#PhoenixCollective | The Rules of Sharing
Maybe it’s something that kind of comes with commonsense, or maybe from being raised to understand that sharing is a good thing, but it’s a bit straightforward. Now, I don’t mean sharing your husband/wife, or your toothbrush. I mean, you can if you want. No judgment here. But what I’m talking about is sharing support, sharing readers, sharing … words.
If you’re as in the dark as I was, don’t worry. Just log into any social media outlet and see for yourself the latest drama. As you guys know, I’m not going to name names because that’s not how I roll. Like I said, just go to Facebook, or Twitter. It’s impossible to miss. But the big and small of the situation is that an author has gone ahead and trademarked the word ‘Cocky’.
Let’s just point out that this is an author with multiple books under her belt, which leads me to believe she knows the time, energy, and expense that goes into creating a single book for release THE FIRST TIME. Never mind the extra time, energy, and money it would cost to recreate, relaunch, and rebrand an entire book.
It’s not simply slapping a new title on a book and calling it a day.
We’re talking swag that may have been created, or teasers. Then there are authors who put previous titles on the back/inside of other books. Oh, let’s not forget that you can’t change your title on Amazon without losing your ranking/reviews (or so I’ve been told). So, no, simply changing a title because someone says they own a word (which, let’s be honest, I never thought was a thing) can’t be done overnight.
Oh, did I forget to mention authors (like me) who can’t even write until they have a title/image that mirrors the plot in some shape or form?! So, to change one, you have to change all. NIGHTMARE! Oh, and what if it’s part of a series?
OMG I’m giving myself anxiety just thinking about it. 😱😱😱
It’s not a simple matter. But here’s the thing also, authors, be you indie, hybrid, or traditional, know that there are certain things you’re going to have to learn to share, especially romance authors.
We’re in a very small, crowded pool.
So, you will see authors with the same title. You will see authors with the same cover image, especially if that image is stock and up to buy by anyone. These are things a lot of people don’t realize. In fact, I’m going to tell you two stories. 
A few years back, while I was getting ready for the launch of Octavian’s Undoing, I was promoting it as any author would, when another author (someone I knew well and admire) contacted me … apologizing. I was BAFFLED. So, apparently, it seems that her main character and mine had the exact same name, first and last. I mean, What are the odds of that?! INSANE! But crazy cool (in my opinion) especially given that this was the first time we were both sharing information about our books with the outside world so there was no way either one of us could have accidentally heard it anywhere else. She offered to change her character’s name and I was like, why?! I have zero ownership over a name. I have no idea if she actually did or not, but I hope she didn’t.
Not too long ago, I had another author read The Devil’s Beauty and tell me she’d been thinking about using the name Cora as her female lead, but was afraid I would get upset.
What!? Never! The only name I can even pretend to have any say over is Maraveet from Transcending Darkness, which I made up by putting two different names together, but I’ve never actually checked to see, so….😞 I dunno.
The second story, which is a bit weirder, is a reader messaged me during the cover reveal of Games of Fire (the original cover, and no this isn’t the reason I changed it. lol) and told me that I was copying another author’s image. I tried to explain that the image was a stock photo and up for grabs by anyone. If the other author was cool with sharing, so was I. The reader joined the other author to our chat. Not entirely sure why…but turns out, the author was equally okay with sharing the image.
That last story, that wasn’t the first time, or the third time, that has happened. I’ve lost count of the number of times a reader has said, oh, that image, so and so has it on their book. There’s really nothing I can do about this, except a) explain that, odds are, several more authors are also using it, or b) buy all the rights to that image and claim it as mine only.
Now, I can tell you a million other stories like that, stories about how authors were accused of stealing plots because theirs were eerily similar. Or a title that matched another book. But like I said, the romance genre is a very small, crowded pool. It’s bound to happen. It’s not the end of the world. It doesn’t mean you can bring people down for using something similar (unless it’s outright stolen like image/image, font/font, plot/plot. That’s called plagiarism and it’s a definite no-no!). Otherwise, be prepared to see your image on another cover, or your title.
Let me put it to you this way. If E.L. James copyrighted Fifty Shades (50 Shades), or BDSM overall, do you have any idea how many authors she would have to sue right now?! It’s crazy and unrealistic. Hell, it’s downright selfish.
So, in conclusion, don’t cock things up for others. Be a fair sport. Love and support our community, because when you piss off one, you piss us all off and that’s a scary can of worms.
Finally, to lighten the mood, here’s a squirrel getting confused by a pole…
my mom put oil on her bird feeder to keep squirrels from stealing the bird food and pic.twitter.com/TkrmOR4KlH
— christina rotondo (@christinaroto) May 4, 2018
Hilarious, right? lol. Well, until next time, what did you think? What are your thoughts about sharing? How many times have you seen two authors with the same cover model? Have you confronted anyone about it? Leave me your thoughts, questions, etc. I really love hearing from you so don’t be a stranger. So until next time *waves* take care and…
