The #FatChick Has Had It with Bullies Disguised as High Maintenance Creatures #MyWANA

You know it's been a heck of a couple of weeks if I'm here again with another post so soon. I've had enough drama to last me a lifetime and beyond and yet I can't tear myself away from it. It's like my favorite Real Housewives shows. I can't stop watching those train wrecks!

The publishing world is no different.

In my last post I talked about the changes with Amazon. Guuuurrrrrrlll! You'd think the world had indeed come to an end and there are still people bitching about it. Now Amazon is fighting back. Those who are the most vocal on social media have had those feeds deleted from their Amazon author pages aaaaannnnnndddd their books "hidden" from the general search feeds.

Ha! Welcome to the world of an author who pens erotica and erotic romance. Every single book we put out is subject to being slapped with the "adult" label and hidden from general searches. So what? All you do to get around that is promote the direct links just like you would for the links for other vendors...

Oh wait. You're exclusive to Amazon and think they'll never do anything to hide your books. You rake in the dough for them so they should bow down at your feet and let you do and say whatever the hell you want. 

Bwahahahahahahaha! Buck up, buttercup! You are NOT all that. Amazon is a business. They were there before you published your erotic shorts and they'll be there long after they ditch the ebook business altogether. All of your whining and crying about Facebook hiding your book links or Amazon burying your books from searches and your complaints that your gravy train of cheating Amazon's royalty system need to STOP. You are NOT the center of anyone's universe other than your own. Amazon, Scribd, Oyster, Barnes and Noble, iTunes, All Romance and any other vendor out there are under no obligation to sell your books.

YOU need them more than they need YOU.

Now some of those "Amazon is Number One" authors who put themselves up as "experts" on sales and rankings are being shown up as the fakes they are. "Best Seller" status doesn't apply to free books. I'm sorry, but giving your books away for free or 99 cents in order to get yourself higher in the rankings does nothing to sustain your career. Putting out 99 cent boxed sets with authors who have hit those USA Today and NY Times best seller lists ON THEIR OWN so that you can then get the same status could be seen as a genius move...until you have to prove you can hit those lists on your own merit.

These authors have preached their hype for so long, they actually believe it themselves and attack their colleagues who choose not to put all their eggs in one basket. We're all supposed to listen and hang on to every single word they say because they talk a good game and make everyone think they're publishing gurus when all they've done is learn how to manipulate the system in order to get the results they want.

What has been done to manipulate the system? Here are a few things but the list is anything but all inclusive

1. Participating in review swaps with other authors. Not so bad in itself if done with one or two other people and everyone actually reads the books. This is not what's being done and those in the swaps are pretty much expecting 4 and 5 star reviews.
2. Kindle Unlimited borrowing program. Groups of authors and their fans have borrowed a book, scrolled through over 10% in order for the author to get full royalty and then returned the book. A few days later, the same book is borrowed again. This ended up boosting the "sales"/borrowed ranking and got the author double (or more) royalty.
3. Sending in street teams to post lower rated reviews for perceived "competition"
4. Creating sock puppet accounts to rate their own books higher and slam "competition"
5. Publishing 10 page booklets/pamphlets in the Kindle Unlimited program so that as soon as the file is opened on the kindle, the royalty is awarded. (this is mute now that Amazon has switched to the pages read system but...)
6. Having your street team, family, friends and group members borrow the book from KU and slowly scroll through the pages to the end, or set the kindle to audible and let it read the book out loud while you do something else.

Smoke and mirrors, people. Smoke. And. Mirrors.

Just this last week, one of my author friends was blasted and called a sell out because she is a hybrid. She self publishes and is also published with well known publishing houses. One of our "friends" took it upon herself to give my friend advice about her career telling her she shouldn't go with a publisher but keep doing everything on her own. She then told my friend that she needed to be a part of some project in order to get more exposure and bring up her rankings.

Well, imagine my surprise when I took a moment to look at the High and Mighty One's book rankings. Each one of them had rankings much lower than my friends and she has less than a third of the books published that my friend has. Color me purple with giggles when the same "Expert" came back and tried to make nice with my friend.

How much do you want to bet Ms. Expert did what I did and actually checked my friends rankings on Amazon...and then maybe she even took a look at some other vendors and found out that my friend could very well know what the fuck she's doing with her career?

