History RoleEndingMisdemeanor / Literature

* J.D Barker got in hot water on January 23rd 2024 due to a controversial campaign to promote his newest book, erotic thriller ''Behind a Closed Door''. An email was sent out to numerous Platform/TikTok and Instagram book influencers/reviewers, stating they would be paid to promote the book by photographing or filming "racy" content of themselves, which would be personally reviewed by Barker; suggestions included appearing naked with only the book covering their "naughty bits" and talking about "the most taboo place [they'd] ever had sex". A lot of the reviewers emailed were young women (including a few teenagers), many of whom publicly voiced how "predatory" and "creepy" the email felt, sparking widespread criticism over the sheer inappropriateness of the campaign. Barker apologised, claiming the email was erroneously sent unrevised by his PR firm and he wasn't personally involved, though some people questioned this given Barker co-founded the firm responsible. Three days later, Barker was dropped by his agent, Alec Shane of Writers House, in direct response to the scandal; Barker was also dropped by Kaye Publicity, another company handling some of the novel's marketing (who weren't involved in the email campaign).

** A few years later in April 2024, Barton was yet ''again'' exposed for posing as a Latino person and publishing books under this identity, using the pen name Freydis Moon; they were also accused of harassing other authors online under alternate names and masquerading as a literary agent (these allegations first surfaced in 2021, though at that time there wasn't much conclusive evidence, so Moon/Barton could claim PlausibleDeniability and the allegations got buried). Some of the authors Barton harassed under alternate names were even friends with their Freydis Moon identity. This resulted in Barton losing another agent, their contributions to the ''Devout'' and ''Spectrum'' anthologies being removed, the Queer Indie Awards rescinding awards given to Freydis Moon and disqualifying Barton from receiving any future awards under any of their pen names, and Fae Crate officially cutting ties with Moon, offering refunds for anyone who had purchased boxes containing Moon's books and announcing that the author had signed away their rights to profit (meaning Barton wouldn't make money off anyone who didn't seek a refund).

Being a writer and/or novelist can be a huge responsibility for anyone in the book industry and {{Role Ending Misdemeanor}}s are common because of the risk posed to the publishers and/or literary agents if they stay with someone who engages in misconduct.

Being a writer and/or novelist can be a huge responsibility for anyone in the book industry and {{Role Ending Misdemeanor}}s are common because of the risk posed to the publishers and/or literary agents if they stay with someone who engages in bad behavior.

Here are some [[RoleEndingMisdemeanor cautionary tales]] for people aspiring to become writers and novelists.

* In June 2020, Taylor B. Barton (who also wrote under the names Taylor Brooke and Brooklyn Ray) was widely accused of bullying and making racist remarks towards other authors online. Barton's attempt to apologise was criticised as half-hearted, with many also finding it odd that they announced they would make amends by donating part of the proceeds from book sales to LGBT mental health charity The Trevor Project (given that this didn't address the racism accusations); Barton later admitted they only apologised at the behest of their publishers and argued with people criticising their behaviour, claiming the bullying allegations were false or exaggerated. Consequently, Barton was dropped by their agent and their publishers, Inkyard Press and Carina Press, announced they were discontinuing publication of Barton's latest books, ''The Ninth Life'' and ''Full Moon in Leo''. Things then took a bizarre turn when Barton was exposed for trying to pass themselves off as a Latino author named Jupiter Wyse (Barton is white), which resulted in them being dropped by their new agent Tara Gilbert in March 2021; Gilbert stated that she had never met Wyse in person and that they'd claimed they were uncomfortable about appearing via video chat due to dysmorphia, nor did they tell Gilbert about their previous publications and pen names.

* Jewish horror writer Zachary Rosenberg was dropped by several publishers, had his stories delisted from Amazon, and was dis-invited from several horror anthologies after, in April 2024, he was accused by several authors and former friends of lying, bullying, falsely accusing female editors of anti-semitism for turning his stories down, forcing co-writers to include lesbian BDSM sex scenes, threatening publishers with lawsuits should they not pick his stories up, and for manipulatively abusing and dismissing up-and-coming writers in an attempt to increase his social status. While he seemed to apologize, a myriad of factors prevented most from seeing it as genuine, thanks to the excuses and shifting of blame laced through it.

