Inactivity doesn’t make a whole heck of a lot of difference
So, I know I have let my blog, and my author Facebook page fall to the wayside as I have tried to figure out what exactly it is that I want from my series. It’s been hard, and I’ve continued to feel like a failure. I’ve talked about that before, so I won’t get into the major details. Needless to say, I’m making a lot of changes to the story. I know, I know, I’ve said that before, too. I recognize that. And I don’t want to say too much because I don’t know how long it will take, but let’s just say things will not be the same in the little universe I’ve created.
I started publishing because I’ve always been a writer. I’ve always wanted to tell stories, plain and simple. I’m thankful to have reached that point, but I’ve allowed myself to get in such a funk, that I don’t see anyway out of it without tearing everything down and starting over. I want to do what’s best for myself, my characters, my world, and most importantly, you guys. And that means a lot of things that I can’t talk about right now without inevitably making promises I don’t know that I can keep.
This blog, and Facebook page are going back dormant. My Youtube channel hasn’t gone anywhere in the last year, and that’s another thing that will continue to be dormant for a long while.
I encourage everyone attending the Indie Author Book Expo this year to pick up the copies of Celine that will be for sale there, because as of August 1st, I am pulling sales for the books for the time being. I can’t say exactly when anything will go back up, or what will happen, but for my own sake, I need to pull the book down. Thank you all for your continued support, and I can promise that I am doing what I can to make you all proud of these characters. We are all eternally grateful.
XOXO,
Maegan Provan
The Resurgence of Sock Puppetry and How History Repeats itself.
I honestly didn’t realize how long I’d been in the world of self-publishing until recently. I hadn’t realized exactly how much craziness I’ve witnessed, or what I thought I’d missed during my absence the last few years. But, here we are again. The fight against sock puppets, book stuffing, and scams has come flooding back. It’s the same old game, just with better graphics.
When I first joined the community towards the end of 2012, all of this craziness seemed so new and intense. I worked with authors and bloggers, and posted about everything from piracy, to bullying, and everything else that felt so immediate at the time.
In February of 2013, I have my first exposure to an author that took bad reviews as bullying and I blogged about it here. That author went on to create 2 sock puppet accounts using the exact same email username just on different platforms (Gmail and Yahoo) and proceeded to accuse me of making fun of the author in question. You can read the whole thing in the comments section of that post. Long story short, she ended up emailing me on my personal, private email rather than my author email and it was a whole thing.
At the end of March of that same year, I talked about people signing up to beta read an author’s book, only to come back to the author and tell them that the book was unreadable. However, if the author was willing to pay the beta reader to edit the book, the beta reader would leave a 5 star review on Amazon. That post is here. Because I spoke out, the beta reader in question (who read my book but hadn’t yet propositioned me) gave me a 1 star review and the author friend that was approached a 3 star review, but the text of said review made no sense. I can show you those reviews if you ask, but it’s 5 year old news at this point. Of course, I did make a follow up post in 2014 about how to handle scammers in those situation.
I’ve seen authors get upset about the success of people like J.K. Rowling, authors stalking actual bully reviewers, authors telling readers the “correct” way to review books (and the backlash that typically ensues in that situation), the book stuffing scam that caused the KU changes that are the center of the current problem, and the list goes on and on.
The reason I’m posting my “credits” is because the sad fact of the matter is that I’ve seen it all. People get riled up over a situation only to let it die away when it’s no longer interesting, or progressing. Accusations of sock puppetry fly around (and I’m not innocent from pointing at people that are very obviously operating those accounts), but ultimately they die.
Enter into the ring Suzan Tisdale. She is the self-publishing author who writes Scottish historical romance novels, along with a pen name that publishes romance novels of the more erotic variety. Through her charismatic coverage of #cockygate, Suzan has garnered a following of fellow authors and readers who are tired of the system gaming, review scamming, and reader trickery. And just like in many situations before, because Suzan has garnered such an audience, there are people that are trying to “prove” that she is scamming, herself.
(insert sarcastic tone)
While I don’t necessarily agree with absolutely everything Suzan says, and I think that there are some times that she doesn’t gather all of the information she needs before she makes a post or does a live video, she has a charm that continues to bring focus to the problems that we as self-published authors face and will readily correct herself if she does share information that isn’t correct in the moment. I think one thing that we haven’t had before in these situations is someone like Suzan that can hold an audience’s attention, approach things from a stern yet understanding place, and knows how to capitalize on her platform.
Suzan first gained attention due to her coverage of #cockygate. Her audience appreciated the even handed way she spoke directly to Faleena. Of course, Faleena spiraled, #cockygate blew up, but Suzan has not stopped leading the charge against the wrongs that have plagued the self-publishing community.