Sorry. I had to get that off my chest. It's been stewing for a long time. It all came to a head this week. I've been witness to authors behaving badly toward each other for far too long. There were two incidents that blew me away this week. I mentioned one above concerning Ms. Expert. The second has to do with another well respected author getting in the middle of a disagreement between two others. The whole thing was settled before she got involved. One had decided to cut ties with the other for her own sanity. Not everyone gets along and sometimes friendships must come to an end.

Been there. Done that and all of us survived to go on to bigger and better things.

Well in this case, the "Mediator" took it upon herself to chastise one author while appearing to take the side of the other. There were no sides to take in this other than both parties needed to part ways. Instead of letting it happen, the Mediator made one author feel like shit and pretty much told her that her career could be in jeopardy because of her behavior...behavior that had been grossly exaggerated by others who had no clue what had happened or the history between the two involved.

This is a classic case of a high maintenance author in need of being the center of attention at all times. If it works, more power to her but she has no business demanding that others have to agree with it, nor should she recruit a mutual friend to "make it all better" and cry about being bullied for doing "nothing wrong." 

Sometimes the best thing is to part ways and be done with it. Let it go. You came together for a purpose, learned from each other and now it's time to move on. That's not a bad thing and it sure is hell doesn't give anyone else the right to jump in and demand you remain friends. Why on earth would anyone want a friend to keep up the facade of a friendship after it's soured simply to keep the other part happy? 

By forcing others to do what you want, when you want, without compromise is not simply being high maintenance but the ultimate form of bullying. Using lies and half truths to get others to be on your "side" of a disagreement is manipulative and eventually will come back to bite you in the ass. 

Instead of hanging on to all that drama and negativity, release it out into the Universe. When you do, the weight will be lifted from your shoulders, from your heart and your soul. Live your life and pursue your career the way that will make YOU happy and fulfilled. The only person you have to prove anything to is yourself. Whether you want to continue with personal and business friendships, publish your work yourself, with a publisher or a combination of the two is all on you. No one has the right to dictate to you what will make you happy, so why give them that power?

Until next drama...errrr...time!

~The Fat Chick

#WWoW!: @dochappycamper Revisits How to Get the Most Out of Author Support Groups and #Tweet Teams #reciprocation #MyWANA

Welcome to this week's edition of Tammy's Tidbits. This is a revamping of a blog post I did for Writer's Words of Wisdom. The information still holds true...with a few updates. The goal of this post is to share what has worked and what hasn't worked well for me during my journey to becoming a multi-published author. 

As authors our journey stories vary as do our experiences, but that's what makes each of us unique. What works for one, may not work for another but by sharing what we've learned, we help others determine their own course. It's a win-win situation for all involved!

This week I'd like to talk a bit about author support groups. There are many out there. Some are geared more toward specific genres and heat levels, while others welcome everyone and their work. Some focus more on specific aspects of the business such as Marketing for Romance Writers. Some focus on building your brand and connections such as MyWANA (We Are Not Alone) and to a lesser extent tweet teams.

No matter the group they all have one thing in common: rules for participation. These are the guidelines for all members to follow if they wish to participate in the group and be supported by the other members. They have rules for what can and cannot be posted in the groups and whether promotions are allowed at all. If the group is focused on marketing for example, they may only wish to talk about ideas and "how to" market your work, not receive nonstop BUY ME NOW spam. 

If you join this type of group, and you use programs such as Hootsuite and TweetDeck to set up your posts in advance, save yourself a migraine and make sure you don't put the "no promo" group links in your set up. It's bad enough you broke the rules by posting the promotions, but you make it a thousand times worse if you blindly set up your autoshares. You give the impression to the other group members that you're rude and obnoxious. If you can't take the time to respect the guidelines, why should they bother to click on your links?

One set of rules I'd like to focus on in particular are those concerning participation on tweet teams and the blog sharing site Triberr. When you join these groups you are expected to share ALL participating members posts whether it's tweets or blogs. This means you are NOT to pick and choose which posts you want to share and which you'll ignore because you or your followers don't like the subject material.

Unless the groups are set up to allow selective sharing when you participate, you can't do it. Not only is it rude, it's unfair that you expect your posts to be shared by all and you get to be exempt. These support/share teams are set up so all participants get their posts shared across the board and put in front of more potential readers/fans. If you break that chain, you not only screw your team members, you get labeled as an author behaving badly.

