I'm a member of a closed group for writers on Facebook. A few days ago, another member boasted that - after no sales on Amazon - he changed the title, author's name, and cover image of his e-book and it started selling.
I've just posted the following comment (I can't separate paragraphs in Facebook comments):
"So, you feel that it's perfectly alright to use a "sexy" image of a headless woman (like a piece of meat) to sell your book. +++ 380 members of Russia's parliament feel that it's perfectly alright for men to beat their wives. They've just decriminalised wife-beating (the vote was 380-3!!!) +++ Thousands of Spanish men feel that it's perfectly alright to kill women with whom they have personal problems. (There's a Spanish saying: "I killed her because she was mine.") So far this year (as of 20th Feb.), 11 of them have carried through. +++ Donald Trump feels that it's perfectly alright - FOR HIM - to make a grab at any woman's genitals. *** Just 4 points on the nasty, sleazy spectrum of misogyny. At least now I'll know to avoid any books by Scott Butcher / Tabitha Scott. But don't worry! You'll get the readers that you deserve."
What do the rest of you think? Is everything permissible to get people to buy your book?
Dear Mr. Hopkins. I seem to have upset you. As I said, I did not mean to say that you are pro-rape yourself, merely that the phrase you used is offensive and we live in a society where that and much worse can be excused as 'locker room talk'. I was expecting some back and forth on discourse analysis and the fine line of free speech but, indeed, rational discussion RIP. My apologies if I embarrassed you but I do hope you shall consider the issue carefully as more than the ramblings of 'nasty woman' and the p.c. police.
Oh, Jonathan, Jonathan, Jonathan!
My flabber is completely gasted, my gob is well and truly smacked. Seldom have I read such a spectacular pratfall. What was that “:D” supposed to mean? “Ha ha, Jimmy, the joke’s on you!”?
When I write that “Readers’ Wives” is an excellent poem, do you honestly think that I mean just those 2 lines? Do you honestly believe that I’m not an admirer of the WHOLE poem? How can you possibly have imagined that I had no idea what the title was referring to???
In short: do you really believe that I’m a complete ignoramus?
A correction on dates: I arrived in Britain in 1973. I left in 1981. John Cooper Clarke’s poem had been famous for several years by then. Even though I never bought those mags, the term “Readers’ Wives” was a byword for sleazy smut long before the poem was written. That would put this section’s origins AT THE LATEST in the 70s. I suspect that it was around in the 60s or even earlier.
I don’t wish to be accused of copyright infringement, so I’m not going to paste the whole (EXCELLENT) poem here. An extremely easy internet search will find the complete poem for you. It doesn't praise the aforementioned mag section: it takes the piss of the slimy losers who contributed to it. Well worth reading.
Your attack on Ms. Fielding puts you beyond the Pale, in my honest opinion. There is nothing of “rational discussion” about defending misogyny or being an apologist for it. Victoria's was no crackpot opinion. We DO live in a rape culture. Rapists are repeatedly being acquitted by juries who "reason" that "She had it coming to her!" / "She was asking for it!" / "Boys will be boys..." When juries DO find rapists guilty, sentences are appallingly light. I remember one judge who declared that the guilty rapist (who'd served in the same regiment as the judge) had "already suffered enough, knowing that you have brought shame on your regiment"... and let him off with a suspended sentence!
Novelists are expected to have at least a modicum of imagination. So, Mr. Hopkins, I invite you to use your modicum and put yourself in that rapist's victim's shoes. How would you feel if a judge told your rapist that HE had suffered enough?
(Signed),
Gobsmacked and Flabbergasted
Ms Fielding, take offence all you want - it seems to be the national pastime of those whose opinions must take precedence in an alternate reality and commonly seen on social media. Rational discussion RIP.
And Jimmy, did you realise the title for that poem was taken from the section heading in an 80s porn mag? A bit non-PC, mate :D