Because there are people standing up for what’s right, the people that are being called out decided to strike back. Since the theme of this post is history repeating itself, wouldn’t you know that Suzan and other authors standing up for these scammers are being “called out” as it were. Twitter sock accounts are springing up all over the place, attempting to call these authors “scammers” themselves, and accusing them of starting witch hunts.
Can I just point out that I absolutely despise use of the phrase “witch hunt” in situations like this. It’s not a witch hunt. No one is going to die. The people getting called out for scamming are losing their scam accounts. As far as I’m aware there has been no doxing of anyone’s information, no one has been crushed to death, hung, drowned, burned or any other form of torture that the victims of the actual witch hunts had to go through.
Anyway, I do hope that there is change for the better, and history does not repeat itself. I hope that we see the changes that are so desperately needed in the self-publishing world, and I hope that we continue to see the voices of those people fighting for us getting louder.
Keep on fighting!
A response to Faleena Hopkins: “An Open Letter to My Past Self.” #cockygate
The internet has been a buzz with the prospect of finally getting a “true” response from Faleena Hopkins regarding her side of this story. The problem is, the response she gave was an open letter to her past self regarding her mistakes, but she still continues to paint herself as the victim in the narrative.
Before we move forward, I want to remind everyone of a few things:
- Faleena Hopkins filed 3 trademarks applications. 2 were for the word “cocky” (plain script as well as stylized). 1 was for the phrase “Cocker Brothers”
- Upon receipt of said trademarks, Faleena begins to send other authors using the word “cocky” in their book titles cease and desist letters that she penned herself.
- The internet raises hell over her trademarking “cocky”, forgetting about the fact that she has also trademarked “Cocker Brothers.” She has now prevented all authors from creating characters using the last name “Cocker.” The focus is solely on fighting for “cocky.”
- One of the trademarks Faleena filed for “cocky” used a stylized font that she had no right to. Set Sail Studios in the UK created and owns the font. United States based authors and supports start working on how to help him
- There is a lot of back and forth about copyright vs. trademark and a lot of authors weighing in on the situation are confusing one for the other.
- Author Kevin Kneupper, as well as a couple of other authors received a court summons in regards to fighting Faleena’s trademark. Mr. Kneupper also receives a restraining order regarding his fight.
- Preliminary hearing is set for June 1st.
Alright, so let’s begin.
Right out of the gate, Faleena has painted this picture of her assuming a Cease and Desist “letter” that she sent to other authors without any kind of validation was meant to be kept private. That there was some violation because she sent “letters” without an attorney to approve them in anyway.
If you are unfamiliar with how a cease and desist works-
According to investopedial.com
“[A cease and desist] letter must comply with laws in the jurisdiction where it is sent. After notification is give, a hearing is usually called to determine whether any wrongdoing has occurred or if the action may continue.
[…] A cease and desist letter is not legally binding. It is an opinion of one individual, typically an attorney. In addition, the ABMA Model Rules of Professional Conduct dictates that a lawyer ‘shall not present, participate in presenting, or threaten to present a criminal charge solely to obtain an advantage in a civil matter.’ Such a legal threat has no legal significance other than being a negotiation tactic.”
By threatening legal recourse, Faleena has created a situation for not only herself, but for the attorney representing her. But there is a flaw in that statement isn’t there? She openly admits to not having the money for an attorney to represent her during this grand adventure she’s on. Since there was no filing through the courts to notate these cease and desist “letters” it is very hard for them to hold sway, and most likely prevents them from being legally binding. And please understand, I’m using quotation makes for “letters” because they were short private messages to authors on Twitter and Facebook as opposed to printed, signed, and notarized documents delivered to each person dealing directly with this dumpster fire.
–Cease and Desist email author Jamila Jasper received from Faleena Hopkins threatening legal action.
I would like to know if she looked up New York State Laws regarding Cease and Desist before she submitted them? Did she actually speak to her attorney? This whole situation seems to be created by a woman with half the information she needed to navigate the world of trademark and copyright and assumed she knew everything because she’s never been told she’s wrong.
Seemingly admitting mistakes, she turned back towards her “attackers” by saying they ruined her name, and even a reader that she allegedly helped is throwing it back at her. She is a grown woman that created one of the most important fights in self-publishing history, and yet she cannot seem take the blame.
She calls people fighting her bullies, and accuses them of being cruel. She’s not totally wrong in that sentiment. There are many being cruel, giving her books undeserved one star reviews, and harassing her. But she forgets that she and her readers have done just that. A lot of people in this industry like to make situations like these into eye for an eye revenge.
