#cockygate and My Thoughts

If you're a fiction book-lover of romance books, you might have heard of the most recent scandal, #cockygate. So as a reader, I wanted to give my 2 cents. As a preface, before this all happened, I'd never heard of the author. And since this whole thing was apparently about protecting her brand, well, it's not a well known brand, like Harry Potter or Twilight. Well, it wasn't until this all exploded. Not that it could even reach those levels. I also hadn't heard of the authors told to change their books, since I'm not a straight up romance reader.

Another thing I'd like to say is that now knowing about her writing and this series, I won't be reading them, even if they sounded really interesting, because I don't want to support her. Because in trying to protect her brand, she took it too far, in my opinion.

If she'd trademarked a logo on the cover (and it looks like the series have a logo that she could've used) then it would've been fine. But she trademarked (which is apparently different from copyrighted, so if I use the wrong terms, oops, I'm a reader, not a lawyer!) "cocky" in terms of romance books, titles and series, apparently. And went after authors who had the word in their titles or series titles. Yeah. No.

Cocky is a pretty common work in romance books, and she wanted authors who used it to change theirs. This was just taken way too far. There's an image floating around the internet of what looks like an email one author received from her saying that if the author didn't take out the cocky they were using, then the lady would sue them and get the money that author had gotten from the title. Which is pretty horrible. Because she hadn't put in the work to write that book.

Apparently, one reason why she did what she did, was that readers had said that they'd bought other books thinking they'd be getting hers. As a reader, that's insulting. There's plenty of ways to make sure you get what book you're looking for. Author. Research on sites like Goodreads or the author's website. Most, if not all, authors websites have links to buy their books. Bah!

It's also insulting on another level. We readers love to read, and if I'd bought a book thinking it was another, well, hey, new book to read! And it supports more authors. There's plenty of reader and reader time to go around.

One thing that I'm seeing, too, is the idea that the people who came after her using cocky were copying her. But ideas and words like cocky have been around for a long time, and it's like, there's no original idea under the sun. It's how and what you write that's unique. So saying other others copied her, nope, sorry, you're just another person who had a similar idea, over and over.

Part of the outrage, it feels like, is that she only has 2 years in the industry, I don't know if that's being published, and by being part of the industry, I don't mean writing, but being an author, with writing, editing, and publishing. So she's new, and she's basically ignored the way the industry is. Ilona Andrews wrote a post, which started off with Burn for Me, and the two other books with the same exact title and of which there is no legal trouble. That she's a newbie and just disregarding the common practices of the industry, not cool!

One article I read said that she's a person, and to not attack her. OK, I think I succeeded with that. It mentioned that she made a business decision. Ok, she did. Well, I really hope she made some wrong choices, took things too far, and apologizes for the damages she's caused other authors. But I, as a reader, won't read her books. Sure, I'm only one person, but I doubt that I'm the only one. I don't hope that she lost readers because that'd be mean. (No sarcasm!) But I'm almost 100% certain that she did, because readers don't like authors who misbehave and who hurt instead of support, other authors.

A metaphor I thought of, is she's like a child who took a huge hunk of pie. And then told everyone that she was the only one who could make pie now. And took away the pieces of pie from the people who'd gotten it just before her, and made sure those who were after her couldn't have it, either.

All in all, after all this is over (hopefully with the trademark of the word cocky is revoked, and law precedents and stuff happen so this can't happen again) I hope that we remember the lesson-but not her. Why should we occupy our brains on this situation, the negatives? It would be a kind of justice that she did this to protect her brand, for her and her brand to be forgotten.

And sure, I'm just a reader/blogger, and this won't do anything to the situation, but I wanted to talk about it. Yeah. My two cents.

And now I'm going to curl up with a good book and my doggies!

Happy Father's Day? What a Big Joke!

What has my dad done for me? Insult me-"poor girl" ing whoever is going to be rooming with me-with me right there. Calling me names, so why should he have a happy day being dad? He's a horrible parent, oh, wait, both of them are, favouring my little brother, little mister perfect, has a job, has friends, doing his chores and then yelling at me because of a freaking floor that is already dry! What did I do to them to make them hate me so much? Oh, yeah, I was born in the first place instead of him. I can't wait for Tuesday and then I can finally move out! I can't believe that they are the children of my grandparents, because my grandparents are actually nice for the most part. They're hypocrites, liars, and just mean. What luck I've had with my parents *sarcasm*

Last Day of High School!

Well, just so long as I pass Social. And since I don't know what my mark is, just that it's under 60%, well, here's hoping that the essays that I wrote on Wednesday, and the MC test this Tuesday (school's done today, and next week starts exam time, and then we pick up our report cards, but we only have to come in on days that we have exams, and there's no classes, WHOO!) will bring my mark up high enough to stay in the program that I wanted, and that I actually graduate, because it'd be a pain in the butt if I didn't graduate because of social. Yeah. Ok, now I go to sleep, and then I've got to do a lot of reviews, and then sleep and read some more! Happy reading!

Small Little Rant about my Library System

Ok, I have a small little rant. About my library system.

First, a bit of background on a few things:

My library system, is basically pretty much all (maybe even all) the library's in my province, Alberta, all connected, at tracpac.ab.ca and I'm in the Marigold region. Which I learned for this post. So I have a wider range of books that I can request. But apparently not. The reason of this post.

I loved Firelight, and I haven't seen a bad review of it yet (though I'm sure there must be 1 or 2, nothing can please everybody :( )

How are the 2 connected? Through Vanish, book 2. The main part of my argh!!!!-ness right now.

I've had Vanish requested since September 30th. And I just checked to see what was taking so long, since it's been on the top of Actives in my requests for at least a few months. When I clicked the link to see where it'd be if searched, it said that only 1-yes, 1!!!!-had it, and that it was ON-ORDER!!!!!

This is a popular book. Most books have made their way to a few library's, 4 or 5 usually. Not this one. And that it came out September, it should be at the library now, in processing,  not on-order!!!!!

And on top of that, of 11 requester's, I'm number 8. So I'm going to have to wait for it to make it to the other seven people, for them to read it, to return it, and have it ship to the next person. On top of more waiting for it to get shipped to the first person!!!!!

Really peeved at this, I really want to read Vanish, but I have no money, so I can't buy it. And my parents are trying to break me out of my book buying, and reading as much as a do. But I need to have a lot of books, it keeps my brain occupied so I don't get bored. And while I have a lot of books, I still want this one a lot! Plus, when it stays there a long time, well, there's a limit to my requesting, 30 books at one time, and the more that are just sitting there not moving, the less that I can request, and with all the wonderful books that have been coming out, and are coming out, well, yeah. I don't like it! I want to get more books!!!!!

And that wonderful selection I'm supposed to have? It doesn't Anna Dressed In Blood! or Carrier of the Mark, but I now own that due to my post-Christmas shopping (In which 12 books were bought, making me very happy!) Yep.

Yeah, that's my little rant for today. Now to write some reviews before 10!!!