You know you don't want to be labeled AABB (another author behaving badly). We've talked about it many times before. You are in this business to build bridges, not burn them down. If you don't agree with the rules of a group, don't join it. Plain and simple. If you find you can't share posts for all members because you are personally offended by the subject matter, then quietly leave the group. You don't need to make a horrible scene as you leave. You don't have to explain yourself other than to say you don't feel you're a good fit. Leave it at that and keep on friendly terms with them. You never know when those connections will come in handy later.

There are so many groups and there isn't any one group that fits everyone. You should scout them out and see what is the best fit for you and your work. If you don't like the confines of the rules one group has in place, don't join. You won't be able to get them to change the rules to fit you. That's not the way it works, so buck up buttercup and either follow the rules or find another group.

To sum it up: participation in author support groups, tweet teams and sites such as Triberr is not a one way street. If you're not prepared to RECIPROCATE, you need to VACATE your spot to someone who will.

Now on to those who are in charge of the groups—The Admins

These people are there to HELP the members use the group effectively and maintain order. They're there to enforce the rules and guidelines and make sure all members get the most out of what the group has to offer. What these people cannot do is tell you how you conduct yourself outside of the confines of the group. 

If some nonmember or former member of the group happens to be using the group hashtag, there is NOTHING any admin can do about it. There is no copyright on hashtags and there isn't any reason to get all worked up about it. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn't mean squat. So don't go running to the Admins crying you retweeted someone who isn't in the group. It doesn't matter!

The Admins are your guides and shouldn't have to be your babysitters. You are all adults and are fully capable of following the rules of the group. If you can't do that, expect to be booted out. Don't go crying to everyone and their brother that you were wrongly deleted. If you truly followed all the rules and you feel you were kicked out because the Admins had it out for you, then you are better off without those people in your life. Move on and let it go!

If you happen to have the thankless job of being an Admin, I recommend you invest in the value sized bottles of Ibuprofen and Tylenol. For the really bad days, tequila works well! LOL! 

Seriously, as an Admin you will have to deal with more than your fair share of divas (of both sexes). You don't have to be bullied. If these people disrupt the group, delete them. Your responsibility is to the group as a whole, not to specific individuals. With that being said, admins need to make sure the diva they have to deal with isn't the one looking back at them in the mirror.

Recently I've been on the receiving end of a couple of divas on power trips. Some of them happen to be admins of a few of the author support groups I choose to be a part of at this time. Unfortunately, that may change. I don't like the recent chain of events. There is no reason for one group to dictate to it's members they can't participate anywhere else because "it weakens the original group." There have been threats to some members that if they didn't stop participating in the smaller, highly motivated groups, they would be demoted or even booted out of the larger one. 

I. Kid. You. Not.

I stopped participating in the larger group because I was sick and tired of not having my posts shared because I write erotica and erotic romance. I got tired of seeing those group members labeling their books as erotica or romance and they're NOTHING like either. These authors wanted the perks and the exposure that went with the labels but they would be damned if they would share REAL erotica. Heaven help you if your promo photo showed some side boob! Don't even get me started on one author friend being told she should be thankful a group "allowed" her erotica to be posted there. It's bullshit and we don't have to take it anymore.

I left to join like minded authors also sick and tired of no reciprocation. We had a great run for awhile until members of the original group were allowed into our little one. Now we are facing the same issues as the other...no reciprocation of the hot and steamy stuff. Top that off with chastising posts from new admins telling us we need to use the other group and not do duplicate things.

Uhhhh...correct me if I'm wrong here but in order to have duplicity, you have to have the same people posting the same links and ALL RECIPROCATING in both groups. Right?

Yeah, that silence you hear is exactly what I got when I questioned the posts telling me I had to go back to the "original" group. Can you guess what my answer was?

Bottom line is I have to do what's best for me, my brand and that of my other three pen names. The same goes for you. Pick the people and groups who will join you on your journey and not hinder it.


Until next time,
~Tammy

Learn More About Tammy

Tammy Dennings Maggy is a best selling, multi-published poet and erotic romance author with Siren and Sassy Vixen Publishing. Her writing explores many facets of romance from ultimate betrayal to finding your soul mate. Her poetry serves as a companion to her novels and has inspired entire series all on their own. 

Tammy and her alter egos Lia Michaels, Tawny Savage,  and Stephanie Ryan make up the core authors at Sassy Vixen Publishing and together they've created the shared world series Temptations Resort. Look for the first books in that series to come out next year.

