Smashwords

[greg]

Just heard from one of my writing circle friends who is having one hell of a time getting her books removed from Smashwords. She sent me the email correspondence that's been going on now for over 4 months and encompasses some thirty messages. All she wants to do is close her account and get paid. But they're hassling her to remove her books from the Smashword's page of one of her publishers, and of course, she can't do that, it's not her account. She's already unpublished all the books in her own account and closed the account, but still the harassment goes on. And she's the last person with time for this. Her books are now bestsellers and she's knee-deep in a major rewrite for a major publisher.

[vixon]

She needs to take legal action, nobody should have to put up with this kinda crap. Four months and thirty messages is extreme harassment.

[raemorgan]

This doesn't surprise me, Smashwords is getting a really bad name on another forum I belong to and on Writer Beware. I tried to publish there once but the formatting is impossible. In fact, it's so bad that many professional editing companies will not format for Smashwords.

[marcel]

I had a buddy who had a major hassle with Smashy, he concluded it was their way of wiggling out of paying him. Heck after a 4 month hassle who wouldn't gladly forego payment just to get their books taken down?

[marcel]

Apr 17, 2013 17:55:52 GMT -5 raemorgan said:

This doesn't surprise me, Smashwords is getting a really bad name on another forum I belong to and on Writer Beware. I tried to publish there once but the formatting is impossible. In fact, it's so bad that many professional editing companies will not format for Smashwords.

Yeah it's because it's way too time consuming.

[susieq]

I think I'll stick with Kindle. I've heard so many negative reports about Smash I wouldn't risk it. By all account sales aren't that great on Smash either.

[avery]

"Lots and lots of authors I know pulled all their distribution from Smashwords because of how slow it was, which leave it hard to have a sale for a weekend…etc. I know I stopped."

Smashwords (what a silly name) sure aren't very professional. Lots of complaints and discontent about them here:thewritersguidetoepublishing.com/having-trouble-getting-your-ebooks-from-smashwords-to-apple-try-draft2digital

[greg]

Hey, good to see you back here Avery, it's been a while. Check your pms. You know this story is not all bad, it does have a happy ending. What happened -- and it's really quite funny -- is that my writer friend is such a polite lady that she put up with the Smash crap for months. They were really jerking her around. Then her not so polite buddy got wind of what was going down and he laced into those bastards the way they so richly deserved. The upshot is -- now this IS funny -- the jerks have booted my friend from Smashwords, which as you know is what she wanted all along and what all the hoopla was about. I doubt they'll pay her though.

[greg]

Ready for a good laugh everyone? This is the email the jerks sent to my friend after her buddy had given the bastards what for. The last I heard my friend and her buddy were cracking open a bottle of wine to celebrate. ;D

"Due to your appalling message to Keri, you have been banned from Smashwords for extremely rude behavior towards our staff. That is a breach of our Terms of Service and results in account deletion. Generally, it also results in forfeiting your funds, but Keri is going to pay those out to you anyway. It is *never* acceptable to call someone who is helping you a "stupid f**king bitch." As you can see, it's because of her that you are getting paid, so she in *no way* deserved your comments. This issue would have been resolved long ago if you had simply followed our instructions.

You are not welcome back. Emails and accounts from you will be blocked."

--
Angela S.
Smashwords Marketing Team
Smashwords Content Team
www.smashwords.com"

[greg]

Re the above message from the jerks at Smash. What the hell's wrong in calling a spade a spade? A stupid f**king bitch gotta expect to be called as much when she's acting dumber than dumb. If she doesn't like it she needs to smarten up.

[dervish]

Apr 17, 2013 20:59:43 GMT -5 greg said:

Re the above message from the jerks at Smash. What the hell's wrong in calling a spade a spade? A stupid f**king bitch gotta expect to be called as much when she's acting dumber than dumb. If she doesn't like it she needs to smarten up.

I can't argue that Greg, you're spot on. What I don't get is what she means by "it's because of her you're getting paid." That doesn't make a lick of sense. If an author has earned royalties -- and I'm assuming that your friend has done -- then a publisher is legally bound to pay those royalties out and what their employee does or doesn't do doesn't have a bleep bleep bleep to do with it. Am I right, or am I right? I've sent an email to JD, our lawyer in residence, and pointed him to this discussion. BTW I'm sorry for the shitty and shoddy treatment your friend received. It's too bad that certain uglies will take advantage of a quiet and polite person. Could be that since she's a successful author, those nasties are just plain jealous.

[oracle]

Thanks for this guys. I was thinking of going with Smashwords but this has changed my mind. I don;'t need that kind of grief. BTW some other forums are discussing this as well. We need to co-ordinate all the sources and with this in mind I've left links to this forum wherever I can. I've already sent Writer Beware links to the discussiions. What's important now is to protect other writers from being put through a 4 month hell, all because they want to cancel their SW account.

According to one account I read today, in the MS forum, SW insulted the author they abused for 4 months by saying she should get someone who knows what they are doing to unpublish the books. This insult was delivered by a neanderthal called Keri, and I quote: "My suggestion is that you get someone to help you follow the proper steps as Angela stated in the earlier email to close your accounts." What a rude ignorant behetch. Meanwhile, this author happens to be a tech whiz with a degree to prove it, and of course she'd already unpublished all the books months ago. OMG. If I were her I'd sue. Where are you JD?

[greenwriter]

Good discussion guys, three cheers for the power of the net. Just think that in pre internet days these bullies would have gotten away with this bullshit. Hey Greg, tell your friend that we're behind her 100%.

[butterscotch]

As if writing isn't hard enough we have to put up with this shit too. I'm with Amazon Kindle, who seem at least reasonably competent. Four months of hassle -- man, that's way too much. They need to be brought to account for their actions in a court of law. I'm sure Greg's friend must have suffered untold stress and trauma because of it and would be unable to write, etc. She should be financially compensated.

[butterscotch]

Greg, would it be possible to post the 30 messages for us, keeping your friend's identity private, of course?