Talkin' Smack & Flippin' Dollars

2/7/2013 0 Comments

Talkin' Smack & Flippin' Dollars

While I would assume you're perfect in every way and everybody loves you, you might've come across an insult some point in your life. In fact, if you have a social profile, I bet you've seen a little slip come through. That is, although you'd striven for a clean profile page, someone either insulted you publicly dismissed your thoughts, or simply made a comment you didn't want the bulk of your friends to see.

In most scenarios, people either report, delete, or challenge the comment. However, when your business is writing (which emphasizes the idea of Free Speech), your choices are really ignore or conquer. Today, though, I came across an author who started to receive nasty remarks and decided to run with them.

See how.

"The Racist Sexist Homophobic Dipshit "

John Scalzi, author of the Old Man's War series and Redshirts and president of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, recently encountered quite a bit of trolling on his site and pages and decided to do something about it.

The comments started to pour in from one particular visitor and his followers, often calling Scalzi "McRapey" among other nicknames. These insults derived from a satirical post he made on his site, in which he plays the part of a rapist in an attempt to address conservative politicians for their perspective on abortion & birth control.

Scalzi decided to donate $5 USD every time the "The Racist Sexist Homophobic Dipshit " comments on the site, up to $1,000 USD. That's about 200 insults per year.

Since Scalzi is a highly recognized author in the Science Fiction & Fantasy genres, many people started to join in and pledge. Will Wheaton even joined the race (see Star Trek Next Generation). Now the pledge is up to $50,000 USD for RAINN, Emily's List, the Human Rights Campaign, and NAACP.

And in case his unfriendly visitor becomes privy to the act, Scalzi has asked that every contributor donate 5% no matter what - in order to make sure the charities still benefit.

Pretty cool, huh?

Giveaway -Win a library of books.

Those of us behind Somewhere in the Shadows decided to put together a sweet little giveaway.

If you're a boss, you'll win a copy of every book in the contest.

If you're a middleman, you'll win a book of your choice and an eBook of Somewhere in the Shadows.

If you're the muscle, you might squeeze your way into third place, which is a copy of the anthology.