Since there is still no YouTube literature category, I had no choice but to unleash the poetic fury of Bruce Lee in the "Autos & Vehicles" category, where his unrivalled poetic power will only do harm to unfortunate inanimate objects, like tanks and armored personnel carriers.
Posted by miracle
on Wed, 14 Mar 2012 12:27:54 -0400 -- permanent link
Please Help Me Fight to Keep Credit Card Companies from Deleting Controversial Books from the Internet by Miracle Jones
So credit card companies are trying to delete my books and stories from the internet.
Though I have been rejected from every publishing house in America, now I am also being told that I can't even "self-publish" my glorious filth for money.
I have credit card bills, but I cannot pay them off by conducting business the only way that I know how: writing and selling short stories and novels.
This is an extremely upsetting predicament.
It's nothing personal, evidently. Credit card companies are cracking down on amateur writers all over America this week and no one seems to care very much.
(NOTE: I don't write erotica, nor do I write about any of these topics specifically. But my stories, like all literature, have controversial themes and transgressive subject matter that mark them for deletion in any marketplace that doesn't have the protection of prestige. Michel Houellebecq 's next book = safe! The entire Smashwords catalog = up against the wall, smoking one last cigarette, blindfolded, singing the "Internationale.")
No one is taking much responsibility for this act. Who can I blame? Smashwords blames PayPal. PayPal blames their overlord, Ebay, and Ebay blames credit card companies like Visa, Mastercard, and Discover.
This worldwide crackdown on filth is not making the news, but it is happening. This is not some weird political conspiracy theory about chemtrails, aspartame, gluten, or vaccines. It is happening -- in real time -- and unfortunately the victims are perverts and assholes like me who write nearly-criminal stories that only bad people and foreigners enjoy.
This is an actual fight between money and art.
Libertarians? Hippies? Right wing? Left wing? You people both claim that you love freedom of speech. I usually hate both of you, because I usually don't believe you and also because the politically-motivated usually write terrible fiction. But now is your chance to prove me wrong.
It is frustrating to see this happening and to see no one leaping into action to help. Credit card companies seemed to have weighed American apathy correctly. People like to fight for symbols and concepts, but they get nervous when the fight is for something actually important, like made-up stories about doing it with your granny in a shack in the woods or raping horses with comatose children or whatever.
I have had enough, personally. I am tired of being chased further and further underground. I feel that I am already underground enough. The only time I get to share my stories with the public is when I shout them at people in bars, when I give them away for free on my blog, or when I turn them into YouTube videos:
I enjoy being paid a tiny honorarium for the fiction that I write. It is legal for me to write the stories that I write. It is legal for me to sell them. I need a place to do this. Smashwords gives me the best percentage from my sales and allows me to put my novels into formats that everyone can enjoy.
***
People who do not live their lives in a red rage, waiting for the slightest provocation from powerful forces in order to go into "combat mode," might argue that there is no need to defend pornographers in a venue meant to sell legitimate fiction.
If Smashwords is going to delete "any" books for the reasons that they have stated, then they are going to have to delete my books, too. Smashwords told me that what I should do is make sure that my books aren't tagged with any obscene words so that they are not rounded up and flagged. This is a sly warning -- an invitation to a clever dodge -- but I can't do such a thing in good conscience.
Instead, out of protest, I have tagged ALL of my books, even the ones that are basically innocent, with dangerous words -- "bestiality," "rape," "underage," "incest," "barely legal" -- even though I have specifically been warned not to do this.
I urge other Smashwords authors to join me in tagging books with these offensive concepts, in order to make the point that you cannot cherry-pick the ideas and themes that are appropriate for fiction.
Writers are spiteful animals who actually like dangerous ideas. It is thrilling to produce them. It is thrilling to read them.
NOTE: Yes, it bothers me that child pornography, rape, unwilling incest, and nonconsesual sex with animals exists in the world. However, because I am not a fucking idiot, I don't think that deleting books about these topics will get rid of these problems. I like not being a fucking idiot. It makes the world much nicer for me, and makes me able to enjoy many rare and exquisite things, like liquor chocolates, French novels, Janis Joplin, and writing stories about genetically-engineered, epileptic rodents that are sold as living dildos.
Other people who are not fucking idiots can tell the difference between fantasy and reality. We have a little club. It is called "reading."
Rape is horrible, but nobody is "deleting" rapists here. Instead, we are compounding the world's misery by taking the ax to borderline schizophrenics, cranks, weirdos, perverts, and delusional dreamers like me who have harmed no one and only wish to share their insanity with the world in order to prevent being ruled by this insanity.
How will it feel to have my books deleted from the internet by a credit card company?
My books being deleted from the internet by a credit card company will feel exactly like getting raped by a grizzly bear at a McDonald's Playland while children watch, French fries dangling from their mouths, their diapers filling with green diarrhea.
If I were to write a story about how it would feel, that story would also have to be deleted by Smashwords.
