Voices for Voices®

Protecting Young Writers: Exposing Exploitation in Christian Publishing | Episode 214

• Founder of Voices for Voices®, Justin Alan Hayes • Season 4 • Episode 214

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Protecting Young Writers: Exposing Exploitation in Christian Publishing | Episode 214

What happens when trusted spiritual leaders manipulate young creatives and established authors exploit their talents? Ghostwriter David Solomon takes us on a deeply personal journey, exposing the hidden dangers lurking within Christian publishing circles.

Solomon, whose ghostwriting credits include "Sound of Freedom" and numerous Christian fantasy works, reveals his own traumatic experience from 2009 when a church pastor convinced him to burn all his creative works, claiming ownership over his intellectual property. This heartbreaking moment not only stripped Solomon of his creative identity but serves as a stark example of how spiritual manipulation can devastate young writers.

With raw emotion and unflinching honesty, Solomon pulls back the curtain on disturbing patterns he's observed in Christian publishing – established authors who private message minors, solicit their ideas without giving credit or compensation, and maintain inappropriate relationships under the guise of mentorship. "You labor traffic these kids to write your books. That is a crime," Solomon states firmly, challenging the Christian writing community to confront the predatory behavior happening within its ranks.

Parents will find crucial warnings about the tactics employed to isolate young writers from parental oversight, while aspiring authors will gain insight into recognizing unhealthy power dynamics. Solomon outlines four essential protective measures: ensuring writers are in supportive environments, recognizing when leaders abuse their authority, maintaining dignity in all relationships, and carefully vetting creative collaborators.

As both a survivor and successful ghostwriter, Solomon courageously speaks for countless voiceless victims, driven by the dozens of messages he receives from families experiencing similar exploitation. His passionate advocacy reminds us that creative expression should never come at the cost of safety, dignity, or proper credit. For every parent, writer, and creative – this episode delivers critical awareness that could protect you or someone you love from exploitation disguised as opportunity.

David Solomon, ghostwriter of Christian fantasy and "Sound of Freedom," shares his traumatic experience of being manipulated by church leadership to burn his creative works and exposes exploitative practices in Christian publishing.

• Solomon describes how in 2009, a pastor convinced him to burn all his writing, claiming the church would own his intellectual property
• The trauma of losing his creative identity helps explain why communities like Realm Makers exist for writers who've been spiritually abused
• Solomon warns about established Christian authors who exploit young writers by soliciting their ideas and content without giving credit
• Parents are cautioned about authors who private message minors about inappropriate topics or request creative content without parental knowledge
• The episode addresses how predators use spiritual manipulation to isolate young writers and create inappropriate relationships
• Solomon emphasizes four key points: being in healthy environments, recognizing when leaders abuse power, maintaining dignity, and knowing who you're surrounding yourself with

If you're a parent or young writer, establish clear boundaries about online communication with authors and be vigilant about who has access to creative work. Always speak up if something feels inappropriate.

#christianpublishing #youthwriters #writersexploitation #protectingwriters #christianindustry #writersrights #publishingethics #writersadvocacy #christianbookpublishing #publishingindustry #writersvoice #authorsrights #publishingconcerns #writerssupport #christianbookmarket

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Justin Alan Hayes:

Here we go. Welcome to another episode of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. I'm your host, founder and executive director of Voices for Voices, justin Allen Hayes. Thank you for joining us today. As always, we're over the 200th episode mark. If you can give us a big thumbs up like share, that can help us big time. Continue on our journey to help 3 billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond. You can find us everywhere audio, video. Whatever works for you works for us. Again, can't do this without you, so thank you for all the followings. Really quite humbling.

Justin Alan Hayes:

So we're going to jump into this episode's topic with one of our prior guests and I guess, before we're introduced, I just want to kind of just throw it out there, because we've been getting some feedback about about how much we're diving into this human trafficking topic. And number one it's traumatic. So that lands obviously with mental health-wise anything, any type of trauma. So we know that there is a lot of trauma there and, second of all, we want to help anybody who has gone through such traumatic events, and so at this point we're covering what we call our off-cycle episodes. So it's important which is why we're doing this off cycle to get this content out to you over close to 60 countries, 600 cities worldwide, so this is pretty big, which, again, is very humble. So, yeah, you may see other content similar as far as topic-wise, but this definitely ties in mental health. During each, each episode, um know that underlying of the foundation of us as humans is health, and that's physical health and then that's mental health, and so when trauma, I I've gone through a quite a bit of trauma that I've talked about. You've heard me seen me talk about and I'll continue, I would say, as the time presents itself, and so that's what we want to do.

