If A Publisher Offers You a Contract for Your Self-Published Book, Will You Be Forced (By Amazon) To Refund Past Customers Who Bought It?

I am doing my part in reblogging this to spread the word around. I hope the author gets this all worked out and it is just the result of some sort of miscommunication somewhere along the line. Otherwise, this is very, very bad news.

Frustration rant

So, how many of you out there have ever been frustrated by bureaucracy? Other than not knowing how to spell the damn word (I tried three different ways before the spell-check understood what I was trying to spell).

You know, how the website is all official-like and gives the impression that you MUST fill out the forms in one particular way or you will be ignored? And then you find out that, well, because there are so many ghetto people out there who cannot follow instructions, it does not have to be done exactly that way, otherwise nothing would get accomplished. Except you have been working on the assumption that the only way to do it is the way the official mouthpiece has said it is supposed to be done, so you end up wasting hours of your life doing it properly. Or, if the powers-that-be would just let you do it yourself, not only would it be done according to the directions, but it would be done in a timely and correct fashion. Instead, their representatives are the ones who have to do it, which means you have to wait an extra month for something that should have been resolved four months ago, and really should not have taken more than a week, at most, to prepare.

It finally gets done and you are ecstatic, because you have been waiting a month, and finally, it is here. Except, for the second time it is done incorrectly. This of course does not have anything to do with the fact that you were treated like an idiot for being a nuisance in taking up their time to try to explain to them the issue. Can you hear my sarcasm? So they do not really listen to you, and send you on your merry way. Because, it is their job, after all; surely, they know what they are doing better than the nuisance trying to take up their time, right? Apparently not.

But it’s the one the official instructions said to use!!

The problem now lies with the fact that there is a more important aspect to what is going on that you really NEED resolved, because your family’s well-being is at stake. That part they got right enough. But because of the non-related mistakes, this other thing is not yet resolved, which means a whole different set of incredibly important, but frustrating, life things will remain up in the air, and you will have no power to do anything about them. And, if you request that the mistakes be corrected, it could take another four months to resolve, and in the meantime the other thing that you REALLY need resolved will hang in limbo. So, you decide that the best course of action is just to allow the mistakes to stand, since it is still an improvement over the last time, but will nevertheless end up costing you more money. Since you cannot afford to consult with a lawyer to make sure this is the right decision, you go ahead and do,  just hoping that nothing will come bite you in the ass later on.

*grrrr*