THIS POST WILL BE UPDATED AS AND WHEN I RECEIVE MORE INFORMATION. LEAVE NOTES IN THE COMMENTS HERE.
I’ve decided to go through the list and record who among the guilty have apologised for the LendInk fiasco, mostly because I want the world at large to see who’s doing the right thing. I’m checking this by doing a google search for the author’s name and ‘lendink’ and by trying to find their site and most recent updates. Much obliged to A.B. Dada for his work in getting screenshots – full credit at his site here.
If I mark an author down as ‘nothing’, it means they were involved but I cannot find any apology or further information for them.
UPDATE 8/20/2012 – I’ve received an email from an author who is being harassed and threatened. Although I will not remove any names from this list, I want to say this again: nothing, NOTHING, justifies that kind of behavior. For many of the authors below, to the best of my knowledge, the extent of their involvement was a single tweet or Facebook post and nothing more, unless I have noted otherwise. If you can’t express your displeasure without resorting to harassment, then you are far lower than them and you have my complete and utter contempt.
Some things to note
All of the authors listed posted at least an attack on LendInk on Facebook or Twitter, to the best of my knowledge. Many have deleted those posts and tweets. Many also sent either Cease and Desists or DMCA takedowns to LendInk’s host, though we will never know the full extent of that.
I have seen more godawful websites in the last few hours than I’ve seen in the entire year previous to this. I can count the ones that I would consider at an acceptable minimum standard for a professional site on the fingers of one hand. Authors, please, please get a professional to do your site! There were also more than a few for which I couldn’t find a site at all!
Although all these authors are culpable in some way, please reserve your ire for the ones listed in bold. They are the ones who don’t regret their actions, to the best of my knowledge.
If you believe that the authors listed below who have apologised have done so in good faith, then I ask that you forgive them. They may not deserve a pat on the back for doing the right thing, but they certainly don’t deserve your hate.
One argument was made by John Davis that LendInk did not have permission to display the book covers, hence the takedown was justified. I believe this is false; Amazon’s T&Cs cover this kind of usage. See my comment here.
(As an aside, it looks like the personal attacks are mostly happening on Facebook right now. For shame, people. You can express your feelings about this without resulting to name-calling.)
- Sharon Cathcart – apologized, and donated to the fundraiser to bring LendInk back
- Robin Helm – nothing
- John Davis – apparently posted unrepentant blog post then removed it (screenshot here) – contacted me on Twitter, confirmed that he is unrepentant, and clarified his position.
- Debbie Bennett – apologized
- Shawn Lamb – nothing, apparently posted unrepentant blog post then removed it (main instigator?) Text of the post listed in the comments here. Appears to be trying to hide her actions
- OG Tomes – apparently took the time to Like every last FB post that went off on LendInk, but apologised (in a very long winded fashion here)
- Douglas R. Cobb – in contact with reader, possible apology? Encouraged the hysteria surrounding LendInk
- CG Brumby – apologized, but no mention of whether she retracted the C&D she sent
- Imran Siddiq – apologized, according to Techdirt
- Jeanette Baird Vaughan – unrepentant, then tried to weasel out of the backlash, it seems, with a non-apology. This is apparently the author who tried to organize a class-action lawsuit against LendInk, and she has tried to hide her involvement by deleting Facebook posts. She has accused A.B. Dada of libel for stating the facts about her actions, and attempted to bring a posse from the Lexicon Writers Conference FB group to take him on. (Screenshots have been acquired.) – update, she’s posted again, still using the same non-apology language. See also her comments on this post. According to a FB message I received from her, she has donated to the LendInk fundraiser.
- Helen White – main instigator. Nothing that I can find, has apparently deleted her Twitter account and the blog she started to vilify LendInk and get it taken down. (Screenshots have been acquired). Now assumed to be unrepentant and attempting to hide her involvement.
- Miranda Stork – main instigator. Nothing found. Twitter still active but any reference to LendInk has been purged (Screenshots have been acquired) Now assumed to be unrepentant and attempting to hide her involvement.
- Buck Stienke – unrepentant, and apparently likes to throw around legal threats
- Amber Rose Thompson – accused LendInk of theft. No apology but hasn’t tried to hide the evidence.
- Ken Farmer – accused LendInk of copyright violation. No apology but hasn’t tried to hide the evidence.
- Dawn Sinclair – sought legal action against LendInk. Unrepentant.
- Lisa Bilbrey (Renaissance Publishing) – apologised, but still catching flak for sending a DMCA takedown. No word on whether it’s been retracted.
- Charles Buckett – IDed by A.B. Dada in his comments. Tried to hide his involvement. No apology. Threatened A.B. Dada.
- Jennifer Hanning – apologised
- Joyce Godwin Grubbs – nothing
- Elicia Seawell – sent C&D. Nothing that I can find.
- Tony Riches – nothing
- Kim Cresswell – accused LendInk of not removing non-lendable titles, then… thanked herself for posting?
- Rebecca Treadway – disavows responsibility. Told authors to report LendInk to the FBI.
- Lisa Kz – nothing
- Mari Passananti – has admitted the wrong but not apologised
- Melody Peugh – nothing
- Stephen Dafoe – has admitted his mistake but will not apologise
- Karen Kennedy Samoranos – nothing
- Gerry Huntman – apologised
- Calisa Selfridge – apologised (in the same thread as Gerry Huntman, apparently sent a C&D)
- Rhea Rhodan – nothing
- Kai Starr (Kaichi Satake) – nothing
- Anne Barnhill – nothing
- Bill van Oosten – nothing
- Steve Biddison – nothing (and for extra irony, see his recent post complaining about how the Chick-fil-a thing was blown out of proportion)
- Vicki Batman – nothing
- Theresa Grimm – nothing, but all she said was (and I quote) ‘Pirate site…’
- James F. Ross – nothing
- Scarlet Hunter – nothing
- Alisha Paige – nothing
- Merris Hawk – nothing
- Cathie Dunn – apologised, and donated to the LendInk fundraiser.
