I think I'll return to work...Time to discuss a newly discovered challenge a writer faces when first breaking out, when first self-publishing in print...

Fear of getting a bad rap, or fear of infamy...Or fear of people you've never met taking your shit you do, and running the wrong way with it. That element of self-distribution can be horrifying! ESPECIALLY when you have no allies to watch your back in the industry and it's just you defending your good name against an industry and society of con men and hustlers. 

It always starts with asking yourself "What if", the basis of this fear...

Like what if some cult leader starts a cult and ends up mass murdering 3 million people like a relgious hitler or BEING the next hitler, and suddenly before you know it he wants to rope you into his schtick, with his "JM Matthews made me murder and rape all these innocent people routine".

Appreciate the "Shoutout thank you note your submitted in Times New Roman font to CNN", but it takes more than a shout out to pull the wool over the public's eyes like that, or at least I'd prefer to think so. But honestly, if ANYONE's going to do a "quick lame-o shoutout, it's the quick buck scamsters and Sales and Marketing Copy frauds. But no! Fuck em' That's really all you ever have to say. Real promoters PAY you directly. They never "Steal and use for free". That's a cheap shoddy rip-off tactic, and doesn't amount to a hill of beans.

It's not so much that you learn to stop hustlers. So much as you learn to desensitize yourself to them, as yes they're going to target the top talents in the field and rip them off with perversions in imitation and poor taste. And if you're the top talent, yes, THAT'S YOU. But as long as that awareness on the public and media's part is there and the public is not IGNORANT or OBLIVIOUS to such cheap tactics, which is usually an element that is made pretty obvious in how media projects by OTHER creators react to these sorts of things

WINK WINK!!!