Justin Alan Hayes:

So when we say we're a voice, we're truly a voice. We're sharing the voices of those who have been maybe marginalized for whatever reason. People may not be giving them a voice, they may be taking it away, and a little bit of that, or say a lot of that, it kind of really goes into this guest who is very talented, very genuine, when we have conversations to share. So, as we work through and get to the point of having others, other authors, other actors, other individuals that we're speaking with and you may have heard and saw a prior episode with Leanna Shields, you know, you may have heard and saw a prior episode with Leanna Shields. You saw and heard a couple with Gabriel Bloor, and so, as we're giving them a voice, we are giving our guests here, david Solomon, a voice, and I know that this particular episode has all are near and dear to him and there's a special message that he wants to convey. So, david, thank you again for joining us, and the floor is yours.

David Solomon:

Thank you. You know it's always a blessing to just be on the podcast and just try to be an inspiration and a light. I just want to open up in prayer before we dive deep. So if you're a reader of mine, or of Christian fantasy or fantasy in general, this podcast is for you today. So we're just going to dive deep into prayer so that God is our guide as we touch on some interesting subjects that I just felt needed to be talked about. So here we go. Wow. So here we go.

David Solomon:

Dear Jesus, we thank you for the opportunity to come together to just learn what is going on in the world and see it through your eyes, and for you to help us make a difference in a world that is dark, so that we may be your light. You call us to be storytellers some of us. You call us to do other things to make a difference, but to always show your light, your love and your glory, and we thank you for that. For those that are injured or sick, we pray for them. We pray for healing in all ways spiritually, mentally, physically and financially. Lord, because this world is falling apart, lord, and it needs you Tonight, as we gather on this episode. I just want your glory to be done and to touch the individuals who will hear this and its message, and to glorify you and to inspire, as you have inspired me. Thank you for giving me the gift and the knowledge and the power to tell the stories that you want me to share with the.

David Solomon:

Going to do this podcast last minute, but God kind of laid it on my heart uh, things that are going on in the writing world. So I'm a ghost writer. I write, uh, christian fantasy, christian sci-fi, as well as other tv shows and various movies. I'm sure everyone has heard of sound of freedom by now, um, and I am known for ghostwriting that. But right now we're going to talk about being a ghostwriter and we're going to address some concerns that I have gotten from people and have just really talked to a lot of a body of believing writers and it was just inspirational and incredible, so we're going to dive deep. So here we go In 2009, I was going to church and a lot of Christian writers go to church and they listen to their pastors and there's nothing wrong with that and only write what fits their narrative.

David Solomon:

That's where I have a problem. So we're going to dive into that real quickly. So here we go fall into the trap of being dictated by their youth pastor or by their leader of the church that if the leader says, burn your writing, because we want to look at these signs and ask ourselves if this is okay or if this is Christ-like. And that is what this episode is going to be. So we're going to make four points and that's going to be the four points. So number one is are you in a healthy environment as a Christian who's a writer, and are you getting positive feedback from your leaders and so a lot of people?

David Solomon:

On Realm Makers, who we have been talking about, the reason it was created, turns out, is because the founder, becky, in her own words, said that preachers are not nice to her, to her or her writers, that they are demonic, or you can't write and be a Christian or tell fantasy, and that was interesting to me. So we're going to dive deep into this moment. So in 2009, I attended a church Its name was Joy Church in Medford and it was a call and I fell in hood line and sinker. And I fell in hood line and sinker and the pastor knew I was a ghostwriter and he saw how much money I was making and he told me to burn my writing and write for him and write for him. So I, like hundreds of other children, took a match and burned our writing or comic books or anything secular that we had laying around. And that's an important thing to talk about is you know what that looks like going forward? So you know we really want to address what it is to be healthy and in a church as a writer.

David Solomon:

So I would challenge the listener if you're a Christian writer, you know, get feedback from your pastor, but always make sure that you're in a church that is supporting you as a writer.

