Friskbiskit

Incredibly Belated PayPal Update

Okay, so on the off chance you haven't already heard, Paypal changed their acceotable use policy. A couple of highlights:

First and foremost, we are going to focus this policy only on e-books that contain potentially illegal images, not e-books that are limited to just text.

In addition, the policy will be focused on individual books, not on entire “classes” of books. Instead of demanding that e-book publishers remove all books in a category, we will provide notice to the seller of the specific e-books, if any, that we believe violate our policy.  We are working with e-book publishers on a process that will provide any affected site operator or author the opportunity to respond to and challenge a notice that an e-book violates the policy.

In my opinion, this is the best possible outcome we could reasonably expect. And it happened because people spoke up. This is what I love about the internet, for all it's flaws, it provides a public arena in which the powerful can be held accountable for their actions, and nowadays, it's about the only tool we have to keep companies like PayPal in check.

I want to thank everyone who was involved in bringing about this outcome. Don't ever let anyone tell you you can't make a difference. You just did.

Now I'm closing my petition drive contest and I'll be announcing the final winner on that thread shortly.

Will PayPal Reverse It's Censorship Decision?

Just saw this article in TechCrunch:

The last meeting between the EFF and PayPal was on Friday, and its activism director, Rainey Reitman, told TechCrunch that she left with a “good feeling,” with PayPal’s general counsel indicating that they would be “discussing it internally and might even be able to make a public statement in the next week.”

The EFF, she notes, specifically has requested that PayPal “update their policy so that this type of legal fiction would not be affected.”

Not counting them chicken's before they hatch, but it is an encouraging sign.

PayPal Censorship Update: PayPal Speaks, So Does Visa

There have been too many developments in the PayPal Censorship debacle for me to keep up with, especially since we got a new puppy this week and I'm completely distracted by The Cuteness. but here are some highlights. For a more complete picture of what's going on, check out the Banned Writer's blog.

PayPal Director of Communications Anuj Nayar posted a statement on the official PayPal blog regarding the company's decision to pressure ebook retailers into pulling erotica titles which deal with themes of rape, incest, and bestiatility. Like much of this controversy, Nayar's post has me scratching my head. Throughout the post he puts quotation marks around erotica, for reasons which remain a mystery. And he refers to the widespread and ever-growing concern in the internet community as "chatter."  For someone whose job is (presumably) to direct PayPal's communications with the public, I have to wonder how he's earing his salary. Little tip, Mr. Nayar: belittling your customer's concerns tends to inflame their ire.

Nayar raises two reasons for PayPal's decision to enforce the company's acceptable use policy selectively on some legal erotica titles. Both are uninformed and bordering on delusional. First, Nayar says that "this category of eBooks often includes images." Huh? What? Where are you getting your erotica, Mr. Nayar? Are you aware that the vast majority of erotica titles are not illustrated, apart from cover art? Do you know how cost-prohibitive and logistically difficult it would be for indy publishers to produce illustrated ebooks? Does anyone at PayPal know anything at all about the books they are banning?

The second reason Nayar gives is that "This type of content also sometimes intentionally blurs the line between fiction and non-fiction." Hmm. I've been pondering what he might mean by that. Is he referring to titles such as "Daddy You Make My Vagina So Wet," which use the first person point of view? Are the decision makers at PayPal unclear on the use of first-person as a stylistic choice that fiction authors often employ? Do we need to point out that erotica is a subcategory of... drumroll please... FICTION and is listed as such on the sites where it is sold?

There's more, of course, but better you should just read it yourself. I'll just wrap up this section by noting that while Nayar states that "We always welcome your feedback," comments are apparently disabled on the post. It's also interesting to note that Nayar's profile pic is frowny in this post, but smiling in the others. Well, I'm frowning back.

In other news, Banned Authors wrote to Visa asking for clarification on the credit card company's involvement in PayPal's decision to selectively enforce their terms of use policy on some works of legal fiction. We got a timely, concise and courteus response. The gist of it is that Visa is not pressing PayPal to make this move, as PayPal has been saying. So long as the items in question are legal, Visa's policy is not to get involved in issues surrounding the goods people buy through them. Which means that just as many have suspected, PayPal was trying to deflect criticism of thier own decision.

