Bloggers - Help Author Advocates!

Dawno · Jun 29, 2008

Some of you may have clicked on the announcement I posted the other day, but I'm going to paste it here for reference anyway:

Dear fellow AW members,

On September 20, 2007 Barbara Bauer filed suit in New Jersey against a list of defendants, including several of our AW colleagues. Defending oneself against a lawsuit is expensive, and many of the author advocates being sued could use help to pay the many legal costs involved, which are adding up over these past 9 months.

I've set up a PayPal site where you can donate to help these writers with their legal fees. Any amount is welcome. Any fees assessed by PayPal will be covered, so your full donation goes to the legal defense fund. All funds will be disbursed directly to the defendant's attorneys in equal shares.

I hope you will click the link in my signature and donate today.

If you wish to put a similar link in your blog or on your website, please PM me with your email address and I'll send you the full HTML to put the donation button on your site.

You can also add a donation link to your signature, again, just PM me for the URL.

Thank you for your help!

Dawno

Several of the advocates being sued asked me to manage this fund. So far I've gotten a grand total of $20 in donations. (Update: got another $20 just now! - thanks!)

These author advocates tirelessly, and voluntarily, put themselves out there every day on behalf of all writers and now they need our help. While a number of them are active members of this board, some are bloggers who made their thoughts known during our shutdown about the Plaintiff and got sued for it.

How can you help, other than donating (which would be nice - even $5.00)? Would you think about looking up the facts of the case, reading other blogs about the issues and get the word out? Please feel free to post the donation button on your sites, too, but if you don't want to, it's on my blog at www.dawnonowyouseeit.blogspot.com and you can link there if you'd like. I don't care about traffic and as soon as I can, I'll be setting up a separate web-page for donations. But these authors need your help.

Thanks!

Rolling Thunder · Jun 29, 2008

I don't blog, but I made a donation.

Dawno · Jun 29, 2008

Thank you! Bumping the thread helps,too

alleycat · Jun 29, 2008

You just got another donation. And another bump.

Dawno · Jun 29, 2008

w00t!! Thank you, alleycat!

wyntermoon · Jun 29, 2008

Currently donating and I'll PM you for the code for my blogs/MySpace page.

Dawno · Jul 1, 2008

Jus' a little bumping here ... hoping that showing up on the front page of the new posts index will get a few new contribs. The current balance is $170 (that's maybe an hour's worth of lawyer time). Our advocates need your help.

Bloggers, in this case the decision is very important to us. The advocates aren't just fighting for author's rights, but the outcome of this lawsuit is important for anyone who, for example, posts about things like the SFWA Writer Bewares list of agencies to watch for, on their blogs/websites, too.

You don't have to donate to help - you just have to help get the word out!

WendyNYC · Jul 1, 2008

I made a donation and will link it to my blog as soon as I update it.

Dawno · Jul 1, 2008

Breaking news: http://m.app.com/news.jsp?key=81411&rc=newsu

Please note that this is only a dismissal of the case against Wikipedia Foundation.

L M Ashton · Jul 2, 2008

Personally, I'd love to see us bloggers at AW do some kind of a blogging blitz about this, you know? There's some really good karma in this!

The way I see it, I think there are a few different issues involved in this that can be tackled, i.e., blogged about. There's the legal fund and why it's needed, top twenty scamming agents, bad agent practices, the way publishing really works, that sort of thing. For that matter, we could hold a blogging event once a month on one of the subtopics until we run out, all of which have links/buttons to the legal fund.

What do you think? Yes? No? I'm all for organizing the event(s). But I'll need a bit of help in collecting related links so we can educate our would-be bloggers on the topic(s) at hand and also for a starting point for them.

What say ye?

Georganna Hancock · Jul 2, 2008

Yes, I blogged about it when I discovered Preditors & Editors/owner is named iin the suit. You can find a button on my blog to contribute through PayPal to the P&E defense fund too. Although I don't advertise it (until now) a percentage of payments from clients who find me through P&E goes to the fund for as long as they need it.

May all the defendants keep up the good work and fight the good fight!

Sarita · Jul 2, 2008

L M Ashton said:
Personally, I'd love to see us bloggers at AW do some kind of a blogging blitz about this, you know? There's some really good karma in this!

I'm in. Let me know how I can help. Off to donate now.

escritora · Jul 2, 2008

Sounds good L M.

Dawno · Jul 3, 2008

bumping - the fund is currently over $200. We've got a ways to go to be really helpful, but every dollar counts!

Thanks for your support, folks.

L M Ashton · Jul 3, 2008

Alrighty then. Not quite the resounding response I was hoping for...

I'd love to get ideas on topics that we could cover and perhaps narrow things down a bit. What would you like to see?

And I know a lot of us blogged about Barbara Bauer and her scummy achievement as a Top Twenty Bad Agent, but I think it helps to revisit these topics since most blog readers don't tend to go through archives and I'd love to raise awareness. I'm always in for raising awareness and exposing scummy practices.

victoriastrauss · Jul 3, 2008

L M Ashton said:
top twenty scamming agents

Last time there was mass blogging about Writer Beware's Thumbs Down Agency List (a.k.a. the Twenty Worst List), many people posted the entire list on their blogs. We now ask that this not be done, for two reasons.

First, the preamble to the list is extremely important, so that people understand why the agencies are on the list. Bloggers who posted the list didn't always bother to post the preamble.

Second, the list changes at least a couple of times a year, due to agencies' name changes, expansions, etc. We'd prefer not to have outdated versions online.

We'd really appreciate it, therefore, if bloggers would post a link to the list, rather than the list itself. (There's now a little note at the bottom of the list saying that it can't be reproduced without permission.)

One last thing: not all the agents on the list are scammers, in the sense of deliberate con artists out to squeeze a buck from unsuspecting writers. Many are simply ignorant or incompetent, and can't run their businesses without their clients' financial support. The bottom line for the writer is the same either way, but the word "scam" is often used much too loosely, in my opinion, and I think it's important to make this distinction.

Thanks!

- Victoria

Dawno · Jul 3, 2008

Thank you, Victoria - those are extremely important points to make.

alleycat · Jul 3, 2008

Dawno said:
bumping - the fund is currently over $200. We've got a ways to go to be really helpful, but every dollar counts!

Thanks for your support, folks.

How 'bout this, I'll chip in enough to immediately double that. I feel strongly about helping those who are willing to put themselves at risk to "stand on the wall" and protect others.

Give me a few minutes to log into PayPal.

Dawno · Jul 3, 2008

Wow, alleycat! Thank you!

alleycat · Jul 3, 2008

It's on it's way. You should receive a confirmation shortly.

jerrywaxler · Jul 3, 2008

Another donation coming at you

It's amazing all the wonderful informational services we share for free on the internet. Every once in a while, it's humbling to realize that someone who has been out "there" serving our interests needs our help.

Jerry

Dawno · Jul 3, 2008

Thank you, Jerry!

L M Ashton · Jul 3, 2008

Victoria, thanks for the comments - I appreciate the input.

Dawno · Jul 4, 2008

Lee Goldberg has posted http://leegoldberg.typepad.com/a_writers_life/2008/07/defend-the-defenders.html

New website to link to: http://authoradvocatedonations.googlepages.com/home

and - this is my 10k post!

alleycat · Jul 5, 2008

I believe this thread needs a tiny little bump . . .

Bloggers - Help Author Advocates!

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