A bestselling romance writer
went on a blog rant.
It began with how,
when she started publishing,
there wasn’t an online reader community.
She started publishing
four short years ago.
The internet, of course,
tore her post to shreds.
And it should have.
This wasn’t merely ignorant.
It was disrespectful
to the people
who had built
the online reader communities
she sold her books to.
Everything builds.
We might think
we’ve created something new
all by ourselves
but our creation
was built on a base
of other people’s hard work.
Acknowledge that work.
Know what that work was.
Respect it.
If we’re fortunate,
years from now,
someone will build off our work.