Meanwhile, media attention for this story is growing, the ACLU of California has written an open letter, which you can also sign, here, and the Care2 petition is up to 1900 signatures. Remember if you've signed (and I'm going to expand that to include the ACLU letter and individual letters to PayPal,) leave a comment on the contest post saying so and you'll be entered to win a free ebook. This situation is distressing to say the least, so I feel the least I can do is brighten things up for those who are fighting.

And in that vein, and because I am a besotted new mother, as well as an outraged activist, here is a pic of Ruthie, our new puppy. I like to think she's pondering the appropriate and innappropriate uses of quotation marks.

S.V. Rowle's Pocket Guide to the PayPal Censorship Debacle

Here's a great resource from author S.V. Rowle that compiles a bunch of the posts that have been written about the PayPal censorship issue. Check it out.

Contest: Stop Censorship, Win a Book

Update 6: I have a new post up about PayPal's response to the response to their actions and Visa's stand on the matter. The ACLU of California has an open letter to PayPal that you can sign, and I'm expanding the contest to include that letter and direct letters to PayPal (provided you haven't already won.) So if you haven't yet, speak up, and don't forget to leave a post here when you do. 

Update 5: Our third winner, Vicki, has already read all of my books (I love her), so she's graciously stepping aside and letting one of the others in her group of five win. I'll announce who in the comments in just a moment.

The PayPal Censorship story continues to get wider coverage. It's now been written about on the Independent and on MSNBC's tech blog. You can find links to these stories and more, as well as an open letter to Visa, on the Banned Writers site.

Update 4: We gained some important allies today. The American Bookseller's Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) and the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) wrote a letter to PayPal protesting their policy. Go read it. It will make you cheer.

And if you haven't checked out Banned Writers yet, do so. Lots of good stuff going on in the comments thread there. For example, a call from Eden Connor for guest bloggers and for contributors to an edgy erotica anthology. 

And here's another reason to cheer: we have our fourth winner today! Thank you everyone who has signed the petition, helped spread the word and kept this ball rolling!

Update 3: Wow! I was offline all day today, catching up with work and when I got back I saw a bunch of new comments in the queue. A new winner has been announced and we are well on our way to the next giveaway! You guys are amazing. { }

In other news, I want to direct your attention to this interesting post by Erica Pike, which casts doubt on whether the credit card companies are involved in this at all. It may be all PayPal, in which case, I think we're in better shape, since they are easier to replace with an alternate service.

Got to go back to proofreading now. See you later, babes!

Update 2: Our second winner has been announced! Thank you everyone for speaking up. I <3 you! I have a couple more comments awaiting approval, and if you haven't signed yet, or if you already did and haven't commented here yet, there's still more chances to win. :)

 

Update: Our first winner has been announced! See comments for details. When another five sign the petition and leave a comment here, I'll give away another book. Big hugs to everyone who's participated so far. You are awesome!

Okay, so you know I'm up in arms over this PayPal censorship thing, and I think you should be too. This is a financial institution dictating allowable content in fiction, and it doesn't matter if you read, write, or approve of the content in question, as a reader and a free-thinking person, you don't want to let that happen.

You may have heard that there's a petition. Here it is.

I encourage you to sign it. In fact, I think it is so important for people to speak up on this matter, that I'm going to run a contest for the next week, and maybe longer depending on how things play out. If you sign the petition and leave a comment here stating that you've done so, you will be entered to win a free copy of one of my books, your choice. Every time I get five signatures, I'll do a random selection and one of those five will win. 

Please make your voice heard. This affects all of us. 

The New Look

So I decided that all the many important things I had to do yesterday (like the bills and oh, you know, finishing that third book) could wait because I absolutely had to reconfigure Friskbiskit.

Well, I'd had these changes in mind for some time and I guess they just went critical. Now each of my books has its own page, linked to from the sidebar, as you see, and from the overall books page. On the page for each book are links to its reviews, so it's organized now and not all higgeldy piggeldy like I had it.  And each book has a blurb and an excerpt and a list of _all_ the places it can be purchased.

I hope you'll find all this an improvement. Let me know what you think, either way.

Wednesday Roundup: Blogging is Dead, Long Live Blogging

Let's try this.