- Roscoe James – encouraged authors to report LendInk. Nothing.
- Trish Marie Dawson
- Mark Patton – nothing
- Sandra Peddle – nothing
- Bill Wilbur – nothing
- Rachel Lyndhurst – nothing
- Melinda Hammond – nothing
- David Naughton-Shires – nothing, and there’s a conspicuous gap in his FB feed between July 31st and August 10th
- Electa Scott Graham – deleted her tweets and some FB posts, but seems confused about what went down and was likely lead by other authors. Has sort of apologised – update, donated to the LendInk fundraiser.
- Kate McCormick – nothing
- Seumas Gallacher – nothing, and he attacked LendInk multiple times with the capslock. Also asked if they could make the witch hunt go viral.
- Juliet Cardin – nothing
- Benita Brown – nothing, but she seems to have taken note of the fact that she was wrong
- Julie Parker – nothing
- Jenny Woodall (pen name Victoria Howard) – apologised
- Pam Mangol Bitner – Deleted her FB post threatening LendInk. Nothing that I can find. – update, as per the comments here, she did not send a DMCA notice.
- Liz Ringrose – nothing
- Anne Polhill Walton – nothing. Seems to be unrepentant
- Lesley Cookman – nothing
- M.m. Bennetts – nothing
- Prue Batten – no apology, but has admitted to being misinformed and has posted a list of lending sites on her blog. (Check the comments)
- Chrystalla Thoma – has apparently apologised, but I can’t find the link. Initially said she was glad that LendInk was taken offline. Multiple sources seem sure she was sincere. Update – found an earlier apology.
- Karl Jones – nothing
- Anna Jacobs – accused LendInk of being thieves very loudly. Deleted her FB post. Nothing that I can find.
- Deborah Gafford – nothing. Unrepentant.
- Debra E Marvin – nothing, but all she said was (and I quote) ‘illegal use’.
- Nely Cab – nothing, deleted her FB post
- Tessa Berkley – nothing
- Nan O’Berry – nothing
- Lauren Gilbert – nothing
- Naty Matos – apologised in the comments here, will be donating to the LendInk fundraiser
- Tory Michaels – admitted fault but did not apologise, and apparently is okay with being listed as a bully author because it’s free publicity.
- Cerian Williams Hebert – apologised
- Karen Cino – nothing
- LaVerne Clark – apologised, and may be considering donating part of the proceeds of her next book to LendInk
- Erin Dameron-Hill – nothing
- Kissa Starling – nothing
- Emily Harvale – nothing
- Rosalind Smith-Nazilli – nothing
- Paula Martin – nothing
- Melanie Pearce – was now confused about why she was marked as being a bully author on Goodreads, has now apologised
- Trace Rybarczyk Broyles (writing as Violet Patterson, couldn’t find this one for ages) – nothing
- Trevor Belshaw – nothing
- Pam Howes – nothing
- Deb Harris – nothing
- Gayl Taylor – nothing
- Nanette Del Valle Bradford – nothing
- Ella James – unrepentant. Doesn’t feel she has anything to apologise for (took no action other than email Amazon for info and post on LendInk’s FB – later removed her comment)
- Raven McAllan – nothing (friends with Gayl Taylor, I think. The full text of her deleted FB post was, and I quote, ‘Copyright infringement and theft’)
- Linda Gillard – nothing, and she’s not above asking her friends to downvote 1-star reviews because she doesn’t agree with them. (Screenshots have been acquired) She appears unrepentant, and openly states that ‘This “review” is a response to my insisting that my ebooks be taken off a free download site. The owners of the site never responded, but the site was shut down by massive numbers of author protests.’ No mention of the fact that she was in the wrong.
- Virginia McKevitt – apologised in the comments here
- Morticia Knight – nothing
- Judith Arnopp – nothing
- Heather Nelson – nothing
- Ruth Watson-Morris – nothing
- Rebecca Rynecki – apologised
- Victoria Pearson – nothing
- Maxi Shelton – nothing
- David J Howe – apologised
- Donna Lea Simpson – apologised
- Cassandra Dayne – nothing, insists LendInk was taken down because it was not legit
- Wendy Smith – nothing, sent a C&D
- Richard Goodship – apologised
- Emily Guido – nothing
- Delinda McCann – nothing
- Carol Wills – nothing
- Vanessa Gebbie – nothing, and she still seems rather confused about what LendInk actually did
- Java Davis – nothing
- Bethany Lopez – nothing (and not to be confused with J. Lea Lopez, another author entirely who was not involved in this)
- Michael Robb Mathias – apologised, see the comments on this article
- The WordWatchers Authors group – nothing
- Cliterati Magazine – no idea who to even ask there
One final word on all this.
I want to give a shout out to the authors on Facebook who defended LendInk in the face of the angry hordes. I’m sure that couldn’t have been easy.
- Philip Catshill, for repeating himself endlessly that LendLink was just a referral site and telling them how to use it
- Michelle Poet for her support, and for starting the #DoTheRightThing tag on Twitter
- Alberto Garbino for arguing with them
- Ben Bookbinder for arguing with them
- Martin Dooley for telling them over and over again that they agreed to lending when they signed up to Amazon
- Kinnear David for telling them to use the site and see how it worked
- Doc Mordin for linking the Amazon TOS that points out where it says they’re allowed to lend