On following your own advice.

It's been a little over a year since we ran that month of #PublishingFoul coverage at Indies Unlimited. Our aim was to document the ways vanity publishers and other sleazy operators take advantage of newbie authors -- first by telling them how great their book is, in order to suck them in; then by overcharging them for editing and/or formatting services that are never delivered, or are delivered improperly; and by charging them exorbitant fees for marketing packages that never pan out.

One of the things I wanted to make sure we emphasized was that the authors are victims in these scenarios. Sure, they might have saved themselves grief if they'd done a little googling before signing a contract with one of these shysters -- but why would an author brand-new to publishing think to do that? Besides, vanity presses are run by professionals in the art of separating newbie authors from their money. They've been at it for decades. Tens of thousands of people have been taken in by these scam artists. And the shame and embarrassment they feel when they realize what's happened often keep them from telling anyone about their experience -- which then makes it easier for the scammers to perpetrate the scam on others.

Our message was this: You were taken advantage of by an expert at this stuff. You have nothing to be ashamed of. It wasn't your fault.

johnhain | Pixabay

It's good advice, and it applies in a lot of situations. Too bad it took me so long to make the connection in my own life.

True story: After my divorce, I was approached by a guy I'd met in grad school and had become friends with. He was broke with no job and needed a place to stay; I had a mostly-empty basement and told him he could move into it. I'll admit I was interested in being more than friends -- so I let him cook in my kitchen, borrow my car, bring his kid over on weekends. I loaned him money that he never paid back.

This went on for quite a while. Eventually he began to say things that undermined my sense of self-worth. I walked too heavily. I talked too much. What I did for a living (I was still in broadcast news at the time) didn't make any sense to him. I didn't treat his stuff with respect -- never mind that he had broken several of my things and neither apologized nor offered to replace them.

Once, I tried to work with him to set some house rules, and he told me point-blank that he wouldn't follow them.

Another time, he said to me, "What can I say to convince you I'm not an asshole?" The perfect retort, of course, would have been, There's nothing you can say -- but if you stopped acting like an asshole, that would be a big help. But the thing was, I had never thought of the possibility that he was an asshole until he said it.

At last, at a point where my life had completely fallen apart -- my mother had been sick with cancer, I'd lost my job and was about to lose my house -- I discovered he didn't care for me at all. Never had. And he claimed he had no idea I had been interested in him.

I sold the house partly because I couldn't think of any other way to get him to leave.

Anyway, the whole thing was humiliating. I came out of it questioning my judgment so harshly that I didn't dare to even think of dating anyone.

That was eighteen years ago. Over the years, I've recognized that I was verbally and emotionally abused by him. But it wasn't until a couple of weeks ago that I made the connection between "I was victimized" and "I have nothing to be ashamed of."

Who knows why it took so long? After all, it was staring me right in the face: Why would he suggest that I thought he was an asshole unless he knew he was behaving like one?

Anyway, I'm now certain that I was not the only woman he ever took advantage of. I believe he was an expert at manipulating people to get what he wanted, and he took advantage of me. And as we said last year to the authors who'd been taken advantage of by scammy publishers, there's no shame in that.

Hence, this post. And I hope it helps someone figure things out more quickly than I did.

***
These moments of cautionary yet shame-free blogginess have been brought to you, as a public service, by Lynne Cantwell.

#RespectArtists

My author buddy J.r. Barker has come up with a terrific idea for a new movement, and I'm happy to take part. She's calling it Respect Artists, and the hashtag is #RespectArtists.

She explained the impetus for her campaign in a post on her blog earlier this month. What got her going was an incident that happened to an artist friend whose work was plagiarized and harassed. The friend ended up removing her work from the internet over the incident.

This is just the latest in a long string of sad stories I've heard about people who have spoken up online about something, or posted creative work somebody didn't like, or -- horror of horrors! -- attempted to game online while female, and who have been called out, insulted, doxxed, and/or lost their livelihood. In some cases, the victims have needed mental health treatment. In other cases, they have taken out restraining orders against their stalkers.

Come on, people -- this is immature behavior. Bullying is bad enough in any context, but the internet makes it easy for people to bully others anonymously. However, that doesn't mean the bullies can't be found. My favorite story along these lines is the one about the Australian game reviewer who got back at the kids -- and they were, by and large, teen boys -- who sent her rape threats by contacting their mothers. Kudos to you, Alanah Pearce, for not letting these kids get away with it.

Any time you create something and put it out there for people to enjoy, you're going to find someone who doesn't like it. And that's okay. That's what makes the world go 'round. If everybody liked the same things, we'd only need one flavor of ice cream -- and how boring would that be, right? But just because you like butter pecan ice cream, it doesn't mean you have the right to make fun of, harass, stalk, or otherwise make life miserable for someone who hates it. And don't think the rules change just because you're hiding behind an avatar.

Okay? Okay. And just for the record, I can't believe we need to have this conversation.