I find that I'm succumbing to the convenience of Facebook and Twitter for my daily status posts and for posting links to articles I find of interest. I've also come to the conclusion that the #1 best thing I can do for my career and my life in general is to write as much m/m as humanly possible. Every other thing I do for PR is secondary to getting more books out to readers.

The upshot is I've been posting here less.  You may have heard that blogging is dead. Wired magazine says so, it must be true.

But I like Friskbiskit. It's fun, it's still my best venue for longer posts, and I need an author website and it might as well be one with a following and a steady supply of new content. So I don't want to neglect Fb, or my loyal readers who I appreciate so much. (Yes, consider your ass kissed, enthusiastically. You deserve it!)

I've had good results from my current two weekly features: Man Candy Monday and free fiction postings on Fridays, so I thought, how about a weekly check in?  I'll blog something here every Wednesday, even if it's just to say, 'Life is too real right now, nothing to share.' The advantage I see to this is that it keeps the blog active but sets the bar for frequency of posts a little lower.  And none of this means that I won't post other things when the spirit moves me.

So what's new?  Well, in anticipation of Amaranth & Ash's release June 1, I've been revving up the PR machine.  I set up author pages on Amazon and Goodreads (you may have read about that), made postcards and am now booking guest blog appearances.

Smashwords fun continues. So far, Thaw and Serve has been downloaded 138 times since I put it up a week ago yesterday. I've been fiddling around with cover design in odd moments.  That's fun.  I'm getting some help with it from an actual pro, too, so that's good.

Writing wise, I'm working away at the third and final book in the other project. I also have plans for an Amaranth&Ash freebie, when I get a sec.

And that's about it.  Have a great week!

The New Look

You might have noticed things look just a little bit different around here.  That's right, a period of record traffic on the blog (Hi everyone, thanks for stopping by!) seemed like the perfect time to change templates. :P

But I had some reader feedback that the posts were hard to read, and truth be told, the tiny font on that old Masala template had been driving me nuts for a long time.  So, this here's the new look.  It's not all that much different from before, some of you might not even have noticed.  But the font is bigger, and it's more spacious overall. (Go ahead, stretch out, put your feet up, and kick back.) The only thing I'm not wild about is the greyscale font in the sidebars.  Ah well.  Nothing's ever perfect, is it?

More on the Google Settlement

Good God, you're thinking, is she ever going to let up?  I can't take it anymore.  What happened to the absurdity, porn and pics of hot guys I come here for?

I feel you.  And actually, this is just a brief, brief update with a couple of links.  And here, here's some eye candy for your troubles.

But I've been reading The Fiction Circus and I just can't let it pass unremarked that, among the literary estates represented by DeVore, the lawyer that got us an extension on the deadline to opt out of the Google settlement, was the Phillip K. Dick Trust.  How cool is that?  Here's TFC's awesome post about it.

And, the Fiction Circus guys also conducted a long, long interview with James Grimmelmann, a law professor at the New York Law School who wrote an amicus brief (whatever that is, sounds like friendly underpants)  addressing antitrust concerns regarding the Google settlement.  It's worth your time.

Where is the M/M at B&N?

Part two in this week's Publishing Gloom Series involves my long-time nemesis, the local Barnes and Noble.  Full disclosure: my frustration with my local B&N began a few years ago when my novel Inventing Memory was released.  They stocked it, sold out of it pretty quickly but did not reorder until I asked them to.  We went a few rounds like that, with the copies consistently selling out, but never being reordered unless I personally went in and requested it.  Realizing that if this was happening at my local store, it was also likely happening at other B&Ns across the country, where I could not go in every couple of weeks and play surrogate book buyer, I became demoralized, and eventually gave up.  Sales on that book are the reason I don't write under my own name any more.

So, anyway, not one to hold a grudge, I was delighted to have the opportunity to go into my local B&N last week and buy an m/m romance novel in the romance section.  I was really chuffed that B&N had agreed to stock the Running Press books where they are likely to sell the most copies, but when I got there, I couldn't find them on any of the New In Paperback tables at the front of the store, nor in any of the New in Romance tables or displays (four all together) on the second floor, where the bulk of the fiction is stocked.  Hmm.

After a thorough search, I finally found one copy of Transgressions, face in in the romance section.  One copy?  Surely that wasn't all they'd ordered?  And what about Alex's book, False Colors?  On a hunch, I checked the gay studies section, where lo and behold, each book was prominently displayed on the New In shelf. 

