When Books Go Sour

Everyone has their right to their opinion. But nobody has the right to be offended. Point in question ~ Three years ago complaints were made about non-fiction kindle books  being too...markety? Is that the right word?
Well, a whole bunch of marketers were producing books of the public domain variety that gave readers no value.

It was regurgitated out-dated information.

Hence when you kindle publish it asks if this is public domain or original work. That's why you have to answer that question, punishable by death if you give the wrong answer.

But also, what I've learned is the books were pulled because of the tags used. So if you want to tag your book as "this may be a little bit hot--read with caution" you got punished for being honest.

Is the answer to lie?

No.

Back to having no right to be offended. Here's what I mean: Everything can be taken as an offense. You can be offended by the mother breast feeding her child. You can be offended by the line cutter or the place holder in line. You can be offended by a joke. You can be offended by a word. But demanding that you NOT BE offended is just not possible. Because offense taken is like opinions. Everyone has one some time.

Have you ever tried to please everyone? It doesn't work. Neither does trying to NOT OFFEND everyone. There's always going to be an Jesse Jackson screaming at you because hell and damnation ~ you offended God.

My goal is not to offend you. It's okay to hate me. I don't mind. I'm going to pay attention to those who love me. I'll be listening to those people. The people who understand that I'm not here to offend them and those not looking to be offended, and those who forgive me and ask me questions as to why I offended them are going to retain my focus.

What does this have to do with the publishing process?

Plenty.

When you publish you will have to take a stand. Even on cookbooks, you have to be able to know what your genre is and where you stand on subjects. Vegans will boycott your Meat Master's Barbeque book. Schools will boycott your YA because somebody kissed a girl on the cheek. Inspirational books will be called "a bunch of metaphysical bull honkey".

Are you going to stop publishing those books? Are you going to try and please everyone? Are you going to back down when someone gets offended?

I'll be publishing another three books by Patricia A. Knight. Anyone who says her stories are just erotica with no substance, didn't read it. 

You would think a power such as Amazon has the ability to take a stand. Looks like they fall for anything.

ACTION ITEM: Reassess what you stand for. If you have a back-bone, join us--we have brownies.

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