***
Speaking of bullies: Just a note that #PublishingFoul month is still going on at Indies Unlimited. We had some trouble with our server earlier this week, but our tech wizards have moved the blog to an amazingly fast server, and now, in the words of K.S. Brooks, "IU be all like BAM!" And she's right -- it is really fast. Stop by and see -- if for no other reason than to read Brenda Perlin's PublishAmerica tale of woe. Talk about a bunch of bullies.

***
One other very important thing: In all the excitement in Tucson last week, I forgot to mention here on the blog that Scorched Earth has been nominated for a 2015 BigAl's Books and Pals Readers' Choice Award. Feel free, if you would, to click on the link and give my book a vote. You'll find it in the Fantasy category. While you're there, you should also consider giving a nod to several other authors whose books have been Rursday Reads: Laurie Boris, DV Berkom, and Shawn Inmon come immediately to mind, and I hope I haven't left anyone out.

Two years ago, Seized got skunked for this award by Wool. Last year, Tapped was nominated but didn't win. I'm hoping three's the charm.

Anyway, whatever you can do to help, I'd appreciate it. Voting goes through March 28th until midnight Mountain Time (thanks for the correction, Linda!), but please don't wait 'til the last minute to vote. And thanks!

***
These moments of bloggy respect have been brought to you, as a public service, by Lynne Cantwell.

What's this #PublishingFoul thing all about, anyway?

You may have seen the image floating around Facebook or Twitter by now. I mean, I sure hope you have. It's this one -- the ref throwing the yellow flag on scammy publishers. At Indies Unlimited, we're using it to tie together all the posts in FOULED! -- our month-long March Madness effort to bring rotten publishing practices out into the open.

So far, we've had a guest post from none other than David Gaughran, who blogs a lot on the vanity publishing industry; one by IU minion TD McKinnon; a guest post by Sophie Jonas-Hill; and the first of four posts by Yours Truly on what you can do when you realize you've been had by a scammer. And there's lots more to come -- including a post this week that will include a survey that we hope every indie author -- both those who have been scammed and those who haven't been -- will participate in.

The survey is important because we're trying to get a handle on how prevalent these ripoffs are among indie authors. Because it sure seems as if being scammed is almost a rite of passage. Scratch any indie author, it appears, and you'll see a tale of a book gone wrong underneath.

I think this is true for several reasons. The first is that until Smashwords and KDP came along, if you couldn't get a contract from a regular publisher, paying a vanity press was the only way your work could see the light of day. And I think a lot of older people with stories to tell have not yet heard that there is another way to go -- or else they don't think they're capable of learning everything there is to learn about real self-publishing.

Another IU minion, Melissa Bowersock, suggested another reason why these stories are so prevalent: most people are brought up to believe the best about others. They themselves are trustworthy, and so they expect the people they do business with will be trustworthy, too. Of course, that doesn't always happen -- but hey, that's why you have a lawyer vet your contract, right? But your publisher probably has a more expensive lawyer than you do. And in any case, you can bet the contract is going to be written to benefit the publisher -- not you, the author.

A third reason why so many authors have been scammed -- and why so many continue to be scammed -- is that the victims are ashamed of having been taken in. We have a culture of individual responsibility in the US, and there's nothing wrong with that. But people take it to an unfair extreme. There are times when a smart, savvy person who does everything right gets conned by an expert con artist. It's not the person's fault they've been victimized. But when they're then told they were too gullible and it's their own fault they were taken -- when the victim gets the blame -- that's not about the victim. It's about the person making the comment. Likely that person is using their attitude of superiority to cover a fear that they, too, might have been scammed in that situation. Or maybe they think they're smarter or more savvy -- as if either smarts or savvy will protect anyone against a real pro. Either way, the end result is that the victim is victimized twice: once by the scammer, and again by friends and family who rush to tell them how stupid they've been.

This sort of thing makes me crazy. And that's why I suggested to our admins that I do a series of posts on this subject. They expanded on my idea, and that's how we ended up with this month-long series.

The thing is that what these publishers do, for the most part, is legal. The vanity presses in particular are very careful to stay on the right side of the legal/illegal line. But just because a particular business practice is legal, that doesn't make it morally defensible. These guys have been playing an ugly game for decades. They've been stealing people's dreams by taking money from them without giving them any real success in return. We at IU aim to do our part to send this business model down the sewer, where it belongs.

***
News: This week, I'm packing for Arizona. I'll be at the Tucson Festival of Books next Saturday and Sunday, in the BookGoodies booth (we're number 112). I'll be signing books Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. Feel free to stop by and say hi, if you're planning to go to the festival.

More news: Seasons of the Fool is now up at Smashwords, and that means it should be available at iTunes, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo pretty soon. I'm knocking the price down to 99 cents through March 22nd -- so if you haven't gotten a copy yet, now's the time.

Still more news: The first draft of Sage's story is in the can. I'm hoping to publish it in May, with the second book of the duology coming fast on its heels in June. The series title is Pipe Woman's Legacy. Kinda catchy, don't you think?

***
These moments of anti-scammy blogginess have been brought to you, as a public service, by Lynne Cantwell.