Defending My Reputation - And That Of Moon Books

It's upsetting when people publically state defamatory untruths, but that's what's happened. I feel my reputation has been personally affected, as well as that of my publisher, which is the reason I'm writing this post.

I'm a Moon Books' author. Moon Books is an imprint of the publishing company CollectiveInk. Some people with a large online following posted several criticisms of Moon Books, which I'm going to address. The remarks that most upset me were the suggestion that CollectiveInk is a vanity publisher and that authors pay lots on money to have their books published with its imprints. This is untrue.

Moon Books is not a Vanity Publisher

I've never paid to have any of my books published. Full stop. Moon Books does not offer a vanity publishing service. Where the person making the criticism might have got confused is that CollectiveInk does offer two types of contract: most are on the traditional publishing model in that CI shoulders the financial risk of producing the book. All the contracts I have signed for my books are in that category.

If CI gets sent a manuscript the editors really like, but they feel the market is limited, they sometime offer a co-publishing contract and ask for a small subsidy towards production. According to the CI website, about 15% of its titles use these contracts, mainly for fiction. You can check that statement here: https://www.collectiveinkbooks.com/publishing-guide/chapter-6-the-contract/contract-levels/

This is still not the same as vanity publishing. I suspect the people making criticisms didn't understand the difference between the various publishing terms and models. I would also assure my readers that my own first novel, Erosion, has a traditional contract with Moon Books. I did not pay anything towards having it published.

Moon Books Will Never Replace Its Authors with AI Writers

Online critics then asked: "How long before Moon Books does away with authors and uses AI to write its books?" 

Moon Books editor Trevor Greenfield replied: "Never." I believe him. Moon Books just isn't like that. I've been working with Moon since the imprint began, over a decade ago. First I was employed as a freelance copy-editor. I then wrote entries for community books including Paganism 101. After that, I submitted a proposal for Candle Magic, in the Pagan Portals series. I was offered a traditional contract and it was published in 2016. It's now a best-seller. 

Since then I've written four more Pagan Portals titles: Poppets and Magical Dolls, Scrying, Guided Visualisations and Rounding the Wheel of the Year.  I also edited the community book Every Day Magic. 

You can find those titles via my Moon Books author page. As I mentioned earlier, my first fiction title is Erosion and you can also find that on my author page.

I am very much opposed to authors using AI to produce books and then claiming they wrote them rather than a bot doing the work. I will never do that.

Moon Books Does Not Crowdfund Anything

A further untruth was the suggestion that Moon Books crowdfunds its anthologies. Trevor said: "We never have. We never will."  I have both written for and edited anthology-style community books for Moon, and I can confirm the publisher paid all the production and printing costs. It did not seek any crowdfunding money.

Endorsements

A bizarre claim by the critics was that authors are told by the publisher, or even contracted, to endorse other authors's titles, even without reading them. Erm, no. I can assure you that's not true. What happens is that Moon Books authors will often ask fellow writers to read their manuscripts and, if they like them, to endorse them. We're a friendly bunch and regularly chat online and read each others' books. No one is forced to write endorsements though, and I can't imagine anyone writing an endorsement without having actually read the manuscript.

Sex, Lies and Videos

Apologies for paraphrasing an old movie title for that heading. It felt pertinent. The online critics made some comments about Moon's videos:

• Moon Books uses AI to create the scripts for videos (false)
• Moon Books uses a robo voice to narrate them (false)
• Moon Books deliberately sexes up videos for men to watch (false)
• Moon Books uses AI images in some of its videos (true)

The video scripts are written and narrated by a real person. I'm a bit baffled by the suggestion that the videos are sexed up for men to watch. 

However, apparently Moon Books has used AI to create a few images in some marketing videos. This is the only true criticism in the list. I wasn't aware of it. When I learnt Moon used AI in any way I asked them to stop, as did several other authors. This situation is currently being reviewed and authors can now refuse to have AI images used to market their books. I will be asking that AI images aren't used in any way to market mine. I do not use AI to create my books or create marketing material and I am opposed to the use of AI. 

I would add that I take the photos for the covers of my Pagan Portals books and the cover image for Erosion was painted by a real artist. I hope this post clarifies the situation. If anyone has any questions about it, please leave a comment and I will answer to the best of my knowledge.

The pictures show me signing copies of my books, cover images and the endorsements on the back of Rounding the Wheel of the Year.

Note: this post has been edited as it has been pointed out to me that the comments were made by more than one person in a thread.