Last month, I found myself in an awkward position where I had to seriously consider changing the name of my business.

What started as a likely scam led to me seeking legal options in protecting my business name. However, to protect my business name, the name needs to be changed. It's that simple.

Well, actually, it's not simple at all. It's a mess. But the work has already begun.

I need to fill you in on the details and explain why Black Wolf Editorial Services is being dismantled, with my editorial and coaching services moving to the Judy L Mohr brand.

A Quick Backstory for Context

The full assorted backstory was posted on my personal blog a few weeks ago, but just to summarize here…

I received an email that said a Chinese company had applied for "blackwolfeditorial" Chinese domains. There was a bit more to it (go read the post on my personal blog if you are interested in the nitty-gritty), but that email led me to the decision that I needed to trademark my business name.

Well, those discussions with intellectual property lawyers and my added research flipped my world completely upside down.

There's a pending trademark application in place within my home country of New Zealand for "black wolf" with publishing and books listed among the activities for the application. AND there were 36 different publishing imprints from around the world that all had Black Wolf in the name (including my own imprint).

And the legal advice from the lawyer: Consider changing your company name.

Yeah, I was heartbroken. I've been operating under the name of Black Wolf for near on a decade. But because of these trademark issues, that needs to change.

Shift of Business Model

My business has always had three different operating branches: the writer, the editor (and writing coach), and the publishing imprint. In my head, these three arms were originally called Judy L Mohr, Black Wolf Editorial Services, and Black Wolf Publications. But the name of "Black Wolf" itself is a cease-and-desist letter waiting to happen, so it's best to remove the name before my situation gets even more complicated.

With a lot of soul searching (and a hunt through the registers for suitable names), I've decided that going forward, the three branches to my business will be operating under the following names:

• Judy L Mohr (Writer)
• Judy L Mohr (Story Coach)
• Rhodon Press

The name Black Wolf will slowly, but steadily, disappear, eventually ceasing to be associated with my name. As a consequence, there are many changes to the operations of my editing activities that you need to be aware of.

Rhodon Press

A new imprint has already been created and registered. The website is up and running. Email is operational. Books have been loaded into the catalogue. And new ISBNs have been issued. And the old publisher website has been redirected to point to the new one.

However, because of the way ISBNs work, Hidden Traps of the Internet and Dancing in the Purple Rain will need to remain under Black Wolf Publications, until such time that new editions get published.

There is no timeline for the republication of the two books, but it will happen at some point.

This will be the last blog post on the Black Wolf website

The blogs on my two sites will be merged into a single blog to be hosted on my Judy L Mohr site.

It will take me a few months to move all the evergreen content from the Black Wolf blog to the Judy L Mohr blog, but going forward, all new content will be found on the Judy L Mohr blog only.

As older posts are moved, they will be removed from this site, ensuring that there is only one version of the post available on the web.

Once all content has been moved, I'll be able to redirect the search engines to the new URLs.

The newsletters will remain separate, but will come from a new email

It was the Black Wolf newsletter that had me most worried about the merger. It wouldn't be fair to my readers to merge the Writer newsletter with the Editor newsletter. They have different content, serving different purposes.

As such, I've decided that the two newsletters will continue to remain separate. However, because everything is moving under the umbrella of the Judy L Mohr website, the email address for the newsletters will ultimately change to use the judylmohr.com domain.

Subscribers will be informed before the transition happens, providing information about how to whitelist the new email. I'm not sure exactly when the change will happen, but it will happen at some point in the next few months. The goal is to have the transition complete before the end of the year.

New subscriber downloads will be coming out

Because of the transition and removal of the Black Wolf name, all of my little handouts and subscriber goodies that I've had over the years need to be rewritten and rebranded.

While it's a lot of work for me, it's also good news for my subscribers. As the rebranded subscriber goodies come online, all of my current subscribers will be given access to these new worksheets.

Again, it's going to take me several months to get the resources sorted and transitioned to the new systems, but I have deadlines for certain goodies as they have tie-ins to books and resources scheduled for release in early 2026. The clock is ticking, and I need to get my A in to G and just get it done.

I'm still offering editing and writing coaching services

This is one aspect that doesn't change. I'm still an editor. I'm still a writing coach. However, to access those services in the future, potential clients will need to visit the Judy L Mohr website.

But this isn't a bad thing.

When I first started up the editorial business, I had this delusion that I would eventually be able to bring on other editors to offer a full-rounded service. However, in 2020, all that changed when the market became saturated. In response to the changes in the market, I doubled down on my own strengths and shifted my tactics.

Ever since then, my clients have been coming to me to hire me. Not Black Wolf Editorial. Me.

It was the name Judy L Mohr that was getting the recognition, so it's that name that is important to operate under.

It all takes time

There are so many working parts that need to be shifted over to different systems, and I'm still unpacking all of it, trying to document what is currently there so I don't miss anything in the move. (But knowing my luck, something will get missed anyway. These things happen.)

But even though all of this takes time to do, there are deadlines in place.

Current Timeline for the Move

Below is the current timeline for the move.

• Move of the Blog (by end of July 2025)
• Move of the Newsletter Systems (by end of August 2025)
• Move of the Services Enquiry pages (by end of August 2025)
• Redirection of old site to new site (by end of August 2025)