I belonged to a group called Dirty Discourse for a little while because I heard they offer promotions and author support.
When I brought the page stuffing up to them after having watched a youtube video where an author explained it — they were categorically onboard with the concept among other things that I found appalling.
Needless to say, I canceled my subscription and left.
Here’s the bottom line.
Real artists, real authors, would never engage in practices that throw over the system to the detriment of other authors. For generations, economics has been used in ways that suppress minority voices from entertainment to real estate.
While I would write and have written, characters of color, I would never write an entire cast of people of color mostly out of the desire to see people of color tell their stories from their perspective.
In short, I’m not qualified to write stories from the perspective of a life I’ve never lived.
I would never hire ghostwriters, I would never stuff pages in books because I believe in ethics. Making a lot of money sounds great. But I would never make money at the expense of fellow artists be they a single mom, a single dad, a hardworking dreamer like myself wanting to put out quality stories. People who are out here trying hard to tell their truth, working hard, and should be properly compensated for it.
The Santino Hassle’s of the world, the Josh Lanyon’s of the world (Who btw is back writing) have taking something that doesn’t belong to them and made a bunch of money off of it while using economics to stifle those who’s stories actually deserve to see the light of day but who are unfortunately relegated to the ass end of the Amazon Rankings.