The issue is that people are cavalierly waving the word scammer at anyone who doesn't look like them or sign on to their current crusade. If you're not for them, you're against them. If you aren't doing anything wrong, then you have nothing to worry about.
Welcome to the current political landscape. Maybe you haven't noticed, but this is happening in just about every aspect of our lives and not just in the indie publishing world. Say that you don't appreciate Brie Larson's comments about 40-year-old white dudes and you won't go see her movie and you branded a misogynist and a sexist. Disagree with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and you are called a Nazi and a racist. This is the world we live in until sanity regains a footing in the public discourse, because right now, the loonies are running the asylum.
Sad, but true.
So it seems to me the answer for writers in this instance is to focus on our own page and tend to our own business. If Phoenix and David G are good at sussing out bad actors in self publishing, then let them do that and stop leading the charge ourselves.
The battle cry when anyone stepped up, held up their hand and said "hold on a minute" was immediately shouted down with accusations of being scammers because they were supporting scammers, when all they wanted was for people to stop for a minute, take a breath and think about what they were saying and how it was easily starting to spin out of control in vitriol, rhetoric and hysteria.
They were told 'if this doesn't apply to you, don't worry about it, if you are worried about it, well then [wink nudge]'. I'm sure the author that was crucified in the court of public opinion only to have the accuser back off after the fact feels
much better now.
I'm not angry with you dgcasey. I promise. What you say is true and was sort of my tirade launching point. I'm angry at how this situation spun so crazily out of control, again, and how no one was thinking straight when they started with their hysterical shrieking with their hair on fire about all the scamming behavior when it was obvious they had no idea what they were saying. They were just parroting back what they were told as they were whipped into a frenzy by someone who should have known better.
I watched it happen in real time. It was horrifying. And all I could think about was all the times people were shouted down when they tried to defend, not scammers, but the legitimate author business models that were getting creamed and labeled as scamming, told that innocent people getting accused never happens. Or it rarely happens.
And to watch someone, someone in law, say, 'well, innocent people might end up getting hurt in these discussions' is outrageous. An innocent person was hurt. That's a disgrace.
Who knows when it will be one of them.
It's done now. The torchfires are simmering. I'm back to having a really good think on whether I even want to do this now. I love writing. I have stories to tell. I'd love to share them. I'm not a monster if I'd actually like to make back the investment of time, energy and money output to publish them and plan to use the accepted business practices to do so. Once I can figure out what those are. Judging from Nora's comments on her five posts, that really isn't clear any more.
The cost to do so rose exponentially these past few days with the implied threat that at any time I can fall under someone's gaze and I'll get thrown to the wolves with nothing as much as a 'wow, sorry about that, I was wrong' when I'm proven innocent.