This post was originally published on here
Welcome! You’ve found me. That’s right, it’s time for everyone’s favorite drunken advice column, Am I the Literary Asshole?, the notorious and fabulous all-time high of all-time lows. I’m your host, Kristen Arnett, and I like reading, writing, and very little arithmetic. In case you’re new here, AITA is a place where people send their anonymous questions about bad behavior in the literary community. Do you have something you’d like to share with the class? You can submit it here. Don’t be afraid to get personal! I’ll keep all your identifying details private, I pinky swear.
And along with that pinky swear, how about we split a beautiful bottle of wine in order to seal the deal? I’ve got a couple of plastic cups from the gas station and I’m not afraid of a healthy pour. Hey, it’s classy if I say it’s classy!
Pinkies up! Let’s dig right in:
1) Hi Kristen! I am a writer who offers online writing workshops. I’ve been teaching for several years now. They’re fairly affordable, so I’ve got a steady assortment of regulars. I do these workshops about once a month, and the topics vary, but they’re generally on basic craft (dialogue, structure, world building). Recently, I noticed that a particular individual who has taken a few of these workshops has begun advertising their own workshops on social media. The problem is that the content seems to have come straight from my own courses; the class takeaways and example exercises look remarkably similar to my own. I understand that we’re working on basic craft, so there would inevitably be some overlap, but it appears as though they’ve lifted entire sections of my work. I’m obviously upset, but really not sure what to do about any of this.
Yikes! I’m sorry to hear this, friend.
It would be a truly miserable experience to open up Instagram see your own hard work plagiarized by someone you know. I’m going to take your word on this and assume that the language in these offerings is close enough to your own that there can be no mistake about the fact that they’ve stolen from you.
I’m not totally sure that there’s any kind of legal recourse here (and hey, if there were, you wouldn’t be writing in to me about it; you’d be contacting a lawyer), but I can talk to you a little bit about what you might try outside of all that.
You could try reaching out to them. Send a message via email or DM on Instagram, or even ask to hop on a Zoom. This is the direct approach, and it is the most conflict-heavy. Some people don’t want to deal directly with this kind of directness, and I understand if you’re not one of those people, but it will most likely get you the most immediate response/results. It’s totally possible that this person hadn’t even considered the fact that they’re copying your work. Maybe they just got so excited about how your class helped them that they want to keep a good thing going and use it to help other people (that’s the best-case scenario). If you send them a message and talk to them, frankly, about the fact that they’re using what appears to be your own content, it’s possible that they’ll apologize and knock it off.
It’s also possible that they’ll double down and say that the work is their own. There’s not much you can do about that, if that’s the case. But consider this: it’s unlikely that you’re going to have much crossover with them when it comes to your clientele. You’ve been teaching for a while now, you’ve built up a base of clients who appreciate your work, and that’s not going to change just because this person has started offering up similar content. In fact, now that they’re no longer in your workshops, they won’t be able to pull any of your new material. You might just have to deal with the fact that they’ve taken a few things from you and use that as an excuse to come up with some new stuff.
I’m sorry that this happened. But hopefully you can use it as fuel to reinvigorate your work!
Another glass? The plastic in this cup really brings out the grape flavor of the wine!
Onto our next question:
2) I’m so sick of blurbs. I don’t want to use them at all for my next book, but my editor is resistant to jettisoning them altogether. Is this something I can push back on, or should I just capitulate even though I hate them and don’t think they actually matter?
Oh, buddy. We’re all sick of blurbs!
Okay, maybe not everybody. But a lot of people are deadly tired of them, myself included. It’s annoying and cumbersome to reach out and ask about these bits of praise every time a book comes out. It’s a big ask (someone has to find the time to read your book and essentially do unpaid labor to give you a hopefully nice sentence your publisher will want to slap on a dust jacket). And you have to ask a lot of people!
If you really and truly want to die on this hill, I think you could. But it might mean that when it comes down to some other arguments about cover art, title, or formatting? You might have to let those things go because you chose no blurbs as your grand battle. Think about that before you make any impulsive decisions.
At the end of the day, they can’t force you to go out there and get a blurb. You make the final call. Just make sure you’re not letting go of something you really care about in order to make this happen!
Just enough left in this bottle to pour ourselves a final glass. Let’s cheers to that as we check out our final question of the day:
3) HI DAD! This is so embarrassing, I can’t even believe I’m writing to you about it, but here we go: I have a book coming out in six months (yay!!!!!!!) and while I’m excited about it, I have to tell you that all of the stuff I’m expected to do in order to sell this book is making me feel so cringe that I can’t stand it. I don’t want to post that people need to preorder and I don’t want to do unboxing videos. They gross me out. Watching other people do that stuff online gives me so much secondhand embarrassment that even thinking about doing it myself makes me violently ill. How do I get through this?
I’m gonna level with you here. You gotta get over the ick factor!
Nobody is going to be a bigger advocate of your book than you. You’re the writer, you made that work. It’s not cringe to be proud of it and want to promote it! And hey, you don’t have to do an unboxing video. You don’t have to do any kind of video if you don’t want to! But it’s completely fine (normal, even) to show off your work and ask people to enjoy that writing that you spent years of your life crafting.
You can post nothing at all and just let it happen naturally all on its own (or let your publishers marketing department do its thing). But if the only thing holding you back is that you think it’s embarrassing to be proud of the work you made? Please don’t let that stop you. It’s not cringe to be excited for others to engage with your art. You might even have some unexpected fun doing it. Try and make it your own; involve a pet, or use some art that’s different. Make it marketing in your own way. No one will think you’re weird for promotion. It’s cool. I promise.
And that’s all the time (and the wine) that we have for today! Please remember to send me your anonymous questions, either via email or through this nifty portal. I look forward to reading everything!
Pen pal,
Dad
__________________________
Are you worried you’re the literary asshole? Ask Kristen via email at [email protected], or anonymously here.