* J.D Barker got in seriously hot water on January 23rd 2024 due to a controversial campaign to promote his newest book, erotic thriller ''Behind a Closed Door''. An email was sent out to numerous Platform/TikTok and Website/{{Instagram}} book influencers/reviewers, stating they would be paid to promote the book by photographing or filming "racy" content of themselves, which would be personally reviewed by Barker; suggestions included appearing naked with only the book covering their "naughty bits" and talking about "the most taboo place [they'd] ever had sex". A lot of the reviewers emailed were young women (including a few teenagers), many of whom publicly voiced how "predatory" and "creepy" the email felt, sparking widespread criticism over the sheer inappropriateness of the campaign. Barker apologised, claiming the email was erroneously sent unrevised by his PR firm and he wasn't personally involved, though some people questioned this given Barker co-founded the firm responsible. Three days later, Barker was dropped by his agent, Alec Shane of Writers House, in direct response to the scandal; Barker was also dropped by Kaye Publicity, another company handling some of the novel's marketing (who weren't involved in the email campaign).

* In 2020, Myke Cole was accused of sexual harassment by several women, resulting in his debut comic book series ''Hundred Wolves'' being cancelled before its release by Vault Comics, the planned sequel to his 2019 novel ''Sixteenth Watch'' being abandoned by publisher Angry Robot and Cole being dropped by his literary agency. This wasn't the first time he'd been accused of inappropriate behaviour towards women; Cole was previously named as a serial harasser of women at conventions in 2018. At that time he'd apologised for his behaviour, donated money to the Time's Up movement and stated he would work on himself, but the later allegations suggested he hadn't learned his lesson. An ex-girlfriend claimed that in private he would belittle and dismiss those who had accused him of harassment, nor did he follow through on his promise to cut back his drinking (Cole had stated many of the harassment incidents occurred while he'd been drinking heavily). It also didn't help that Cole's first response to the new allegations was to just post a link to his 2018 apology. Needless to say, Cole's publishers and agent weren't impressed. He has written a few non-fiction books since then, but has had no new speculative fiction novels published.

* Jewish horror writer Zachary Rosenberg was dropped by several publishers, had his stories delisted from Amazon, and was dis-invited from several horror anthologies when, in April 2024, he was accused by several authors and former friends of lying, bullying, falsely accusing female editors of anti-semitism for turning his stories down, forcing co-writers to include lesbian BDSM sex scenes, threatening publishers with lawsuits should they not pick his stories up, and for manipulatively abusing and dismissing up-and-coming writers in an attempt to increase his social status. Rosenberg attempted to post an apology for his actions online, but those who've read it have pointed out that it never once contained any instance of him actually apologizing.

* Jewish horror writer Zachary Rosenberg was dropped by several publishers, had his stories delisted from Amazon, and was dis-invited from several horror anthologies when, in April 2024, he was accused by several authors and former friends of lying, bullying, falsely accusing female editors of anti-semitism for turning his stories down, forcing co-writers to include lesbian BDSM sex scenes, threatening publishers with lawsuits should they not pick his stories up, and for manipulatively abusing and dismissing up-and-coming writers in an attempt to increase his social status. Zachary attempted to post an apology online for his actions, but those who've read it pointed out that it never once contained any instance of him actually apologizing.

* Jewish horror writer Zachary Rosenberg was dropped by several publishers, had his stories delisted from Amazon, and was dis-invited from several horror anthologies when, in April 2024, he was accused by several authors and former friends of lying, bullying, falsely accusing female editors of anti-semitism for turning his stories down, forcing co-writers to include lesbian BDSM sex scenes, threatening publishers with lawsuits should they not pick his stories up, and for manipulatively abusing and dismissing up-and-coming writers in an attempt to increase his social status.

* Jessica Cluess (known for the ''Literature/KingdomOnFire'' series) was dropped by her literary agent Brooks Sherman in December 2020, due to controversial Twitter posts she'd made in response to a tweet by Lorena Germán; Germán's tweet questioned whether classic literature written before TheFifties was still relevant enough to be required reading in schools and suggesting the texts be switched with more recent literature. Cluess' tweets defending the classics were exceptionally hostile towards Germán, including repeatedly insulting her intelligence; Germán responded that she'd made the original post from an academic stance, but that Cluess' tweets felt more like personal attacks. Cluess deleted the tweets and posted a public apology to Germán a day later, but shortly after Sherman announced Cluess was no longer a client as he viewed her behaviour as "racist and unacceptable". The incident also apparently resulted in Cluess' book ''War of Dragons'' being dropped or delayed by the publisher; it was supposed to come out in 2021 (with a cover and synopsis being released, and advanced reader copies sent out), but the release date came and went with no news.

