The Cancel Pigs Are Still Here

Authors are not yet free to say true things

“It’s not happening. Okay it is happening and it’s a good thing. And if you disagree that it’s a good thing, that’s violence. That means anything I do to you is self-defense.”

Last week, a lady I have never spoken to or heard of was driven off of Twitter. Her crime?

Author Jordan Lee noticed that literary agents weren’t interested in the kinds of books she was writing. Specifically, because she is white, straight, and female. And her characters are all straight. She didn’t spell this out, but I assume her MCs are white as well.

Well of course, the wokescolds, though out of power in general, are still very much in control in trad pub, and they weren’t going to allow Jordan to notice these things.

If you thought that the majority of odious cancel pigs moved over to Bluesky, you’d be wrong. Oh, they went for a while, but they came back. They always come back. And they shared Jordan’s post far and wide, demanding their pound of flesh.

The screeching at Jordan wasn’t enough. They also piled onto an agent, Shannon Snow at Creative Media Agency (CMA), who had asked to read Jordan’s full manuscript as she considered representing her. She then rescinded that offer due to the pile-on.

Even though Shannon fell over herself apologizing, insisting she didn’t mean to request a full from a BIGOT, the cancel pigs continued to take shots at her.

Now if you’re not in the query trenches yourself, you might be confused. Why isn’t Jordan allowed to notice that agents are saying (in writing for all to see) that they don’t want straight or white stories? Why is it wrong to then conclude that her work is being sidelined because she is both straight and white?

Because they hate you. They hate you for your “privilege” which is a neat way to say they hate you for your race. They hate you for who you love. And most gallingly, they hate you for not suffering from a devastating mental illness (which is what transgenderism is).

Her identity as a “marginalized” female didn’t count in the face of her whiteness, lack of same-sex attraction, and lack of body dysmorphic mental illness. (cis is a slur they use for normal people, those who are not afflicted with transgender mental illness).

Now Jordan has done what most people do when they are the victim of a Twitter dog pile. She deleted her Twitter account. She couldn’t take the heat. Nor could she bring herself to tell these cancel pigs to fuck off. She’s probably afraid of being lumped in with “those people.”

But here’s the thing. To Jordan and everyone like her, you don’t have to vote Republican to walk away from an industry and people who hate you. You don’t have to join a new brand or a new club. You don’t have to wear a hat or wave a flag or take your shirt off and paint slogans on your tits.

Though that last one might accelerate your follower growth.

You only have to seek out people who like what you’re writing and market to them. Talk to them. Engage with them. That’s the community you should be invested in: the one that gets excited about the worlds you create and gets excited for your success.

The way to do that is marketing. Through networking, social media, paid ads. Long form and short form. Video and print. There are a lot of ways to do it. And NONE of them involve putting up with lunatic writers who think they own you.

I have an interview with marketer Nick Pecone coming out later today (Noon central US time). If you want to create on your own terms but are intimidated by moving forward without a publisher, you might want to give it a watch.

And if you find yourself being “canceled,” remember you don’t have to consent to it. You don’t have to accept the premise of their argument. You certainly don’t need to nuke your account. GIve them the finger and keep moving. If you won’t stand up for you work, who else will?