Now happily married to her own Muse and soul mate, she continues to live her dream and act as secretary to all her characters demanding to have their stories told.

Check out:

Tammy's Website

Tammy's Blog

Tammy's Books on Bookstrand, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords,  and iTunes 

Sassy Vixen Publishing

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#NoAuthorsNoBooks: Illegal Downloads Harm More than Just the Pocketbook

Hello all. I'm sure you've all heard about the latest illegal file sharing groups on Yahoo loops, Facebook, Youtube and many others by now. Some of them have been taken down while others continue to thrive and openly continue to post requests for free books. They've created Drop Box accounts for the purpose of sharing thousands of eBooks with other readers. Some of the books were actually purchased by the people sharing them, while others were given to them by authors through blog hops and other contests. Still others were given as Advanced Reading Copies or ARCs with the sole purpose of it being read and then reviewed for the author. Not at any time were these copies meant to be shared, copied or distributed to anyone other than the recipient.

Trust has been broken that may never, ever be repaired. If we can't ensure our work won't be spread all over before it's even released to the public, how can we send ARCs to review sites and bloggers? How do we continue to be involved in blog hops and give our books away as prizes to readers if we can't be sure the winner won't then turn right around and upload the books to Drop Box or a pirate site for thousands of people to download? 

How can struggling authors get their name out there if they don't participate in the hops and Yahoo groups and other reader/author groups on Facebook and Google? They want to find new readers and are willing to give some of their work away for free in order to get the word of mouth going, but to expect them to be okay with someone taking their copyrighted material and spreading all over the web for everyone to read without permission is a bit much.

A very small percentage of authors actually make a living at it. Most of us work full time in other professions. Even so, we still want to make enough money to help offset the costs of putting out the work for readers. As it is now, I spent more on publishing, marketing etc than I've made by threefold. Then to find one of my books has been illegally downloaded over 1200 times on one site and over 4000 times on another makes my stomach churn. The one that had over 4000 downloads is one of my 99 cent books. That would have meant $2000 royalty to me if these readers had chosen the LEGAL route from Amazon. That would have helped pay for the editing on three of my books and allowed me to purchase more cover art photos or even hire another cover artist.

I also noticed when I have a return on Amazon, within 24 hours there is a huge surge in illegal downloads of that same book. Coincidence? I don't think so. 

Those same pirates who actually purchased the books and have receipts to prove it, are also the very same people who copy the book on their computers and then send the original back to Amazon for a refund. Then they take this copy and make other formats to upload to groups where they share their eBook files.

These same people don't think they're doing anything wrong. They don't think they're breaking the law. In fact, most of them don't have a flipping clue what they're doing is illegal. Instead of owning up to it once they are confronted, they turn the tables on the authors who they claim to love and bash them for "witch hunting". 

Well, STOP STEALING and you won't be hunted down for the thieves you are. The FBI won't take your excuse that you didn't know that file sharing is illegal. It's NOT the same as borrowing a book from the library unless you take that same print book and copy it to distribute...then you have the same thing.

There are some authors who have decided it's not worth the blood, sweat and tears to put out another book just to have it stolen from them. They're tired of being told they should feel grateful for the exposure and free publicity. They're told to quit bitching and stop acting like their world's coming to an end.

For many of them it has. Their dreams of being a published author have forever been tainted and even shattered. They're willing to weather through being ripped apart by critics to the point of tears if it means someone is actually buying their books and giving them honest opinions. They're willing to hand over an ARC to reviewers for feedback before release dates so they can learn and make any corrections before it's published. Unfortunately, those days are over. There are too many unscrupulous people infiltrating trusted review sites. They're giving up and I don't blame them one bit.

For every pirate and thief, there are even more honest readers and book lovers out there. For that reason alone I'm probably going to continue to publish my books under all four of my pen names, but to see the number of books downloaded on those sites turns my stomach. Not a single one has turned into a review or any further sales for any author including me. Why should these people buy books when they can get them by other means? 

When the Feds show up on their doorstep with warrants for their computers, smartphones and any other electronic device in their homes, maybe they'll get the clue. Until then, all the rest of us can do is continue to educate readers about piracy. 