I talked to a manager about the importance of stocking the books where the publisher intended them to be, where the audience they were being marketed to would find them, and most importantly of all, where they would actually sell.  See, the only problem with shelving them in gay studies is that people are not generally shopping for fiction in that section, and romance novels have a tendency to sit there, untouched, which, as it turns out, is the reason why they were so easy to find there.  No one was buying them. 

An assistant manager informed me that the staff had a meeting about the Running Press books, and in contradiction with the agreement B&N made with Running Press, decided to cross shelve the books.  Two in romance and two in gay studies.  Only, by the looks of things, the ones slated for romance got shelved face in, with no fanfare.  Despite this, three of the four Running Press m/m titles that were shelved in romance were no longer there.  I couldn't confirm that they had sold but they were definitely getting circulation. 

Unfortunately, no matter how well Alex and Erastes' books sell in the romance section, if the store continues to hold two copies of each in gay studies, instead of restocking them where they're selling, then they won't get reordered, because as long as those two copies are sitting there, the inventory system will show them as beng in stock.

After a long conversation in which I elaborated on the theme of m/m selling better in romance, and the assistant manager did her best to impress upon me the irrelevance of my viewpoint to internal decisions about where books get stocked, I finally got her agreement to let my concerns be known to the rest of the staff, and I left my information with a request for the general manager to call me.  Haven't heard from him, natch. 

Alex and Erastes have blogged that other B&Ns are doing much better by them than mine is.  I can only hope that my experience is an isolated one.  Just the same, it might not be a bad idea to check with your local B&N, and let them know that as a customer, you support the publisher's decision to market them as romance novels.

BTW, this all took place last week, but I've been too upset about it to post anything until now, when the overwhelming avalanche of publishing biz injustice has deadened me to all but the most acute sensations.  Honestly, it really is getting to the point that I don't know where to turn any more.  I haven't been fucked by any epublishers yet, and All Romance eBooks and Fictionwise and Powell's seem to be okay.  And there's Book View Cafe, which will hopefully grow into something wonderful.  And yet, these days, I find myself tensing for the next blow. 

I feel like I should apologize for taking such a negative tone in a blog that's supposed to be about celebrating m/m and the brave frontiers of new publishing technologies, but these are real life decisions that impact our ability to conduct our trade, and they're being made by uninformed third parties who do not share our stake in the matter. And what they're doing is wrong.

Justice Dept. Gives Google Settlement the Fisheye

What a difference a day makes.  When I posted about the Google settlement last night, things were looking pretty grim.  Now, we have an extension on the deadline to opt out, and the Justice Department is opening an antitrust inquiry into the matter.  Of course, this doesn't mean that they will necessarily block the settlement, but we can hope. 

And maybe do more than hope.  We have time now to take action, and give voice to our interests.  Speaking of which, this line from the NYT report bothers me:

Google, as well as the authors and publishers, have defended the settlement

Wait, what? The authors?  Which ones, cuz that ain't me, bub.  And this, perhaps, is the crux of the problem we face.  Ironically, we, whose stock in trade is communication, seem to have no voice in public discourse.  There are plenty of people running around pretending to speak for authors.  But who actually listens to anything an author has to say, outside of the pages of a book?  (More on that tomorrow.)

Part of the problem is that we are such a diverse group that our interests are not identical.  As has been proven, various organizations established ostensibly to protect author interests may be corrupt, or have an agenda all authors do not agree with, or be inept, or even simply be out of touch with the times.  It seems an open question whether an organization can be devised that empowers authors and gives us a voice in the decisions that affect our trade.

But many of us do live in democracies and as individuals have the right to free speech, so let's use that, at least.  And Twitter.  Don't forget about Twitter.  Tags for the google settlement include #gbs and #optout, btw.

Authors Have One Week to Opt Out/In on Google Settlement

Update:  According to Publisher's Weekly, New York Judge Denny Chin has granted a four month extension of the deadline to opt out or object to the Google Settlement.  This comes as a direct result of the intiative brought forward by Gail Knight Steinbeck and several other concerned parties, including Mike Perry, mentioned at the bottom of this post.  Thank you Mike, Gail, Rt. Hon. Denny Chin, etc.  You guys rock!

