I thought the dead line was July 23?

"Hello,

I would like you to know that I, as a Survivor, am offended by your project. While the idea is notable (though you're not the first so it was not a genuine and unique idea) it is under a sexist plain, does not speak to the Survivor community as a whole, and the Survivor Tribe is very protective of ALL of its members. You should be ashamed at the sexist platform you have created for this project "My Sisters Anthology."

All you will accomplish by releasing this book as a My Sister's Anthology under the pseudonym of "Survivor's Chicken Soup" would be to continue to strengthen and push rape myths into other Survivors faces that are rejected from your book. As a Survivor that is part of the Tribe, all you will accomplish by publishing a book like this is to create a more segregated society and further alienate a very important group within the community of Survivors.

My suggestion is that the company that makes Chicken Soup books gets themselves out of the drowning pool they have put themselves in and does not continue this project. It's obvious you are unaware how to include all Survivors within this, and your contribution will only serve to make the lives of Survivors much more difficult because it will be one more book to stand up against with society believing your published words over our precious lives and experiences. These projects should only be taken on by a writer and publishing company that actually understands what it means to be a Survivor, who can be a Survivor, what Survivors need in their recovery, what the recovery process is, and all of the rape myths that plague and damage that recovery process. Without knowing ALL of this, I fear this book will become a detrimental addition to the many unhelpful and damaging books out there "for" Survivors.

My best to you. And hopes that this call does not go unheeded.

Sincerely,
[insert my full name]"

I just sent this to the e-mail at that site for the Survivor's Chicken Soup book. I think their project is going to be terrible for the Survivor community. It's already extremely obvious that they harbor the rape myth that only women can be raped by calling it a "Dear Sister's Anthology." They should get out of the way and let us do it RIGHT.

Matt, I will be e-mailing you my letter within the next day. Sorry it's late. I work too much.

At first, but in later posts I said that I was taking entries after that and not being strict. There were people who really struggled to do this, and wanted to be included.

There may be intellectual property issues with the "Dear Sisters" project, which they announced July 27, 2010 at 9:05 AM on their blog. The "Letters to Survivors" project has been an established proposal since 2008, even registered with the index of Books In Print, and with correspondence with literary agents claiming the concept in hundreds of mailings.

Oh good so that means that they are not allowed to write it because YOU are already in the process of writing it?

I posted her response to me in the post about my advocacy if you would like to read and give me your opinion on her response and what response I should give to her.

I don't know , I just want to let everyone know that I am a little uncomfortable with this idea that recovery is one person or groups property. Things develop sometimes simultaneously. I think that every avenue that someone uses to reach people are all going to the same sea so to speak.

It's great to call out a myth... a dear sister dear brother book! That's awesome.

She's doing what she can getting words from the sources and listening to your letter...perfecting as it goes perhaps ... maybe she'll see to include all survivor stories.

I'm not sure what it would mean. If I wanted to be a d*ck, I suppose I could contest it, but what I'd rather do is just demonstrate that the entire concept has already been claimed, and perhaps encourage them to come up with a revised idea instead. I have no doubt, though, that our will be the superior offering because every letter comes from a person who is part of an interconnected community of survivors, and not simply the happenstance submissions of isolated individuals with no deeper intrinsic roots. The letters you all are sending are the products of collective struggle and mutually-supportive healing, and it shows.

I'm not sure what it would mean. If I wanted to be a jerk, I suppose I could contest it, but what I'd rather do is just demonstrate that the entire concept has already been claimed, and perhaps encourage them to come up with a revised idea instead. I have no doubt, though, that our will be the superior offering because every letter comes from a person who is part of an interconnected community of survivors, and not simply the happenstance submissions of isolated individuals with no deeper intrinsic roots. The letters you all are sending are the products of collective struggle and mutually-supportive healing, and it shows.

I am only addressing the legal intellectual property issues, not the notion that recovery is anyone's property--those are VERY different concepts. You and I would not be allowed to launch a "Chicken Soup for the Soul" book, because it violates intellectual property protections, and has nothing to do with the fact that inspiration is not a commodity. "Dear Sisters" is already a copyrighted title, and a collection of letters to survivors is a concept already registered in the Bowker's Index (which is the official database of books in print). I wouldn't have any intention at all of squashing their idea (and would even be supportive of it), but since my proposal has already been received by literary agents it would be darned hard for them to get into print just because every agent in the country already has the idea in their hands--in the form of my detailed proposal.

It's gonna be a great book!

The thing I was thinking about today is how about six years ago I started on writing a book. Alot of my recovery felt like self discovered...even my counselor would say he had never seen someone work so fast and that it was like watching someone perform surgery on themselves. After my most monumental healing... I was in so much pain ( I was gonna say you wouldn't believe it but yes everyone here knows to one degree or another) and i got out of in in one culminating moment and then I realized that there was a pattern ... each time I got through something I noticed how it was the same approach and I sat down to write that approach each component that resulting in "getting through", Of course right when I really got it under way ... a friend did something that somehow just made me discouraged... it's insane but we were out and having a beer I told her where I was in the book and she gave me a birthday present and it was a cd call "fake book" can you believe I took this as a sign she was making fun of my book!!!

