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'Cancelations are Canceled': Science Fiction Competition Tries To Cancel Author, Sees Backlash

Seven authors have pulled out of the competition, citing free speech concerns.

Cancel culture—the practice of ruining someone's career for not sufficiently adhering to Leftist principles—appears to be dying after decades of victimizing innocent people. In what seems to be the first attempted cancelation of the new Trump administration, Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC) announced on Wednesday that it was removing author Devon Eriksen's book from consideration for an award. The SPSFC said that it made the decision because Eriksen violated the competition's code of conduct—which had been published to X the day before this announcement.

SPSFC Twitter "We apologize for the extended delay and radio silence. Devon Eriksen has been removed from the SPSFC effective immediately for violation of our code of conduct," the SPSFC posted on X.

Eriksen is the author of "Theft of Fire: Orbital Space #1," a popular self-published book that has received glowing reviews, including one from the creator of Doom. He didn't even enter the book into the competition; his wife did, thinking she might surprise him if he won. After seeing that he had been booted from the competition, he published a fictional account of learning that he had been entered into a competition without his knowledge and had somehow violated that competition's code of conduct, which he never agreed to.

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That code of conduct stated that contestants could not harass judges or other authors, which Devon didn't do—and couldn't do—since he didn't even know he was entered. But one of the judges posted on Bluesky, in a message provided to The Daily Wire, that even though Eriksen "didn't directly contact judges or other authors," his posts were "driving away judges, authors, and prospective contestants/members in huge numbers."

https://i.rdrama.net/images/1739036532jSCeFqCGES-Niw.webp

The SPSFC competition has been around for a few years and is currently in its fourth iteration. Nearly 200 books from independent authors are submitted and divided among various reviewers, each reviewing around 30 books. Each group then selects around four books as quarterfinalists, reads those four books, and selects two semi-finalists. Eventually, the list is narrowed down, and a winner is selected. There is no cash prize, but it allows the authors to collect reviews and publicity.

According to Christine, Eriksen's book had been selected as a quarterfinalist and was the only author to receive a "strong yes" in his batch. After dozens of authors had been cut, at least one began complaining about Eriksen's inclusion in the competition based on his numerous blog posts and tweets, which contain comments about immigration and transgenderism that frequently offend the Left. Dozens of people on Bluesky and the SPSFC groomercord started calling Eriksen a "nazi" for his posts and published some screenshots of them on Reddit along with a summary of the situation at the SPSFC. Following the prolonged outcry, the SPSFC put together a code of conduct and then used it to boot Eriksen from the competition.

But the code of conduct claims that its "goal is not to eradicate these 'bad' opinions" and that they are "not here to police people's opinions," they do just that after claiming Eriksen's posts amount to "hate speech" and "backwards attitudes."

Eriksen was not the only author targeted. E.J. Fisch, author of "Dakiti: Ziva Payvan Book 1," who wasn't even part of the SPSFC competition, spoke out against the handling of Eriksen and quickly saw her book dropped out of a promotion that is reportedly being run by one of the authors involved in the mob against Eriksen.

The announcement that Eriksen was booted from the competition was met with immediate backlash, with many other authors pulling their books from the competition. Moe Lane, whose book "Ghosts of an Alien Wind" was in the competition, asked the organizers to remove his book from consideration, though his reasoning is unclear. His announcement was posted on the Groomercord for the competition and was shared with The Daily Wire.

Other authors were more explicit about why they asked for their books to be removed from the competition. Gregory Michael, author of "Chloe's Kingdom," asked for his book to be removed because "free speech is crucial."

G.S. Jennsen, author of "The Thief," posted a lengthy letter on X outlining why she wanted her book removed from the competition as well.

C.R. Walton, author of "Wilderness Five," also noted that Eriksen's removal had nothing to do with his actions relating to the competition, writing that the decision to drop him was "very clearly just caving to a hateful mob that hates the guy."

Zachary Forbes requested his book, "Slipspace: Terra Nullius" be removed from the competition as well, also writing a lengthy X post about how the SPSFC's recently introduced code of conduct "was done hastily and sloppily, left intentionally vague, for the sole purpose of banning one particular contestant."

Steve Gavin also requested his book "Cosmic Strife Assault" be removed from competition, writing a short post on X calling the situation involving Eriksen a "mess."

Grace Walker publicly distanced herself from the SPSFC, seeking to have her book, "ASH (Rogues: Legends Book 1)," removed from the competition as well.

https://x.com/gwalkerauthor/status/1622877587983173632

Danielle Ste. Just also cut ties with the SPSFC, although her book, "The Disk Mirror Solution (Galaxia Mortem Book 1)," had already been cut from the competition.

Haldane B. Doyle, author of "Our Vitreous Womb," announced he was also withdrawing from the competition, thanking the volunteer judges but saying he only wants "to participate in indie sci fi competitions that judge the books and not the authors, regardless of the criteria applied."

Even one of the competition's judging teams decided to pull out of the competition—not because they agreed with what Eriksen had said—but because of how SPSFC handled the situation. The eight authors—other than Ste. Just—who have so far withdrawn from the competition were quarterfinalists, meaning they had already advanced over about 30 other competitors in each of their respective judging groups.

Eric Kay, author of "Above Dark Waters," wrote on X that his book had already been cut, but questioned why the people behind the competition couldn't just cut Eriksen and write a nice review for his book, as they had done for Kay's book.

The idea that fellow competitors would drop out of a competition in solidarity with one of their own is almost unheard of when it comes to these types of cancelations and shows the ideology of "cancel culture" may no longer be tolerated. Christine Eriksen wrote on X that "cancelations are canceled" and pointed out that her husband's book has had one of its best sales days to date.

Other authors who dropped out of the competition said they had seen an increase in sales. Michael, who was the first to withdraw from the competition, noted that "Chloe's Kingdom" was now #1 on Amazon, "not from winning a competition – but for standing up for free speech. Doing the right thing feels good."

In a post shared with The Daily Wire, John A. Douglas, author of "The Black Crown," commented that the SPSFC doesn't "fully understand the schism kicking Devon out has caused in the indie author spaces." "DevonGate is a seismic shift in the indie landscape," Douglas added. "And he didn't even DO anything!"

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a popular self-published book

:#marseysmughips:

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If this is the best they can do, that's pretty dire. :marseysmug3: It's giving me strong community college creative writing class vibes.

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Publishers are leeches. You don't need them taking money from you when you can make all the money yourself with your self published vampire x wolfman x deli owner erotica.

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True facts goddess

:m#arseyserioushatfact:

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Sci fi and fantasy publishing have been completely taken over by woke women. Self publishing is the only way to find decent writing that isn't about a fat black lesbian.

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