If you haven't tuned into Twitter or you have been living under a rock (or a hill, or a Siberian gulag... whatever), there is a huge dramafest going on because a romance author named Faleena Hopkins has somehow got a trademark approved of a common use word of the English Language used in a stolen copyrighted font (yes, somebody in the US government approved her to take over the word cocky, I am serious) and has now started a witch hunt.
First she sent cease & desist letters to authors that wrote romance books with the word Cocky somewhere in the title (and not only to books published after the trademark petition, she has gone so far as books that were published as much as 5 years before!), and now Amazon has pulled out books without requesting authors to change the book title.
Her lawyers? It seems like her powerful legal team consists of a mysterious website that doesn't work and the law firm was founded by an author of a book I haven't even heard of before. It's so weird.
Obviously, when you piss off a bunch of well-meaning authors with such a ridiculous threat, hell burns loose and now she's pretty much alienated herself from the writing community and even people that previously read & enjoyed her books a long time before any of this mess happened.
The graphics artist whose typography was used has confirmed the trademark has infringed on his own creation (thus pretty much voiding it right there and setting her for a lawsuit she will likely lose), has just gotten a huge following of fans. He seems like a really cool guy who was thrown into this mess while he was on vacations.
Credit for photo: Pajiba.com
And while people are slamming and public shaming her online, last night she uploads this incoherent tirade on facebook live where she claims to be a minority (hey, I'm hispanic myself and look paler than a ghost so I'll give her the benefit of the doubt on that weird claim), she claims to be descended of slaves (I don't know what distant family history has anything to do with her ruining her own writing career but whatever), and then she has the audacity to pretty much make fun of autism.
Don't believe me? Watch the video!
It's just... too... much... drama!
You think I've gone cuckoo?
Maybe I have....
Before this whole dramafest started, she has answered perfectly valid negative Amazon reviews, and not a thank you note, I mean talking back at the reviewer. This is one of the biggest things that authors aren't supposed to do. It has ruined the careers of many authors. If you can't handle a bad review, either don't read it or don't be an author. I have a 1 star review of one of my books which was fully valid (the review wasn't posted on either Amazon or Goodreads but on another website) and I politely thanked the reviewer for taking their time.
If all of this wasn't enough, she has somehow called Amazon and Goodreads to start massively deleting all sorts of reviews that aren't even of her books just because they include the word "Cocky" in them.
Yes, I am serious.
This calls for action!!!
Support authors whose books have been affected by the mess, read the competition such as this jem:
I read one of her books just for fairness sake and didn't like it that much. The writing simply wasn't good at all. I simply don't understand why her books have so many 5 star reviews.
All in all, even though I don't write romance novels, I am following this closely because maybe someday, some narcicisstic looney might somehow trademark a common use word of the English language of the fantasy genre and me or a huge other array of authors I am friends with could be affected.
For now, I'm going to be on a tantrum stating the forbidden word:
Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky, Cocky...
Better!