Faleena proceeds to call herself a bitch. That her actions with the Cease and Desists make her sound horrible. Honestly, to me, they sound like a woman who thinks she knows what she’s talking about. She tries to remain as professional as she thinks she needs to be. She doesn’t call anyone names, she just tries to state what she thinks the facts are.
But then she uses the old saying “You can’t argue with an alcoholic while they’re drunk.” She compares those standing up for their rights to addicts just in it for blood. People were willing to listen to her before she made her 90 minute video on Facebook. People were willing to listen before she posted baiting things on Twitter. Yes, there were a bunch of people that got her Instagram shut down, and the negative feedback caused her to delete her author page from Facebook. But the majority of level headed people were willing to listen from the get go. Hell, I was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt for a brief minute.
She claimed to approach 3 other authors in a more friendly, face to face manner, but accused them of ignoring her, or being unkind. Yet, she offered no proof of this. A big part of the issue is that she says things to victimize herself, but does not provide any evidence to help her case. She even went on to criticize one of the authors, claiming that the author in question faked her reaction when she tweeted about the situation. One can only assume she is talking about author Jamilia Jasper, but I could be wrong.
Faleena mentioned that news outlets are talking about cockygate, yet the only outlet she points out is the NY Daily News, which seems to be the only news outlet that wrote an incredibly one-sided piece making the authors defending their rights out to be simply jealous of Faleena’s success.
She continues to view herself as the one being bullied. While I cannot say that she is totally wrong, she is not totally right either. Her behavior has proven otherwise. She seems incredibly misguided about her place in the writing world. Now, don’t mistake me, I think that there are self-published authors that have the potential for great things. I think Faleena could have, too, before she hit the self destruct button.
She seemed surprised that when she called Carol Ritter and left a message, she was not greeted with warmth and understanding. After showing a lack of it herself, and the countless threats of legal recourse, for someone to contact Faleena directly would be legal suicide. And quite frankly, Faleena shouldn’t have contacted her directly either. I understand that she was trying to reach out and just be a human being, but it’s too late for that. All of her legal threats have stopped the clock on that one. Do not pass go, do not collect $200.
Basically, I could go on and on, pointing out inaccuracies, or mistakes that she thinks she’s right in. I could continue to talk about the fact that she has completely missed the point of what the author standing up to her are trying to do. I could also keep talking about the fact that not only is she playing victim, she’s victim blaming everyone else “You made me do this.”
The last thing I want to touch on is why you shouldn’t trademark your books unless you are truly creating a brand. And while you might assume that you have a brand, unless everything you write operates under a specific umbrella (i.e. Coke, Diet Coke, Coke Zero) you probably shouldn’t be trademarking anything.
If you intend on remaining within the realm of novels (audio, digital, and paperback), then you do not need a trademark. Filing a copyright for your series protects your books, your characters, and all of your intellectual property regarding it. Now, if you were to take that series and turn it into a franchise that includes movies, and other merchandise that goes along with it, then you would file a trademark. Warner Brothers Entertainment owns the Harry Potter franchise which includes movies, audio soundtracks, merchandise and memorabilia. Harry Potter is one of their brands. J.K. Rowling owns copyright to the Harry Potter series of books because she wrote them. She extended the copyright to Warner Brothers when they decided to make the movies and turned a book series into a brand.
A further example would be if I were to trademark Night Touched. Right now, I own the copyright, but if I were to turn the Night Touched into a franchise, I would need to file a trademark because Night Touched has become a brand. I would be operating solely in the Night Touched universe, therefore it would extend beyond the main series.
Cocky and Cocker Brothers are not Faleena’s brand. Her brand would be “Cocky Brothers”, because it seems like that is the universe she operates in. Her main series, subsequent series, and other branding seems to point in that direction. It’s clear, concise branding.
In any case, I hope this makes sense. I hope I provided some decent information. Thanks for reading!
Copyright vs. Trademark- Why this sh** matters
The internet and beyond is still in a flurry over #cockygate and the chaos that has come from it. Authors are scrambling to protect themselves in case their series titles get stolen out from under them. Faleena Hopkins has argued that she is doing this to pave the way for new authors to stand up for their work.
– From a Facebook post by Faleena Hopkins to her fan group “Cocky Readers- Cocker Bros. of ATL.”
Authors are confused about how to protect themselves in the best way and for good reason. The words “copyright” and “trademark” are being thrown around and are being swapped for one another in the midst of this discussion. I want to be clear that copyright and trademark are two separate things.
