The Dear Author/Jane Litte Defense Fund

If you're a regular reader of my blog or involved in the erotica community, you should know by now that Tina Engler, in her capacity as the primary owner of Ellora's Cave, Inc., has sued Jennifer Gerrish-Lampe, aka Jane Litte,of the popular blog Dear Author for defamation.

In my opinion, Jennifer didn't say anything that many other bloggers weren't already talking about--the death spiral of EC and its causes. For a company in the perfect position to take advantage of the e-book explosion, EC has failed to capitalize on the market changes. Personally, I think that Engler's desperate to shut up her critics, but going after an attorney wasn't the brightest move. Speaking from experience, if an attorney is sued or threatened with a lawsuit, we have a tendency to laugh and pull out the guns.

However, a lawsuit is still fucking expensive because no attorney in her right mind will represent herself in a case, and she definitely has to pay the other attorney. One nice thing is we generally know who the best in the business is. The second nice thing is the attorney we hire may cut us a deal on her rates. But the costs still mount up, and Jennifer's already put aside $20,000 of her own money to fight this case.

Sad to say, she's going to need a lot more to fight this. Sarah Wendell of the blog, Smart Bitches, Trashy Books has started a GoFundMe campaign for donations to help with the battle.

I'm going to make a statement that I hope my regular readers and new visitors understand:

I'm all for good snark, and I personally think both Jennifer and Sarah cross from snarkiness to downright meanness too much on their respective turfs, but I will defend to death their right to say whatever opinions they want on their own GODDAMN BLOGS!

Which means I'll be donating to the defense fund after I (hopefully) close on our house this week.

Bloggers, writers and readers shouldn't fear a lawsuit for criticizing publishers in public.

Angry Sheep, signing off