David Solomon:

You don't need to be in a church that's saying you can't do this because God has called you to do that, and I would really encourage you to seek out a true church that lifts you up and not put you down and then join no offense a circus like Realm Makers who collects people who have not only been abused by the church for that reason, but for people that feel put down by the body of Christ that they are writing for, and that is a big moment of why I'm here tonight.

David Solomon:

So I made the mistake of burning my writing and that's where it starts and it destroys your identity as a writer and as a storyteller of Christ. And you know my mom. It broke her heart and so she confronted the pastor and said how dare you, you know? And the pastor said, well, it's for God and it's what God wants. He burned his writing. He's with the church now and you know, we own his writing. Now he's going to write for the church and all the intellectual properties are going to be owned by the church. And that was an interesting moment moment. So it was May 17, 2009. And I had fallen from my calling as a writer and I had followed a man who made us kids just burn everything we loved and separated us to the point of saying, oh, you can't see your mom, or your dad because they're spiritually sick and not spiritually sound, and when you get to that point that's never okay, and so that was really hard to face and deal with at the time, sorry take your time

David Solomon:

when I burned my writing and joined that church and joined the youth group and threw away my identity. I see why people have created a place like Realm Makers, a place like Railmakers. I sympathize. Not only that, I can understand the thought behind it. And when you take someone that's abused like that, like me, who burned my writing, or Stuart God bless him who burned his, and you say you know you're nothing without the church, strip them of their identity. Basically, I see where the desperation comes from to prey on victims.

David Solomon:

And so tonight this is going to make people feel really uncomfortable. We're going to talk about victimizing and we're going to talk about what that means in the Christian writing world. We're going to go there, talk about what that means in the Christian writing world. We're going to go there. So you know, we're not going to mention names because everybody in the industry knows everybody and we've all signed NDAs as ghostwriters, so we're going to keep it PG. So before anybody says, david, you can't say that, no, I'm not saying names, amen. But this isn't going to be a negative part. I hope that it produces a positive impact on the listener.

David Solomon:

So when you feed on people that are vulnerable, like I was from coming out of burning my writing, um, and then someone like you know said someone that I talked about. And someone like you know said someone that I talked about comes along and says I want you to write for me. You're doing God's work. I'm sorry you burned all your writing. You know, maybe I can help redeem you, follow me. You jump at that. You jump at that and for kids who are vulnerable and have these big time authors come to their town and say I want you to write for me. And they come, they feed on them because they're in an abusive environment and what that means is not only from home, but from school. They know these kids, no matter who you are, has a darkness and they feed on that darkness like a vampire feeds with blood, and they suck the soul out of those children and there's no easy way of saying this. So we're going to say it. And if I get called a criminal, that's fine. You labor, traffic these kids to write your books. That is a crime. That is a crime. And so it's so awesome having all these Christian creators on here and we're going to continue that. We're going to have Christian creators like crazy. I work with some of the most amazing people in Hollywood and some of the amazing people in the Christian world of industry and entertainment.

David Solomon:

But that doesn't stop me from calling out what I call poor leadership, not only at Realm but there are other places before Realm Holy World to the Christian fiction writers, associations of Christian fantasy, there are all these different networks that work the same and it's all the same faces, these seven people, these same faces, and they ask I just saw a piece of the other day. You ask kids for their ideas and you say write the book for me and you give no credit. And this is why people like me are mocked. Because people like you if you're listening, if people like you take advantage of children, underage children, minor children, who are in vulnerable places, vulnerable moments of their lives, and you feed on that. You private message them and say you know what I want to know about you? And that is how it starts. You create a relationship with that said person and then you twist the faith in order for it to fit your narrative and you say I am a man of God and you don't need to tell your mom or you don't need to tell your dad. Let's just keep it between you and me, because God said so. You know it's funny, because all the kids that you choose to go straight for you and this goes for all seven of you that are listening, because I know those seven people are listening to this how dare you? How dare you use children for your own benefit? My best friend was 17. Autistic cerebral palsy and look at what you've done. Autistic cerebral palsy and look at what you've done. Look at what you do every day as a teacher, and I'm calling you out. I've had multiple messages tonight on my own inbox blowing me up.

