You have probably seen this today, Facebook is spinning like mad over the news that Author Faleena Hopkins has trademarked the word ‘Cocky’ in the romance genre and is allegedly sending out letters threatening fellow indie authors with legal action. Forcing them to undergo book title and cover changes or she will take them to court, and in her own words, ‘win’.
It seems any author since the dawn of time with the word in the title is fair game and as misguided as she may be – she’s going to town. Sadly so are the fans, followers, readers and writers of our close knit community in the writers world, and in one day I have seen so much drama and negative energy all pointed in one direction. A glance at amazon and Goodreads and the pages of 1 star reviews appearing on her books highlight the power of the readership. Disturbing as it may be as they flood in, it’s a very good reminder to all authors who think about double crossing to get ahead in life.
Moral of the story – Do not mess with fellow authors.
Think before you leap – staying at the top is as much to do with being part of a whole, than standing alone and making enemies. If you need to elbow someone out of the way to succeed, then you will never understand true success.
Up until today I hadn’t really seen the full wave of power when you set the Indie community in motion, and as saddening as it is to see a fellow writer pulled down, it’s also heartening to see so many defending other authors in a bid to save them from financial hardship. Asking them to re-brand, title change and commission new covers, new merchandise etc is a huge undertaking for any author. Worse when you realise a lot of them do this as a hobby and make next to nothing in sales. Now being hit with the dark cloud of legal action, I am seeing many running scared.
My favourite motto in life has been playing in my head all day.
You reap what you sow.
I do hope the backlash has made her rethink her standing and if you want more clarity on the situation, I recommend reading this blog >>> http://legalinspiration.com/?p=503
Where do you stand on this topic?
Do you agree with her right to trademark a word she uses in her best selling series ? A common word from the English language which has been used for many years on romance books?
Are you part of the #savecocky movement?
I would love to hear readers opinions on today’s happenings. And in the meantime…….
Do you think this would make a great story? Hmmm LOL
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