When I made the
USA Today Bestseller List
for the first time,
I was part of a boxed set,
a collection of stories
from different writers.
We shared promotional efforts,
reduced costs
and all of us grew sales.
That’s the upside of
partnering on promotion.
This week,
I learned a painful lesson
about the downside of
partnering on promotion.
One of the writers
in a boxed set
I also participated in
(thankfully not the bestselling
boxed set)
was accused of plagiarism
(and it looks like
she’s guilty).
We rushed to remove
the boxed set
from booksellers
but it is impossible
to delink our names
on the many
review and reader sites.
My pen name,
the pen name I’ve spent years building,
will now forever
be linked to plagiarism.
Be careful whom you partner with.