In that light, we designed a simple shirt on TeeSpring to show solidarity. "Pirates kill authors. No Authors, no books. Get the picture?" We've made the price of each shirt as low as the site would allow in order to make it as affordable as possible. Want to show your support for your fave authors? Grab your shirt today and spread the word with #NoAuthorsNoBooks and #PiratesKillAuthors hashtags. Here's the link to the shirt on Teespring.com http://teespring.com/pirateskillauthors

#WWoW: Avoiding the Diva Syndrome

Welcome back once again to Not Enough Time in the Day and my contribution to this week's Writer's Words of Wisdom. In case this is the first time you're visiting our pages, we are a group of writers who decided to get together and share what we've learned in our journey to become published authors. Some of our experiences are similar, but in each case we learn a bit more about how to become better writers, bloggers, publishers, editors and promoters of our work as well as others.  At the end of my post today you will find a list of the other authors participating this week. Please be sure to visit them all.

Don't Be THAT Author

Now for my topic for today. It's not a new one, nor is it something I haven't talked about on many occasions. Unfortunately it's something that keeps coming up over and over again. We've all heard the various tales of publishers and authors behaving badly. Amazon has had to change some of their policies because of it. Reviewers have fought back when authors whine about poor reviews instead of learning from them. Readers have been caught in the crossfire. It's really sad to see and it's time as an entire group we clean up our act.

Once again there have been more reports of authors creating fake accounts on Amazon in order to boost their own ratings and post rave reviews for their own books. Then these people turn right around and go after their competition by leaving 1 or 2 star ratings with mean-spirited, nonconstructive reviews. Amazon did have to take drastic measures to help prevent that from continuing on their site by eliminating likes, tags and deleting any reviews written by competing authors even if they were glowing. Unfortunately, this hasn't stopped the bad behavior.

The divas and trolls are no longer keeping their bullying to Amazon and Goodreads. They've moved on to the Facebook Author/Fan pages. A fellow author and friend was attacked yesterday on her own page by another "author." He slammed her work in a comment he left on a post she shared about another FIVE STAR review she received for one of her books. He went on to say she shouldn't give up her day job and should then use her time wisely by reading his book. And yes he even posted the Amazon buy link to make it easy for her.

I'll let that settle in for a bit.

Yes he really did say that and yes he really had the nerve to then push his own book on her page without permission to do so.  My friend is a mult-published author of both fiction and nonfiction and yet this one particular person feels he can search her out, find her author page, like it and then proceed to make comments about how her writing is horrible all in the comments section of a FIVE STAR REVIEW. I know I already mentioned that, but I thought it was worth repeating. To me it shows a great deal of the problem we are dealing with here.  Instead of concentrating on his own work and honing his craft, he chose to tear down another author in order to promote himself.

Of course this "gentleman" doesn't know he attacked one of my dear friends and has raised my Momma Vixen hackles. Doing a quick Amazon search revealed that this male diva has published ONE book in October of last year. There isn't any other information. No author bio. No reviews. Nothing. His website is just as sparse only listing his book's synopsis and buy links. I went back to Amazon to take a "look inside" his book. Nearly 80% of all the sentences ended in an exclamation point.  I'm not kidding. It was one of the most jarring reading experiences I've ever had. It was even worse than trying to read through posts on Facebook that are in all caps. Ugh! (yes, I'm being sarcastic with the exclamation point.)

This is just yet another example of how rude and obnoxious some authors have become. Why all the animosity? There are plenty of readers out there, enough for everyone. There is no need to tear down someone else to get your book noticed. The criticism could have a bit more weight if the author above actually had some sales to back up their claims of being a better writer. My advice to him would be to just SHUSH! Stop being a diva and work on your writing to build up your fan base.

Good writers define reality; bad ones merely restate it. A good writer turns fact into truth; a bad writer will, more often than not, accomplish the opposite. (Edward Albee)

More Edward Albee quotes at izquotes.com

Honor Your Commitments

Whew! Sorry, I had to get that off my chest before I went on to another way authors have been behaving poorly and disrespectfully to bloggers, reviewers and those authors with a lot more experience than themselves.  This last part of my post today deals with honoring your commitments involving guest spots on other blogs.

Having multiple blogs between all of my pen names and one that I share with three other authors called Four Seduced Muses, I schedule many guest spots each month.  I enjoy sharing these spots with new authors and help to promote their work. Not only do I get to find new authors for my own TBR pile, I can introduce my followers to them as well. An added bonus is that more folks stop in and visit my blogs because of the new guests. It can be a win win situation for everyone involved.  The Four Seduced Muses blog is so popular, it's booked out two months in advance. We have people lining up for the Monday, Wednesday and Saturday guest spots.

