I’ve Been Banned

People often mistake authors as those who sit all day in front of a computer and dream up wonderful worlds and characters. I hate to say it, but it’s not quite like that. Actually, it’s not even close to that. 

Most of the authors I know either A) write whenever they get a chance in between all of life’s demands or B) force themselves to write each day—even a little bit, sometimes having to postpone other activities to make sure the writing is done or C) spend time on social media sites stating they should be writing. 

What’s not included in this list is the networking authors do with other authors. This is in the form of writer’s guilds and critique groups and even just emailing that author friend with a request of “Hey, will you read my book and tell me what stinks?” 

But wait! There’s more! It’s called “promotion.” Seriously. Most authors don’t start writing a book with the thought of, “Oh! I can’t wait until my book is out so I can spend time and money trying to get people to buy it!” This is a sad truth: you may have written the best book ever, but if no one knows about it, they won’t buy it. 

What’s one of the best ways to get word out to the most amount of people as possible? As of this moment in time, it’s social media—or using the internet. 

For me, I have a blog (uh, you’re reading it right now) a website, a twitter account, and another big social networking site which I won’t mention by name. Why? Well, they sort of banned one of my books. And I’m not 100% sure why. The book in question is “The Night The Port-A-Potty Burned Down and Other Stories.” 

What was the reason it was banned? Well, the only thing I was told was that it was because of “bullying.” Yeah, really. “Bullying.” For the life of me, I can’t figure out why they would think that. Well, that’s not 100% true. I posted this following photo of me with the book. 

Maybe, just maybe, my T-Shirt was threatening enough to be considered bullying. Or perhaps, someone thought I was inciting violence with the title of the book. (The story that inspired the title actually condemns the person who burned down the poor, defenseless port-a-potty.) 

 Regardless, I’m now going to wear the badge of an author who has had his work banned. That’s almost as big of a bragging right as being an award-winning author. Hmm. Maybe I should put that on my bio: “J. Lloyd Morgan is an award-winning, banned author…”