Author Connie Suttle

Author Connie Suttle:
Urban Fantasy/ Young Adult

Friday, April 19, 2013

Trademarking and Price Gouging


I am currently in the process of trademarking subtledemon and difik. The reasons for this are ones I never thought I'd be facing.
First, I kept receiving emails from an individual somewhere in Asia, telling me that someone was looking to buy/register subtledemon as a domain name in Asian countries. What did I know about registering a domain in Asian countries? Nothing.
I still don't know a lot, but it appears that you have to have a business or business connections in Asia to register a domain in Asia. Yeah, I started sweating. Did I think this was a ploy to bilk money? Yeah, I thought that too.
While I have no interest in connecting to or running a business anywhere except where I am, I figured I ought to protect myself as much as possible. I already had domains purchased/registered for subtledemon.com, .info, .net., .org, .biz, .co, .mobi and .ws, so what's a person to do?
I started the process to trademark not only subtledemon, but difik, because I'm selling merchandise through/under both. Hopefully that will go through, but it takes nine months to go through the trademark process, and who knows what might happen?
My good friend/proofreader/part-time assistant, Joe, suggested I also lock up difik as a domain name, since we were looking to do the same with it—trademark, etc.  It was a good idea. HOWEVER—
Difik.com had already been purchased and was available for AUCTION, at a minimum bid of $200. I was a bit upset, as you might imagine, because you can buy a domain name for around $10 a year. Maybe less. I called the company I buy my domain names from, and asked them what this meant. They explained that somebody else had bought/reserved difik.com. They didn't say it, but it was likely somebody who intended to sell it at a profit.
Yes, I ended up offering a little over the asking price. This morning, I received a counter-offer—for $1400. No, thank you.
Yesterday, I went ahead and purchased difik.biz, .co, .info, .mobi, .net, .org, .us, .me and .ws. In other words, all the others I could get my hands on, because unlike difik.com, they were available. And I'm still going forward with the trademarking process for difik. I also had all those domain names linked to subtledemon.com. Go ahead, do a search for difik.net. You'll go straight to my website! If somebody wants to use difik.com for $1400, feel free (after paying $1400 of course). If it's a business, good luck on getting all the other domain names—I have those. I can't imagine an individual paying $1400 to use difik.com, but if they want to be gouged, I have no control over that. If the trademark goes through, I don't know what implications that might have, but we'll see.
Honestly, I write much better (and easier) when I'm not so angry I can spit tacks hard enough to attach shingles to a roof. I never imagined, either, that coining a word or phrase could result in so much teeth-gnashing and agony. Live and learn. They'll never know, too, that I've been calling them difiks for at least twenty-four hours.
Keep on trucking, everybody. You guys (as always) are awesome!

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Interview and Giveaway

Hello, everybody!

Check out the interview I did for mistressofthedarkpath.wordpress.com. It includes a giveaway for two print copies of Demon Lost and other goodies, and the contest is open to everyone, including international readers. Hope you're having a wonderful week and aren't affected by weird weather!