To make sure we are all on the same page, all of my blogs have detailed instructions for guest spots listed on the blogs themselves. Another step we take for the Four Seduced Muses is to send another list of the guidelines to any authors requesting a spot along with detailed instructions on how to submit their posts, and what kind of posts we want for each daily feature. The only "solicitation" we do is to post announcements that we are accepting guests. The authors come to us for the spots and usually all goes well. Usually.

There have been a select few who've basically demanded dates that were already taken, submitted posts not in line with the guidelines, submitted them late (repeatedly), or just flat out flaked submitting nothing at all by the deadline. No explanation. Not even a follow up email apologizing for the mistake and asking to reschedule. Hey, life gets in the way and deadlines are sometimes missed. It's how you handle those situations that shows your true character.

One person in particular stands out in my mind.  This author had published multiple books through Amazon and one would assume knew the ins and outs with doing guest spots on blogs. Not so. We had to first explain what a blog was, then repeatedly tell her it wasn't a radio call in show. I have absolutely no idea where she got the idea that we were a talk show, but we got over that hurdle only to crash into another. Over and over again it was explained to her the kind of posts we wanted for the site and what days were available and yet she still insisted on being on dates that were not available. It was a nightmare. When it came time for her actual post, she never sent it on time and then blamed it on us saying we had to have lost it. Finally she sent her post to us and it was straight promo...ugh.

Here's another example of an author who I will never have as a guest on any of my blogs ever again. This particular person had scheduled a tour of three of my adult blogs. I had offered her spots on Not Enough Time in the Day and one of another that was PG rated since that would best fit the book she was promoting. She insisted that  her book was not YA and appealed to a more mature audience. On several occasions I reminded her that the three blogs she wished to be on were very explicit, for adults only, and featured many erotica and erotic romance authors. She still demanded to be scheduled for those spots because she wanted the added exposure. Okay, I caved in. Big mistake on my part.  Not only did she flake out on the first blog but then proceeded to cancel the other spots because she didn't want to be associated with "those" kind of writers.

Seriously?

How many more details do you need? When you are warned repeatedly about the explicit nature of the blogs and still insist on having the guest spots, it is expected you will fulfill your commitment. Can you see why I would be upset that you would cancel out at the last minute? I'm not one of those people who keep smiling and stay polite when repeatedly being attacked for my choice of genre. Forgetting a spot or getting overwhelmed is one thing, but to use the excuse you don't wish to be associated with me, my work, or that of my author friends is just beyond behaving badly. You've now created a reputation for being a diva among those who make up the blogosphere.

Yes we do talk and we all know who you are.

So how can you not become one of the divas and pariahs in the author community?

Follow guest spot guidelines to the letter. If you wish to do something different, ask your host.

Make sure the spot you're requesting is on a blog you feel comfortable being a part of. If not, don't request a spot. There are other blogs out there that will suit your needs and your genre.

Don't attack other authors on their pages, blogs, or any other social media or review sites. If you don't like their work, stay away from it. If you do attack, be prepared for the backlash usually from the fans of the one you attacked.

Be detailed in the guidelines for the guest spots on your own blogs. If you feel what they write won't fit your site, tell them in a polite manner and wish them well. Maybe even offer them alternatives. Connections are great. Sharing them can be beneficial to all parties.

Don't put your links up on someone else's social media sites or blogs without permission to do so. This is a sure fire way to get yourself reported, banned, and blocked by not only the author you spammed, but all of their friends as well. (Connections can also hurt you!)

Finally, don't attack other authors who appear to be more successful than you are at the moment. Instead of doing that, continue to work on your writing to become the best you can be. Learn from your mistakes and take constructive criticism to heart. If you continue to put out poorly written and poorly edited novels on Amazon and Smashwords and then accuse others of being horrible writers, you will find yourself the subject of blogs such as mine today. 

Remember those connections I mentioned earlier? Well, I will continue to stick up for my fellow authors who are unfairly attacked and I just so happen to have a very large reach between my social media connections and other friends in and out of the publishing community. 

An author helping authors or a diva/pariah? The choice is yours.

Come join me and visit some of my author friends who are participating this week. Soon we will have a blog site for all of us in one place. Stay tuned. Until then...

Carol Burnside/Annie Rayburn

Paloma Beck

Lacey Wolfe