The article quotes Author's Guild Prez Paul Aiken thus:  "We’d hoped for a shorter extension of time, since we’re eager to get on to the next phase of the process."  Yeah, I bet you were, Paul.

I know that back in December, I posted that the settlement Google reached with Author's Guild and the Association of American Publishers sounded like it would be of benefit to authors.  I apologize.  I was so wrong.  Having taken a closer look at the terms of the agreement, I think this is a rotten deal, for a number of reasons. 

First of all, the way the deal is structured makes it cost-prohibitive for anyone else to do what Google is doing re scanning and making searchable enormous quantities of books.  It effectively gives Google a monopoly on searching and distributing any book written before January 5, 2009.

In the $110 million dollar settlement, Google is paying the lawyers from the Author's Guild and the Association of American Publishers $30 million for their work in the so-called class action suit.  Another $35 million goes to establish a brand new entity created by the agreement called the Book Rights Registry (BRR).  Every author whose copyrights were found to be infringed by Google's activity up until now gets to divide up the remaining $45 million, which comes to about $60 a title.

The BRR (I feel a chill) is a monopoly in its own right, established with no industry or governmental oversight.  They will collect the money from licensing and advertising, take a percentage and distribute the rest.  Payments to authors are divided between the author and the publisher of the work, regardless of whether or not the publisher previously held electronic rights. (Are you still wondering why publishers aren't yelling about this?) BRR is in effect a mandatory electronic rights agent for all authors, answerable to no one.  There is no mechanism for removing BRR from its position.  This to me is the scariest aspect of a settlement that has no shortage of horrors.

So, Author's Guild and AAP took an issue which many believed to be fair use, conflated it with copyright violation, and now, is selling authors' electronic rights down the river while pocketing a tidy sum for themselves.  Thanks guys, so glad to have you watching my back.  Hey!  What's that knife doing there?

Anybody want to make a bet as to whether BRR hires the suit's law firm, Boni & Zack, when all is said and done?

I digress.

Since this is a class action suit, the terms of the settlement apply to you whether you consent to it or not.  The only way not to be bound by the terms of the agreement is to opt out by May 5, 2009.  That's a week from today, folks.  I urge you to take action on your behalf.  The Greyson Agency (not my agent but my agent forwarded their guide to me) has a downloadable .pdf with guidelines for each of your options here: http://graysonagency.com/blog/uncategorized/guide-to-the-google-settlement-in-pdf/

Briefly, you can opt in, and register your works with Google, in which case you are eligible to collect the monies BRR feels you are due.  You can opt out, which does not mean Google can't or won't scan your work, but your electronic rights will remain intact and you are entitled to sue them for breach of copyright if you so choose.  (And good luck with that, friend.)  You can opt in and object, which requires the services of a lawyer, and, should your objection fail, leaves you still bound by the agreement.  You can do nothing, and still be bound by the terms of the agreement, plus lose your right to sue, plus be ineligible to collect money from BRR. 

With such a plethora of delightful options, how can one choose?

You know, I try to be upbeat around here.  Nobody likes a hater, and I'd rather focus on love.  But on a day like today, when the disregard, the contempt, the hatred for authors that permeates every nook and cranny of the industry is so blatant, so unavoidable, well, I find myself hating too.  In particular, I have a big hate boner for the Author's Guild and the Association of American Publishers, who brokered this shit pile.  Boy, did they pull one over on us, pretending to be championing our interests, when in reality this was nothing more than an opportunistic money grab.  They're collecting a fat fee in exchange for the future economic well-being of every author in North America.  They deserve to be disbanded for this. 

So, if you're as pissed off as I am, here are few things you can do:

SPREAD THE WORD.  The fact that this isn't all over the internet suggests to me that people are not aware of it.  Tell everyone.

Make a decision regarding the future of your electronic rights.  If you have an agent, speak with her about your best option among these very poor choices.  Go to http://www.googlebooksettlement.com/ to exercise your option. 

If you wish your book to be listed and searchable in Google's registry, writer-editor Anita Bartholemew comments in a Publisher's Weekly post that you can still arrange that with them without opting into this settlement.   The way to do this is through their Google Books Partner Program.

Write to your congressperson, the White House, the Register of Copyrights, and local news services regarding this issue.