David Solomon:

I cannot believe that people that write would use underage children to write their books, not give them credit, and say woe is me, amazing, is me amazing. Grace, how sweet my sound that saved a wretch like me. Have you forgotten where you come from? Did you forget that you come from Jesus Christ, or did you think that you created your own? Did you forget that you come from Jesus Christ or did you think that you created your own self? Because that is not where your voice came from. Your voice was given by God, but you're so prideful that you neglect the fact that God gave you that voice. So you say woe is me, I'm the amazing person. Look at me. Let's sing a hymn about myself instead of the one that gave you the gift in the first place, don't you know? That's why Satan was kicked out of heaven. That's why it's called pride.

David Solomon:

So, yes, I am a little passionate tonight because I get messages like this and then I get people mocking me and other survivors that come out and that is because kids are not believed in the beginning, because they're going up against a Goliath like you. Number two Goliaths you should never feel like there is someone above you. Even if they're a pastor, they should always respect you and just be overall nice, and if they're not, that's not a church for you, that's not a leader or a writer that you should fellowship with. And parents and kids that are listening, because I know there will be. You know it's okay to talk to authors, right, Especially in the Christian world. We talk to them all the time. Authors, right, especially in the Christian world. We talk to them all the time.

David Solomon:

If you want to get advice about pornography or cutting and you ask an author who is writing about it, you, that's something else. They're writing about it. They're having a ministry Maybe they have a doctorate Then I would be okay with that. They're reaching out, okay. But if you are an author and you are private, messaging kids and listening to their problems and trying to coach them, and you don't have a doctorate and you're just doing this because you get off on it, man, where have you come from? Man, where have you come from? You must have forgot Joshua 1.8. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate on it both day and night. You must have forgotten that verse. So you know, I really just want to hone in on taking advantage of children as minors in the writing world in general. We look at Justin Bieber, we look at Nickelodeon, I'm looking at you, dan Schneider, but you see, these don't come out until years later, when the victims are mocked.

David Solomon:

So if your kid, or anyone for that matter, says this person did this to me, I don't care who they are, I don't care who they are, I don't care how big they are. You need to listen. If it's a pastor, if it's a priest, if it's a youth pastor, if it's a leader, if it's a choir leader, I don't care who it is. Listen to your kid. They are telling the truth. Telling the truth.

David Solomon:

I shouldn't be on here tonight having to talk about this issue. You, as parents, should be adult enough to not message me and say well, what do I do Because my kid is private messaging with so-and-so about porn? But here we are because you opened the door and said well, you know he's an author, I'll let him into my house, it's okay. We look at the Miller brothers and Mech Mice. There's a video online, parents, where these authors go to this home, and this girl did not tell her parents that these authors were going to show up, so she gave the address to these authors. The authors showed up and guess what? The parent wanted to shoot them and they videotaped it.

David Solomon:

We should not be in this moment, but we are, and it is my job as a leader, as a father, as a husband and as someone who is trying to pave the way and take the trash out, to bring the new in, to expose this agenda, because we are no better than the people that we criticize in the liberal world. You want to call yourself a Christian writer and yet you are doing everything that the pedophilias do in Hollywood. So which one is it? Are you serving God or are you serving the devil. I'm not trying to be aggressive tonight, but when I get 45 messages on my inbox alone, what do you want me to do, parents? Do you want me to let it go? Do you want me to go? You know, hey, this is normal.

David Solomon:

I've been mocked since I came out as a survivor, since 2012. Fine with it. I've been called every name. My own youth pastor threw a dodgeball at my face, knocked me unconscious. I was called a whore kid, whore, boy. I can take it. The moment you call my wife a whore, which a lot of people have, that's not okay. My nine-year-old that's not okay. Any of my writing people? That's not okay. When did we stoop so low to go to that level to put other people down so we can feel great about ourselves? Number three dignity, dignity, people, dignity.

David Solomon:

Okay, so I'm looking at a Facebook post of one of these authors that I worked with and go so forth. Hey, I want you to write my story. I'm looking for kids to give me feedback. Private message me. Why are you telling kids to private message you? Are you their father? Are you a counselor? Are you a cop? Are you law enforcement? Are you a judge? Are you a jury? Which one is it? No, you're an author who is private messaging children whose parents don't even give two craps that you are. No, you're an author who is private messaging children whose parents don't even give two craps that you are. And then I see the response oh, I have this idea. This is a really cool idea, thank you. I'm going to use that for my story. Your story that's going to use that for my story. Your story that's going to be a bestseller on the New York bestsellers list is a Christian fantasy book. That's brilliant. I mean, who? Who draws the line between right and wrong? So we look at these choices that we're seeing today of these authors taking advantage of your children and this is a very passionate conversation, because it's very passionate on my heart to get this out.