***
The attack on Smashwords really hits me particularly hard, because I was already swallowing my pride when I decided to self-publish my books and stories in the first place.
Sometimes I read about famous authors who "made it" and I see that they had over fifteen rejections for their novel. Or maybe they received over 100 rejection letters for their short stories, enough to wallpaper the room of their garret. Or maybe it took them three sad years to finally place one of their genius short stories in a magazine.
"Okay," I told myself after ten years of writing stories and a hundred completed tales that no one wanted. "So I am not really meant to be a writer. And yet I can't stop doing it. What does this mean?"
After I finished writing my second novel, the first book in my epic fantasy series about psychics, cockroaches, and unicorns, I accepted my lot in life: "No one likes your books very much, it seems. But the good people at Smashwords will let you publish them there for free, and maybe once you have made some money, you can go out and fund a print edition for your friends to have. Then your friends will be able to read your stories, at least. You will be able to sleep at night, and carry on with the sad business of writing the sequels to an epic series that no one wanted in the first place."
For a brief period, I had an agent. She shopped my novel around to all of the publishing houses in NYC, and they all turned me down. Then, she stopped being an agent out of sadness and frustration, apologized profusely to me, and we had tea together.
A very good friend convinced me to submit my book to an entirely different agent: some young go-getter with pizazz or some shit. After three months of silence, so long that I had completely forgotten about him, he sent me this letter:
"I'm shamefaced to have kept you waiting so long on a response to this. I really don't have any other excuse than the size of my reading load -- but still, three months is too long, and I'm sorry. Thank you for your patience and understanding. To cut right to the chase, this is is quite literally like nothing I've ever read before, both for better and for worse. Which is to say, it was a refreshing change from the predictable stuff that usually comes across my desk. But it's also just not really my kind of book. I don't think it even is a "kind" of book (or if it is, I've never read those kinds of books). I admire your talent and most of all your imagination, but I quite literally have no idea who would publish this. Which is not to say someone won't -- only that it's far enough outside of the kind of fiction I tend to represent that I wouldn't know what to do with it. It's a crazy book, but I'm honestly not sure if I mean crazy-good or crazy-crazy when I say that."
So, after being called "crazy-crazy" by a literary agent and told to go to hell -- basically -- I realized that my work provoked in East Coast elites the same emotions that my physical presence often provokes: fear and confusion. I remembered a piece of advice that my very good friend Chris Nicholas, Austin independent publishing's famous "Uncle Staple," told me once:
"Nobody likes it when you are smarter than them and you don't have more money."
So! Why try to be liked at all? Smashwords would be the place where I would instead build my world, all on my own, with help from no one but my pals.
I guess some part of me knew that this couldn't last forever. And now the credit card companies are trying to dismantle this plucky publishing platform that seems right on the cusp of breaking free and posing a legitimate threat to Amazon, Apple, and Google's initiatives.
Do I think I am some great, genius writer who deserves special treatment? No, not really.
(I mean: sometimes in the shower I think this.)
But do I think I deserve to have my books deleted from the internet by credit card companies?
He ends his letter with: "Let's start a little fire, shall we?"
Yes, let's do that.
Share my rage a little bit with me for just one quiet moment. Imagine how you would feel after being rejected by every single publisher in your language. Imagine how you would feel if you then swallowed all the hate and bitterness in your heart, did judo on it, and started the hard business of making your own publishing empire out of your own works, aligning yourself with the biggest publisher at "the bottom" who was not actually going to charge you for the privilege of making books.
And then, imagine how you would feel if credit card companies found out where you were hiding and said that you had to find some place else to share your work -- that you didn't deserve any money for the decade of work that you put into your stories, even if you did all the publishing work yourself?
How would you feel about that? Would you be angry? Would you want people to stand up for you?
Don't pick on Smashwords, credit card companies. They do good work for bad people. I know they have the exact opposite of your business model, but try to understand them.
HOW YOU CAN HELP:
Here is a petition that somebody made. Petitions aren't as good as sharing this story with everybody that you know, but then again, probably everybody that you know doesn't want to read Mark Coker's call to action or my angry screed.
Posted by miracle
on Mon, 05 Mar 2012 18:00:04 -0500 -- permanent link
Mark Coker's Letter to Smashwords Authors Regarding Paypal's Censorship Demands by Miracle Jones
Smashwords Author/Publisher Update - March 2, 2012
In case you haven't heard, about two weeks ago, PayPal contacted Smashwords and gave us a surprise ultimatum: Remove all titles containing bestiality, rape or incest, otherwise they threatened to deactivate our PayPal account. We engaged them in discussions and on Monday they gave us a temporary reprieve as we continue to work in good faith to find a suitable solution.
PayPal tells us that their crackdown is necessary so that they can remain in
compliance with the requirements of the banks and credit card associations (likely Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, though they didn't mention them by name).