According to legalzoom.com:
“[…] Copyrights protect creative or intellectual works, and trademarks apply to commercial names, phrases, and logos. Copyrights primarily protect the rights of people who create literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works (like history tests, and software code.) Trademarks protect the use of a company name and its product names, its brand identity {like logos) and its slogan.
So basically, Faleena would be in the right to copyright her series because it is her intellectual property. Whatever series name she’s using now, that would be completely legally protected by filing and enforcing the trademark. If she were truly to trademark anything it would be her production company “Hop Hop Productions” as that is her company name. She has every right to protect her company. But by filing trademark on her series rather than just a copyright, she’s creating a huge mess, as we’ve all seen.
When you file a copyright or trademark, they both must be enforced to hold any legal sway, which is why Faleena sent out the cease and desist letters. She was trying to enforce her trademark, which I’m certain her lawyer told her to do, but there is still so much wrong with the situation
I saw a post recently about the author of the “Shifter World” series, Nancy Corrigan, trademarking the phrase “Shifter World” because that’s the universe she writes in. However, she went on to say that she wouldn’t be enforcing use of the words “shifter” or “world” because she just wanted to protect “Shifter World” as a whole. The problem here is, she should’ve just filed a copyright. She creates an issue for herself that won’t exactly stand up in court because she said:
“Keyword: Shifter World
As this has been brought up in a couple of posts, I just wanted people to know that i filed a trademark application for Shifter World as it’s the identifying phrase of my brand of inter-related spinoff series, namely Shifter World: Royal-Kagan, Shifter World: Shifter Affairs, and Shifter World: Generations (coming soon). I never intended and still have no intentions of limiting Shifter or World in anyone’s books, titles, series, etc. My intention is that I don’t want anyone to name a series Shifter World: xxx. Please continue to write your own shifter stories. Readers love them. I would never think to limit them.
As I said in my profile post, I am in touch with my attorney to see the best way to proceed with this application to reflect my intention and I will implement her recommendations”- Nancy Corrigan, as posted in the Author Support Network group on Facebook
She is stating that she isn’t going to enforce the trademark in that sense. By copyrighting “Shifter World” and each subsequent series under her name and wording, she would be able to protect her series and not own those words. She would be able to protect her series and prevent others from using the series name “Shifter World” without creating a situation where she is not enforcing a trademark because she doesn’t want to force people to follow it.
Please let me be clear, in case I haven’t been: You have every right to copyright your book series. There is a reason why the websites are different. By trademarking a word or phrase, you are removing the ability for others to use it in whole or in part, for the specific purposes that you are stating in your trademark application. By stating that you’re not going to enforce part of your trademark, you are essentially voiding it. If you copyright your series, you protect yourself from exactly what Faleena, Nancy, and every other author that’s a part of this thing is afraid of.
There is a big gap in education for authors. And I understand how that sounds, but hear me out. While there are big trad publishing festivals and events with workshops and assistance for trad authors, there isn’t much in the way of assistance for self-publishing authors. Of course, traditionally published authors have an entire publishing house behind them to help with all of the really detailed work. There are few events for self-publish authors, or would be authors, that help educate and guide them through the industry. I mean, we have to do all of this ourselves and it can get overwhelming AF. Starting with editing, and working through publishing and copyright, something like this geared toward self-published authors would be incredibly beneficial. Because I can guarantee that a lot of authors that self-publish went into this blind. Hell, I was one of them. I didn’t know a lot about how the industry worked. It wasn’t until I worked for an attorney and he explained to me the differences between copyright, trademark, and what the importance was for me to copyright my books, that I even knew about this! (By the way if there is someone out there willing to organize something like this, please let me know.)
People are continuing to run into the fair-use issue, as well as parody laws. Changing covers is a ton of work on its own, let alone all the work it takes for branding, merchandise, and everything else that goes into publishing a book. There has to be a streamlined solution for these issues, but people are running all over each other to get ahead of the game.
Anyway, I hope these ramblings helped, even a little. Thank you for reading. Please leave a comment down below telling me what you think. 🙂
Beyond Cocky
Confused about #cockygate? Tricia Drammeh has created a timeline of events. Thanks Tricia!!
Interview with Tricia Drammeh
Check out the latest interview with one of my favorite authors. I am so beyond honored to call this woman ‘friend’ and even more so ‘mentor.’ I will forever fan girl over Tricia, and you should, too!
Tricia Drammeh is an author who writes in many genres: YA, fantasy, paranormal, romance, and women’s fiction. I asked her to share her thoughts on craft and publishing.
