version of Terry Pratchett’s novel, BEFORE YOU CAN BUY IT IN THE STORES! If that is not exploiting human frailty of those weak willed addicted to Pratchett, I don’t know what is.

Please, readers, we must band together and put a stop to this corporate attempt to exploit us. I suggest we take up a letter writing campaign and demand this discount not be offered during any holiday during which we weak women might be emotionally susceptible to the ploy of getting us to buy more romance books!

Foot in Mouth Disease Affecting Fantasy Sector

Jane — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 17:38:44 +0000

moar funny pictures

There appears to be a viral illness passing through the fantasy sector. Signs of the dreaded Foot in Mouth Disease are evident at two popular online blog stops. Oh Noes! There is Ms. Guran who decided to take the new Harlequin Paranormal blog to task for a) posting under a first name and no last name and b) for being banal about vampires.

This is the same Guran, editor of Juno publishing (whom we have reviewed here both favorably and unfavorably), who said this and this. It appears Guran is suffering chronic FiMD.

Another FiMD case is found at author Holly Lisle’s blog. Ms. Lisle is exploring the viability of a magazine and in her initial post declared that she wasn’t interested in publishing “porn” in a statement about epublishing. This was republished on Karen Scott’s blog and Ms. Lisle defended herself on the basis of being misunderstood (this inability to communicate her message clearly despite being a professional writer must be frustrating).

To further clarify her words, she wrote this today:

I’d think it would be obvious to anyone with a brain that ANY writer who is writing both adult and YA fantasy under her own name is not going to be even remotely interested in including anything that could be categorized as porn, or romantica, in a magazine she’s ALSO putting out under her own name.

Was I insulting porn? Romantica? No.

I was noting that porn/romantica is the ONE type of fiction that you can sell on the internet and know it will go. The stuff sells, and sells very well, and where there’s one big market for it, there’s certainly another. And some of it is very well written. I’m simply not interested, even a little bit, in being that market.

Yes, when money was a nightmare a couple of years ago, I bought a handful of Ellora’s Cave’s offerings with the idea of cooking up a pseudonym and doing a few of them, just to bring in the extra bucks. Some I thought were funny as hell, a few were pretty hot, some I didn’t care for, but in the end, no matter how much money I might have made doing them, I figure you only get so much time-’and so many books to write-’before you die. You better make sure every one you do is one you want to claim.

From this I draw the following conclusions:

Holly Lisle thinks porn and romantica are interchangeable
She thinks that authors who write for Ellora’s Cave are embarrassed to have that same name attached to other adult novels. (this is probably true for some and not true for others)
That writing for EC is something that you only do when you don’t have anything better to claim.
Writing romantica is super easy. It can probably be done by the lolcats but they have better things to do. (having read alot of bad romantica, I am guessing that its really not that easy).

Again, I could be misunderstanding her. I’ve been accused of that before. What is the treatment for FiMD? Can we prevent its spread across genre lines (actually there is plenty of FiMD in the romance genre too)? More lolcat pictures perhaps?