Dear White Authors, Don’t Sign Books You Didn’t Write: How One Person Failed Unspoken Etiquette

Ir seems this year is pushing the envelope on what is and isn’t acceptable in publishing. Sometimes I get confused by why something is hurtful and other times it hits me immediately. Mackenzi Lee’s behavior has been unacceptable in one scenario: signing other people’s books and crossing out their names in some cases.

The latest trainwreck managed to happen while we’re in official and unofficial quarantines. Sometimes you cannot believe that someone actually managed to pull some nonsense. Yet, it has happened.

Who is Mackenzi Lee?

Mackenzi Lee is a Young Adult author of the Gentleman’s Guide To Vice and Virtue. She’s also written YA novels for Marvel about the Norse god of mischief and comic supervillain Loki. In short, she is someone who is already successful and living on top.

Lee also works at an indie bookstore. We learned that she pulls this sort of nonsense: signing author of colors’ books as if she wrote them, sometimes doodling in them and making little jokes.