Something Real

Hi there.
Every once in a while I get in the mood to write about something 'real.'  We, as authors, are encouraged in the very beginning of our career to absolutely not put anything out there that might be considered mean, non-supportive, or offensive to anyone who might read our writing.

But I have to tell you that today I am angry.  There is so much screwed up stuff going on in publishing right now and I think it has to be okay to say so.  If you have missed it, a very well know m/m romance author has been, allegedly (look at my law school years rearing their head...although if you look at the books in question it seems pretty cut and dry to me.) plagiarized a m/f romance author (actually I think now its clear she did this to two different authors at least) changing the m/f romance books to m/m and putting her name on it.  Frankly, it makes me sick to my stomach.  But I'm actually not to write too much more on this. One of the m/f authors who has been victimized is Becky McGraw. You can look up her books. They're fantastic.

This prompted a whole series of responses, some of them appropriate, some of them downright snarky, stupid, and holier than thou by the media.  I wasn't surprised. Whenever some reporter gets the chance to slam us for what we do they take it.  (I think in this case the insinuation was that all romance book are formula and we basically paint by numbers, thanks for clearing that up. The hours I spend working on my novels to make them my own and really all I needed to do was insert A into B and I could have been done...)

I'm told by my friend who read from Wattpad that plagiarism is rampant on Wattpad right now to the point of being horrifying...

But what I want to write about today is something that has happened to my friend D.L. Jackson.  She is a talented author who has written, for the last ten years, across genres, including in a favorite of mine in the shifter genre of romance.  Low and behold, she wakes up and there is someone else, writing erotic shifters, using her name.  With no contact information or way to get in touch with her, this woman has usurped DL's name and reputation to write something so close as to be easily confused. I'm not going to post links here, I don't want to encourage the behavior.

Between the plagiarism and this latest move to take Ms. Jackson's hard earned reputation, I have to say ENOUGH.  What is everyone thinking they are going to accomplish here?  Be real. Be you. Publish as yourself with our name (pen name or otherwise) and own it.  Or don't publish at all.  The world does not owe you readership and if you can't be honest about what you're doing, please stop doing it all.

Thats my rant for today.
I hope you're all having a great day.
With love and as much honesty as I can muster...
Rebecca