Check your copyrights and register any that you wish to protect through traditional copyright law:  http://www.copyright.gov

Support small press publisher Mike Perry's initiative to extend the May 5 deadline.  More info here:
http://www.teleread.org/2009/04/25/why-the-google-settlement-is-anti-author-and-why-writers-deserve-four-more-months-for-opt-outs-and-objections/

Don't let the Author's Guild and the Association of American Publishers get away with their chicanery.  Contact them and let them know exactly what you think of the way in which they have represented your interests.

The Authors Guild
31 East 32nd Street, 7th Floor
New York, NY 10016

Phone: (212) 563-5904
Fax: (212) 564-5363

E-mail: [email protected]

Association of American Publishers, Inc.
Washington Office:

50 F Street, NW
4th Floor
Washington, DC 20001
202.347.3375
f: 202.347.3690

New York Office:

71 Fifth Avenue, 2nd floor
New York, NY 10003
Phone: 212-255-0200
Fax: 212-255-7007

And, once again, SPREAD THE WORD.

Link Love

Here's a link to a post on a blog I've never heard of before, on a topic that has nothing to do with m/m or publishing or new technologies, well, almost nothing, anyway.  The point is, I adore this post.  I've lived in Michigan my whole life and this is my third recession, and I love this post. 

http://www.parttimesoup.com/2009/03/whats-still-great-about-michigan.html

My fave pull quote:

And the last reason that Michigan is still great is the same as the reason it sucks. Face it, Michigan is wiped out. That means we are desperate and very willing to change. Want us to tear out our old infrastructure and rebuild it? Sure. We'll do it quick and take chickens in payment.

 

I laughed so hard tears were streaming down my face.  At least, I think it was because I was laughing.

Best-selling Author Sued for Defamation, Emotional Distress

Heywood Smith, author of The Red Hat Club, is being sued by Vicki Stewart, who claims that the character SuSu in the novel resembles herself in numerous ways.  Smith and Stewart have known one another for over 50 years.  Defamation suits based on characters in novels usually get dismissed based on the work being fictional, but not this time.  The Georgia Court of Appeals has agreed to hear the case.  Smith and her attorneys will likely appeal the decision or ask that it be heard by the state supreme court.

If the decision goes against Smith, it could set a dangerous precedent and leave authors vulnerable to libel suits.  Here's a link to more information on the case.

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1206960402189

Happy Inauguration Day!

How cool is it that the inauguration comes one day after Martin Luther King Jr. Day?

I am thinking good thoughts and putting protective blue light around everyone gathered in D.C. today.  May this joyful day pass peacefully and the important work ahead of us commence.

So, Slashing the Inauguration.  Well, I didn't get any stories from anyone, and I'll be honest, once I started writing mine, I realized I hadn't really thought it through.  I squicked myself!  It's true.  Apparently, there are some areas of life in which I don't want hot man on man action, and the first presidency I'm not cynical about turns out to be one of them.  Who knew?

Well, I'm posting the story here anyway, because I said I would.  I think it turned our pretty well, though when you read it, you'll see that I backed off from an explicit sex scene.  The story is R, mainly for Rahm Emmanuel's swearing. 

In doing the research for the story, I learned a lot.  There actually is Obama slash out there, for one thing.  There are some very fun political fandom groups on LJ (Thanks Mary Lou.  Someday, I will learn the secret of finding shit on LJ.  I swear to you, I looked.)  Here's a link to my favorite, rahmbamarama, which has really cute chibis of the whole Obama cabinet.  Oh, and this blog will turn you into a raving Rahm fan.  Other stuff I found out: The Lincoln bedroom has a flat screen TV and Obama wants it out of there.  But the Lincoln bedroom does not have a balcony, even though in my story it does.  Some people think President Harding was gay.  More people think Lincoln was bi.  And, best of all, Rahm Emmanuel once ended a phone conversation with a democratic candidate with these words:

"Don't fuck it up or I'll fuck you. I'll kill you. All right, I love you. Bye."

(Could Rahm be our Al Swearengen? Am I under the influence of Rahmania?)

Anyway, without further ado, here is the link to my Obama/Rahm slash story: Obama Sneaks a Cigarette.  To download the .pdf, please proceed to the free fiction page.  And don't fuck it up.  Okay, I love you.  Bye.