* In June 2020, Taylor B. Barton (who also wrote under the names Taylor Brooke and Brooklyn Ray) was widely accused of bullying and making racist remarks towards other authors online. Barton's attempt to apologise was criticised as half-hearted, with many also finding it odd that they announced they would make amends by donating part of the proceeds from book sales to LGBT mental health charity The Trevor Project (given that this didn't address the racism accusations); Barton later admitted they only apologised at the behest of their publishers and argued with people criticising their behaviour, claiming the bullying allegations were false or exaggerated. Consequently, Barton was dropped by their agent and their publishers, Inkyard Press and Carina Press, announced they were discontinuing publication of Barton's latest books, ''The Ninth Life'' and ''Full Moon in Leo''. Things then took a bizarre turn when Barton was exposed for trying to pass themselves off as a Latino author named Jupiter Wyse (Barton is white), which resulted in them being dropped by their new agent Tara Gilbert in March 2021; Gilbert stated that she had never seen Wyse in person as they claimed they were uncomfortable about appearing via video due to dysmorphia.

* Jessica Cluess (known for the ''Literature/KingdomOnFire'' series) was dropped by her literary agent Brooks Sherman in December 2020, due to controversial Twitter posts she'd made in response to a tweet by Lorena Germán, questioning whether classic literature written before TheFifties was still relevant enough to be required reading in schools and suggesting the texts be switched with more recent literature. Cluess' tweets defending the classics were exceptionally hostile towards Germán, including repeatedly insulting her intelligence; Germán responded that she'd made the original post from an academic stance, but that Cluess' tweets felt more like personal attacks. Cluess deleted the tweets and posted a public apology to Germán a day later, but shortly after Sherman announced Cluess was no longer a client as he viewed her behaviour as "racist and unacceptable". The incident also apparently resulted in Cluess' book ''War of Dragons'' being dropped or delayed by the publisher; it was supposed to come out in 2021 (with a cover and synopsis being released, and advanced reader copies sent out), but the release date came and went with no news.

* Author Chuck Wendig was hired by [=LucasBooks=] in 2014 to write stories for the new ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'', beginning with the ''[[Literature/StarWarsTheAftermathTrilogy Aftermath Trilogy]]'' (2015 - 2017). He was set to write another ''Star Wars'' novel and was writing the five-issue comic series ''Shadow of Vader'' for Marvel Comics, but on October 12th 2018 it was reported Wendig had been fired by Marvel, with ''Shadow of Vader'' being [[OrphanedSeries cancelled two issues in]] and the planned novel pulled from the schedule, and he hasn't written anything for the ''Star Wars EU'' since. While Marvel didn't give an official reason, Wendig stated he was fired because Marvel deemed his social media posts (particularly in the then-recent aftermath of Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation to the US Supreme Court, which Wendig opposed due to Kavanaugh having been accused of serial sexual misconduct) to be excessively vulgar and hostile, negatively overshadowing his work.

* Jessica Cluess (known for the ''Literature/KingdomOnFire'' series) was dropped by her literary agent Brooks Sherman in December 2020, due to controversial Twitter posts she'd made in response to a tweet by Lorena Germán, questioning whether classic literature written before TheFifties was still relevant enough to be required reading in schools and suggesting the texts be switched with more recent literature. Cluess' tweets defending the classics were exceptionally hostile towards Germán, including repeatedly insulting her intelligence; Germán responded that she'd made the original post from an academic stance, but that Cluess' tweets felt more like personal attacks. Cluess deleted the tweets and posted a public apology to Germán a day later, but shortly after Sherman announced Cluess was no longer a client as he viewed her behaviour as "racist and unacceptable".

'''[[Administrivia/NoRecentExamplesPlease There is a two-week waiting period (after the termination of a role) before an example can be added.]]''' This ensures the job loss is accurately reported, actually sticks and avoids knee-jerk reactions. This includes "sneaking" the entries onto the pages ahead of time by adding them and then just commenting them out.