Do you decide on genre before you start writing? Does your audience shift or is there crossover?
I usually have some idea of genre, though there have been times I’ve been surprised by the outcome. For example, with Better than Perfect, I had originally intended to write a romance. It turned out to be Women’s Fiction, as the story focused more on the main character’s non-romantic relationships and her evolution as a person.
I would say my audience is broken down into two types of readers, though there is some crossover. There are the readers who fell in love with Better than Perfect and who wish I’d write more Women’s Fiction. Then there are my readers who love young adult fiction with…
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Excuses, Whiskey, and Pending Cancellation Review: An Update on #cockygate
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve heard of #cockygate. Even people outside the writing community are hearing about it thanks to coverage from the New York Daily News (even though it was biased, rude, and full on inaccuracies), Slate, Vox, and so many other outlets.
In case you did actually miss it, here is the basic summary: Self-published author, Faleena Hopkins, under her production company Hop Hop Productions filed 3 separate trademarks with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. 2 of those trademarked the word “cocky”, and the third trademarking “Cocker Brothers.” Many have theorized that this is in anticipation of an upcoming film that Ms. Hopkins is directing. What started as a slow build of tension and anger due to Ms. Hopkins deciding to contact other self-published authors using the word “cocky” in their book title saying they no longer had right to use the word. She even went as far as to contact Amazon, which resulted in tons of books and reviews using the word “cocky” in their title or review. The shit hit the fan after a 90 minute Facebook Live session Ms. Hopkins decided was a good idea chastising everyone that voiced their opposition to her actions. She claims that she had been drinking whiskey prior to the stream, which many people theorized was the case based on her circular speech and lack of reasoning.
For a more in depth review of the whole situation, I recommend checking out those articles and watching some of the Youtube responses from fellow authors, even a few that knew her and considered her a colleague before this whole situation. I don’t want to take up too much time rehashing all of it.
Thanks to amazing coverage from Euna Park on Twitter, there are now screen caps and updates to the situation, although I’m only going to share the one that I feel is the most prevalent to the situation:
Screen capture from @eunapark on Twitter
While Ms. Hopkins has deleted her author Facebook page, as well as her Instagram, and stated that she is getting off of social media to work on her latest book (which will hastily be released in a month), it’s fairly obvious that she is waiting and hoping for the whole situation to blow over. Of course, that’s pure speculation, but given the current situation and her propensity to pass the blame on to others and view herself as the innocent victim of the situation, it’s most likely not too far off from the truth.
I have to say that while this situation has been the most ridiculous and troubling that the self-publishing world has seen in quite some time, I am happy to see that this has not fallen to the wayside. Like so many horrible situations before, this is getting the focus it deserves.
What do you think? Do you have anything to add to the situation? Leave a comment below!
Changes, and IABE 2018
Hi everyone!
I hope that you’re having a good evening. I’m having a pretty decent one myself. I wanted to hop on here and let you guys know about what’s going on in the TNTC universe, and updates about Indie Author Book Expo 2018
TNTC Universe changes-
Honestly, some of the changes are pretty minor, and some of them are pretty big. I guess that’s how changes work, huh? Well, I can honestly say that I am changing Silas’s partner, John Wassom’s name to David Wassom. This is simply because I got stuck on ‘J’ names, and I was struggling to keep them separated when writing. For instance, I would be thinking about Jason and write ‘John’. Then with the addition of Jeremy… It was just too much.
As for other changes, there isn’t anything I can officially announce without spoiling the whole series, but just know that I am working on writing the best books I can for all of you. I appreciate your support.
I have an editor working with me, so there is a lot more character and story development happening. One of my biggest complaints about my own work is that it’s too short. I live with all of this happening in my head and when I write, I tend to leave things out because to me, they’re implied, while to everyone else is being excluded. This is something that is going to be corrected this year. Yes, this means another new version of Celine will be coming out next year. I’m very sorry about this, but if you don’t want to read it, just know that the premise and basic plot will be the same.
Indie Author Book Expo 2018
That’s right, friends, I am going to be attending IABE this year and I’m so excited. I was unable to find the space in my schedule last year, and unfortunately had to miss. I am so excited that I can make it work this year. I’ll be missing a Sabbat, but it should be okay. I’ll actually have books this time, and I’ll be doing signings, as well as a panel on Sunday. I’ll have swag bags, character images, and hopefully posters this year. There are going to be a ton of amazing authors and vendors there, so please stop by and say hi if you’re in the West Des Moines area.
That’s all I have right now, but as always, please feel free to reach out to me with questions, comments, and the like.
Maegan Provan, Author 