How to Kill Your Writing Career in Five Easy Steps

1) Trademark a single word that isn't even the name of your series.

2) Steal someone else's intellectual property and illegally use it in your trademark.

3) Send your own cease and desist letters over the single word to small-fry authors using the word instead of paying your attorney to do so.

4) Try to avoid the blowback from the C&D letters by sending DCMA notices to Amazon.

5) Piss off the indie writer community by doubling down when you're called on being a trademark troll on said community.


If you're an indie writer, you've heard about Faleena Hopkins and #cockygate by now. One thing I can say about indies is they are a very supportive group.

Unless you decide to be a trademark troll.

We artists get enough of this shit from big corporations who think we can't fight back. Not long ago, MCA Hogarth was attacked by Games Workshop over the generic sf term "space marine". So when one our own does something stupid, our reactions range from Jenny Trout's WTF Faleena! to Cassie Sharp's Sweetie, you need to get some real friends.

Others actually took action. Some authors like Jamila Jasper went public with the letter she received. Jamila then used #cockygate to promote her renamed book. RWA contacted Amazon about the issue as a blatant attack on their membership. Several members then created a "cocky" anthology to help with the attorney fees (the book was released on Saturday, May 26th). Then there's writer/attorney Kevin Kneupper, who filed to cancel Faleena's trademark.

All this happened before I started writing this post. A death in the family last week  meant I came back to finish it five days later. And even more shit had happened.

Faleena stupidly thought filing a personal injury lawsuit against Kevin, Tara Crescent, and Jennifer Watson would make things go away. Mark Marcotte, a lawyer whose case is cited in Faleena's lawsuit as precedent, says Faleena's lawyer badly misstates his case (@markmarcotte on Twitter).

My favorite part was Faleena claiming she called Carol Ritter of RWA on May 16th and was pissed that Carol referred the call to RWA's counsel. Umm, if your already threatening to file lawsuits against people left and right, why on earth would anyone trust you to just talk?

There was a damn good reason Ms. Ritter didn't talk to Faleena. The cocky indie writer lost on her attempt at a Temporary Restraining Order last Friday on the Cocktales anthology. The Preliminary Injunction will be heard this morning.

The good thing to come out of this mess is that more writers are paying attentiion to trademark and copyright listings and trying to understand their rights and responsibilities. I'm not saying trademarks are a bad thing. If Faleena had trademarked the actual name of her series, instead of ripping off Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward's cover style and title, this would be an entirely different matter.

The bad thing is we have more idiots who don't understand, don't care, or just want to troll other authors in an effort to eliminate what they perceive as the competition.

I'll say this one more time: people can read more than we can write as individuals no matter how speedy we are. It's not a zero sum game. And if you need tricks to "win", maybe you're a sucky writer, and you should focus more on your craft to win the readers over.

- Angry Sheep, stepping off her soapbox.

Games Workshop Rights Bullying Hits a New Low

[Editor's note: Hogarth's Spots the Space Marine is back up on Amazon. It had been removed after Games Workshop sent Amazon a DMCA notice earlier this week back in December. Legal lesson, folks--DMCA applies to COPYRIGHT, NOT TRADEMARKS. (My apologies for the incorrect date regarding the DMCA notice.)]

M.C.A. Hogarth is an incredible writer and a brilliant artist. She wrote, among many other things, a story called Spots the Space Marine.

For those of you who aren't SF fans, the term "space marine" has been around forever. Okay, maybe not forever, but at least sixty years. The company Games Workshop decided to trademark a commonly used SF term.

Then they decided to go after folks who used the term, but not just any folks. They didn't go after the estate of Robert Heinlein or John Ringo. No, they went after folks they thought wouldn't or couldn't fight back. Like M.C.A. Hogarth.

Several folks have dealt with this issue far more extensively than I could. John Scalzi gives his usual acerbic breakdown of the term in literature. Angela Benedetti adds her two-cents as a game writer. Cory Doctorow has his own snarky take at Boing Boing. C.E. Petit gives some legal thoughts over at Scrivener's Error.

For M.C.A. to fight this, it's going to take money. A lot of it. If you'd like to support her, here a few things you can do:

Buy Spots the Space Marine. It's still available at Smashwords.
Buy her artwork or drop a tip in her tip jar.
Buy her books at Amazon.
Buy her other books at Smashwords.

Thank you in advance for supporting another writer!

P.S. If Spots isn't your cup of tea, I highly recommend Claws and Starships!