Any way years down the line later .. . and I am reading RAR and I get to the discussion of stuck points and the three or four elements that are in there and WA LA I'm like omg, there it is, the thing I was gonna try to write about to share with survivors...I used to feel guilty about not writing it down and following through about that process but it's already out there!!!

I wonder if you can really claim exclusive rights to a book of letters and artwork from survivors to survivors - to the words and layout yes, but the topic?. It would seem to me that there really ought to be more than one such book out there. Surely what we write, no matter how eloquent and honest, is not all there is for survivors to say to one another?

Also, looking at both her call for submissions and her response, their book seems to be taking a different tact.

(a) it is from survivors _and allies_ - not just survivors. I think this is a crucial difference.

Factora-Borcher specifies "lighting the way" as a goal. She asks people to focus on the path rather than the face of a survivor. This makes the advice the focus rather than the recipient. Because anyone can give advice, both survivors and allies can write. All that matters is that what is said sheds some light. The goal is help and support rather than creating a collective story. She even says it in her call for submissions "to help others regain a sense of balance and wholeness".

Letters from survivors to survivors are letters of collegiality. The power of the letters comes from our avoiding the "I've helping you" stance and speaking instead person-to-person. We may light the way and say things that help others, but our main goal I think is to drive home they point that there are lots of healing journeys and there are lots of ways to be a survivor, and you WILL get there, we all WILL get there. The result I expect will be a collective story of hope found in the midst of terror.

(b) Matt's book is more focused in terms of the range of trauma. Factora-Borchers' book is about all sorts of sexual violence, not just rape. Sexual violence is a very broad topic that could include anything from rape to gay bashing to workplace sexual harassment to eve-teasing (Indian term for public on street violence and harassment, i.e. cat calls, lewd comments, exhibitionism). While the other kinds of violence are surely traumatic, they don't necessarily have the core element that ties together all of our experiences on RAR: a deeply invasive assault on the body.

(c) Matt's book is less focused in terms of the identity of the victim/survivor. A book can't be everything to all people. Factora-Borcher's book range of trauma is broad and she narrows the scope by focusing on women. Matt narrows the scope by focusing on a category of trauma rather than gender and so can speak to a wider range of victim/survivors.

I just don't see the books speaking to the same audience or having the same impact. While both books will likely end up in "self-help" categories, any non-self help uses of the books are likely to be very different. Factora-Borchers may never transcend self-help, but if it does it is likely to end up on the gender studies reading list because of the focus on women's experiences.

Matt's book would more likely be in reading lists for therapists and social workers because it will also function as a window into the actual experience of healing rather than a collection of advice from people who want to cheer survivors on.

From a marketing point of view, the big challenge for Matt's book is going to be DIFFERENTIATION. If we are confusing the goals of the two books, think how a potential reader is likely to get confused.

How bout we all just promise to make Matt's book our favorite? lol

I know, I know, I can hear Matt now, "I don't WANT to be the favorite! I want you to like what works for you and speaks to YOU!!!" Yeah...we know!

Yours will still be our favorite ;)

I agree with everything but the last part...I think that is the big challenge for the *other* book. :)

Those are all good points, which is why I emphasized that the problem won't come from me being a jerk about it, it'll come from literary agents who already have a veeeerry similar idea in their hands. Part of a full proposal for publication includes an analysis of comparisons to other books, and the author has to demonstrate that they either improve on them, or are distinct from them. This is such a similar overlap that even the contrasts you list will seem like splitting hairs to an editor.

All in all, I like the idea of multiple books that address diverse aspects of these issues. My whole philosophy has never been "me, myself, and my product ONLY," it's been "help survivors' voices find a place and way to be heard." To squelch any opportunity for that to happen, purely in the name of business self-interest, would be anathema. The more ways and places that survivors can be heard, the better. My concern is just that they'll run into obstacles helping that happen because the publishing gatekeepers may deem theirs too-similar a concept.

Wow, I wrote this at the same time that Scubagirl predicted what my feelings on it would be. It makes me feel very happy to know that my position is so clear that she nailed it before I'd even written it!

To summarize: the priority here is pro-SURVIVOR. I hope there'll be an abundance of works that promote that.

My first thought is that having multiple books that are different but a little similar is not a bad thing. I hope that y'all to don't mind that I am saying that. I guess that is what Matt is saying above.

Truefully, what speaks to me may not necessarily speak to someone else. I have bought a few books that just did not cut it for me. "Repressed Memories" was one of those books. However, that may work for others.

Their approach is a bit different. That is fine.

So.. all in all, I would go to the Barnes and Noble and pick up the book that spoke to me. More like it, I read the book in secret for two or three times and then, break down and buy it.