PayPal is asking us to censor legal fiction. Regardless of how one views topics of rape, bestiality and incest, these topics are pervasive in mainstream fiction.
We believe this crackdown is really targeting erotica writers. This is unfair,
and it marks a slippery slope. We don't want credit card companies or financial institutions telling our authors what they can write and what readers can read.
Fiction is fantasy. It's not real. It's legal.
THE SOLUTION:
There's no easy solution. Legally, PayPal and the credit card companies probably have the right to decide how their services are used. Unfortunately, since they're the moneyrunners, they control the oxygen that feeds digital commerce.
Many Smashwords authors have suggested we find a different payment processor. That's not a good long term solution, because if credit card companies are behind this, they'll eventually force crackdowns elsewhere. PayPal works well for us. In addition to running all credit card processing at the Smashwords.com store, PayPal is how we pay all our authors outside the U.S. My conversations with PayPal are ongoing and have been productive, yet I have no illusion that the road ahead will be simple, or that the outcome will be favorable.
BUILDING A COALITION OF SUPPORT:
Independent advocacy groups are considering taking on the PayPal censorship case.
I'm supporting the development of this loose-knit coalition of like-minded groups who believe that censorship of legal fiction should not be allowed. We will grow the coalition. Each group will have its own voice and tactics I'm working with them because we share a common cause to protect books from censorship. Earlier today I had conversations with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) and the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC). I briefed them on the Smashwords/PayPal situation, explained the adverse affect this crackdown will have on some of our authors and customers, and shared my intention to continue working with PayPal in a positive manner to move the discussion forward.
I will not be on the streets with torch in hand calling for PayPal's head, but
I will encourage interested parties to get involved and speak their piece. This is where you come in...
HOW YOU CAN HELP:
Although erotica authors are being targeted, this is an issue that should concern all indie authors. It affects indies disproportionately because indies are the ones pushing the boundaries of fiction. Indies are the ones out there publishing without the (fading) protective patina of a "traditional publisher" to lend them legitimacy. We indies only have each other.
Several Smashwords authors have contacted me to stress that this censorship affects women disproportionately. Women write a lot of the erotica, and they're also the primary consumers of erotica. They're also the primary consumers of mainstream romance, which could also come under threat if PayPal and the credit card companies were to overly enforce their too-broad and too-nebulous obsenity clauses (I think this is unlikely, but at the same time, why would dubious consent be okay in mainstream romance but not okay in erotica? If your write paranormal, can your were-creatures not get it on with one another, or is that bestiality? The insanity needs to stop here. These are not questions an author, publisher or distributor of legal fiction should have to answer.).
All writers and their readers should stand up and voice their opposition to financialservices companies censoring books. Authors should have the freedom to publishlegal fiction, and readers should have the freedom to read what they want.
These corporations need to hear from you. Pick up the phone and call them. Email them. Start petitions. Sign petitions. Blog your opposition to censorship.
Encourage your readers to do the same. Pass the word among your social networks. Contact your favorite bloggers and encourage them to follow this story. Contact your local newspaper and offer to let them interview you so they can hear a local author's perspective on this story of international significance. If you have connections to mainstream media, encourage them to pick up on the story. Encourage them to call the credit card companies and pose this simple question, "PayPal says they're trying to enforce the policies of credit card companies. Why are you censoring legal fiction?"
Below are links to the companies waiting to hear from you. Click the link and you'll find their phone numbers, executive names and postal mailing addresses.
Be polite, respectful and professional, and encourage your friends and followers to do the same. Let them know you want them out of the business of censoring legal fiction.
Tell the credit card companies you want them to give PayPal permission to sell your ebooks without censorship or discrimination. Let them know that PayPal's policies are out of step with the major online ebook retailers who already accept your books as they are. Address your calls, emails (if you can find the email) and paper letters (yes paper!) to the executives. Post open letters to them on your blog, then tweet and Facebook hyperlinks to your letters. Force the credit card companies to join the discussion about censorship. And yes, express your feelings and opinions to PayPal as well. Don't scream at them. Ask them to work on your behalf to protect you and your readers from censorship. Tell them how their proposed censorship will harm you and your fellow writers.
Starting Sunday, if our email systems can handle it, we will send out an email to several hundred thousand registered Smashwords members who are opted in to receive occasional Smashwords service updates. The email will combine "Read an Ebook Week" with the censorship call to action. Let's start a little fire, shall we?
Thank you for your continuing support of Smashwords. With your help, we can move mountains.
"Who is Trilby Richardson? To her adoptive parents, she's the baby they pulled from a dumpster. To her coach, Mrs. Grinch, she bears a keen resemblance to beings seen during a brush with death. To pastor Jed Trumbull, she shows all the makings of an amazing spiritual warrior. And to Jed's worship leader Dylan Browning, she might spell the end of everything he's ever believed in... "
Posted by miracle
on Wed, 15 Feb 2012 23:17:59 -0500 -- permanent link
The Poetry of Bruce Lee
