A couple of months ago I wrote a post asking authors how they would feel if Hollywood screwed up their books when making it into a movie.

The topic came to mind sometime after the announcement that the last Divergent movie was shelved and would be turned into a TV series instead.

I’ve always been curious as to what author Veronica Roth has thought on the subject. Is she pissed? Is she okay with it? Has she openly said anything about it? So with that curiosity, I decided to comb through the internet looking for any interview with her to find out. Instead, though, I came across something that I’m really not quite sure how I feel about.

While apart of me understands the readers to a certain point, the other part of me can’t believe the audacity that people have. Of course, I shouldn’t be shocked, we do live in an…

Phoenix Sullivan is well-known in the indie community – I’ve known her myself since 2009 or 2010 and consider her a close friend.

Aside from being exceptionally generous with her time and knowledge, tirelessly sharing her insights on marketing and algorithms, Phoenix is also well known as a vocal campaigner against scammers and cheaters – particularly on the current big issues of book stuffing and clickfarming.

And now she is being targeted.

Phoenix made a box set free for a few days at the very start of October, advertising on Freebooksy, KND/BookGorilla, and Digital Book Today – all legitimate sites – and there was no other promotion involved with this title. No BookBub CPM ads, no Facebook campaign, no tweets, no newsletter swaps, no mailing lists.

On the third day of her free run, Phoenix’s box set was rank-stripped by Amazon, a punishment normally reserved for those who have used…