David Solomon:

Parents put up walls. Know who your kid is talking to. Writers, no matter your age. Know who you're surrounding yourself with. I don't care if they're your favorite author. If they say something to you out of line, you don't go. Oh, I'm going to brush it off. See a lot of people listening. Go. Oh, the world doesn't work that way. I'm here to tell you one thing there are over a thousand children tonight that I am speaking for on their behalf. And those thousand children are tied to Realm. And those thousand children are private message by authors every day because they ghostwrite for those writers on Realm who are bestsellers on their board or co-authors that get no credit, payment for fan service or an autograph, give me a break.

David Solomon:

And then you have the audacity to say to the parent well, they gave me the idea and I liked it. I didn't have them sign an agreement or anything, so I don't owe them a penny. Or you're like another author we know I'm looking at you, mr Quest of Faith and go oh yeah, that was in the past, but I changed my cover so their name's not on there anymore. I changed my cover, he wrote it and he did all the drawing Michael Wilmot, but you know he was 14, and we were pen pals, private messaging. He sent me all the art and I made that my book cover and it's my illustrations in my book. But I didn't credit him for it. I actually said I drew it, you what? So anyway, I don't know your son anything and he can't actually prove that it's his either, because I have the originals. Who do you think a court's going to believe? That's the email this mother got. And, by the way, for those that are are listening, that mother may actually come on the show, amen.

David Solomon:

So it's just so brainwashing for these authors to come here and expect kids to write their own books, man man and write their own books, man man. And when I came out and said I was a survivor of you know who, you know, I was mocked because he's a god. And I saw that and I accepted that, and I accepted that. But isn't it funny? He's not a God but yet he seems to have all this power. And it's not physical power, it's mental power, not spiritual, it's fear Of making people afraid. So these authors like to use what we call oh, what is it? We call them tactics where they scare the kid into not telling the parent. Okay, and that's not right and that has to be addressed too. Why, why do that if you call yourself a Christian author? So when people criticize me right now for building a team and building an empire, like Scott Minor did, buddy, I'm taking out the trash so that no kid goes through what I went through.

David Solomon:

Excuse me, thank you through, excuse me, thank you so yeah so when I wrote sound of freedom, you know, no one should go through that. No one should go through that. No one should go through that and be mocked, not like I was. I'll cut it there, because I'm going to get cut off at my fourth thought. Well do you want?

Justin Alan Hayes:

to just throw the bullet out.

David Solomon:

yeah, know your surroundings, know who you're surrounding yourself with, be in a healthy environment and let your kids thrive and for you know kids who think that these authors are big and they worship them. They're not God, and shame on you authors for making kids write your books. Man, wake up, wake up. That's the message that was on my heart tonight, because I got that many messages about this yeah, obviously the ethics obviously comes into that as well of other communication.

Justin Alan Hayes:

That happens when, yeah, you know, people share information that shouldn't and and that um is also something that, uh, especially when somebody's a minor um, you know, at the time yeah and and how. That'd be the precipice of why the name was brought up, why the work was brought up, so that that should also be on, you know, parents radars as well.

David Solomon:

And that's why I'm so passionate about it is it needs to be addressed Like 44 messages. I mean that's a lot.

Justin Alan Hayes:

Especially on like that top. I mean on the top, yeah, yeah. So thanks for coming on so short notice.

David Solomon:

Yeah, absolutely Anytime.

Justin Alan Hayes:

Yeah, I just appreciate and and what you're willing to to share that it's. It's hard. Uh, I didn't, I haven't gone through something like that, but the trauma and things that I've gone through they're, they're just hard to talk about. So just talking about them by itself is amazing. Just to take that step. So, yeah, thanks again for tuning in to this episode of the Voices for Voices TV Show and Podcast. Catch this, as well as our over 212, 213 other episodes, and until next time, be a voice for you or somebody in need.

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