Updating…or Why I’ve Been So Quiet…or A Call for Peace

Lately, there’s a lot going on in the romance publishing world. Trademark battles, authors behaving badly, name calling, and acts that border on bullying. One fight I could get behind, the other fight, I see the point, and yeah there was some badness going on, but the level to which the stooping has stooped has become scary. You can’t defend one author’s right to remain anonymous while doxxing another gleefully. That’s just wrong on so many levels and in so many ways. I’d call it hypocrisy, even. That, I can’t stand.

We authors aren’t always willing to be in the spotlight. Some because we’re shy, others because we need to protect ourselves from those in our past that might do us harm. An ex that stalked us, made our lives hell, and would continue to do so, if they could just figure out how. Think on that when you’re busy trying to dig up information on other authors that you can then use to drive up your own numbers.

Because, I know this will be controversial and might get some hate thrown my own way, but, BUT some of this is far more than jumping on the bandwagon. It’s driven by a need to see hit numbers go up, or click numbers, or follower counts. It’s making a dime off of someone’s misery, and that’s just wrong too. Whether that misery is justified or not isn’t at question, it’s how you react to it that matters, and adding to it, possibly endangering someone, is not cool.

There is a lot wrong in the romance industry right now, quite a lot wrong. I have no control over any of it, not even my own books, unless I publish them myself. There’s an overt dependence on one retailer, to start with. That’s where the first issue lies, and right now, the way things are going, the whole mess is going to implode because readers/authors/spectators are getting sick and tired of “this company did this, and this company did that, and this publisher did this and oh, I’m telling!”

It’s become one big schoolyard playground fight, and it’s ugly. To the point that I don’t even want to be in it anymore. I keep battling with myself, go back to horror or give it all up? Stay in romance, where you make people happy, or leave it all? Because, I’m tired of it. Yeah, things need to change, but the focus on one retailer’s reward system isn’t the real problem. It’s the fact that we writers are taken advantage of and are forced to compete with each other by that retailer. That’s the real problem, not every other author on that platform that’s fighting for a few cents out of that reward system. It’s like the biggest pyramid scheme ever, but nobody seems to notice that giant pyramid in the background, all they can see is the reward board.

I’ll end this now before I say something else that will have the bandwagon circling around me. I implore everybody to take a real hard look at all of this. What are you really gaining by the vitriol and hatred being spread? Are all of your actions above board and done with altruism? I totally agree that there is a lot that needs to be aired about our world, the one behind closed doors, but at what point are we the playground bully, not the voice of warriors fighting for good?