BEWARE! The Subtlety of Deception

Exposure is something we all want in order to increase our sales, no matter what line of work we are in. However, bad exposure can be very harmful to both your reputation and your business.  From plagiarism, theft and copyright infringement to false accusations, slander and libel, we can help avoid these things from happening to us by looking for the signs and being more cautious of who we let into our lives.

With respect to the romance novel industry it can get tricky.  Speaking from my own experiences over the years I would say this:  When you are asked to be interviewed, whether you are an author, reader, cover artist, publisher or cover model, don't allow the excitement of someone wanting to interview you blind you to the real intent of the interview. Before agreeing, research who the interviewer is, read their other interviews/articles to see the tone and demeanor of their writing, and ask yourself why they are wanting to interview you.

This may sound unnecessary, but it is so important that I feel it bears repeating.  Keep in mind that interviewers not affiliated with the romance novel industry, especially those from other literary fields/markets, might not be looking for a positive slant when they speak to you.  They may even twist your words, take them out of context, and only select specific answers or words to make you and the romance novel industry look bad.  Sadly (and unfairly), the great, positive things you spoke about won't be mentioned at all.

Reality TV shows gain their attention/viewers through ridicule and negativity, making people look bad, dumb, etc. (Jersey Shore, Party Down South, all the "Housewives" shows, Shahs of Sunset, Bad Girls Club, Gypsy Sisters, the list could go on and on). They purposely emphasize only the things that make the cast look bad, otherwise it's a boring show.

Writing a positive article about an industry or market other than the one the writer works in is usually of little or no interest to the majority of their readers. They may resort to insult instead.  This is what happened to me last year.  A contributor to Harper's Magazine named Jesse Barron contacted me asking if he could come to the RNConvention 2013 for free to write an article about the convention and the romance novel industry for his magazine.  I thanked him for his interest and kindly told him no, that he would have to pay to attend like everyone else.

Well, he came to the convention anyway and pitched himself to a volunteer in a positive light about writing a big article on the romance novel industry and the RNC convention The volunteer saw that as a good thing and allowed him in. His article was published a few weeks ago and it not only bashed the RNConvention and myself, but all romance novel authors, readers, and the entire romance novel industry.

I was contacted by 'Time Magazine' a few months ago, asking to interview me and write an article about what I do in/for the romance novel industry. I thought "Time Magazine"? That's huge! So I answered the interview questions very carefully, but have never heard back, even after I have sent them many follow-up emails (and yes it was really from Time Magazine as the email address was correct.)

Now I'm waiting and checking each issue to see if they were unbiased or twisted my words to make myself, cover models, and the entire romance novel industry look bad. We can only hope that a large media source like Time Magazine will just post the truth and allow readers to draw their own  conclusions.

A week ago I was contacted by St. Martin's Press for the same thing. Now, St. Martin's is a romance novel industry company, so yes, this is one I definitely wanted to do and did. There would be zero benefit for a large publishing house within the romance novel industry to bash or insult others within it.

Social media websites are no different than digital and print media. So many social media account holders want the highest number of likes and friends on their pages. Spamming companies know this, as do scam artists. Allowing anyone to be on your friends list provides them with everything you show to your friends, which is much more than you want spammers and scam artists to know or have access to.  Things like your images and personal information that are posted there can be stolen and used on fake/impostor accounts they make of you. They can also use your friends list to invite them to many other fake accounts, then to do the same to those friends. Your email address can also be sold to spamming companies, etc.

Not to mention that they will know when you offer your book downloads for free, where they can download them and use another cover on them (that is also stolen), and sell it themselves, or just give it away on the fake/impostor page they made of you.

I get about 20 Facebook friend requests a day! I may accept about 1 out of 100, and only because the 99 of those 100 pages are completely private, or they don't show any information to those not on their friend list, which could prove if they are legitimate people in the romance novel industry. Just having the word "Author" in front of your name doesn't mean you actually are an author. If you were, you would have your book shown on your page that you are sending me a friend request from. You would have links to your website, Amazon page, etc. on your page for anyone to see. And we would probably have more than a few mutual friends.

So if those things are missing, I can only assume that most of those friend requests are either fake/impostor accounts, role players, spammers, scams, or just people who read a post/comment on their friend's page and are curious to see who I am. Many fake/impostor accounts I or my friends find almost always have images of me on them that are only on my Facebook page, which proves they would have to be on my friend list in order to see/steal those images. So be careful who you accept on your friend's list, and be careful who you do interviews with!