Robert Gray's Blog, page 4
October 5, 2012
All Hallow's Read: The Return
October blue sky, pumpkin spice, fire-drenched leaves,
Harvest moon,
A soft scratching at your front door,
Wind moaning...
Or is it someone (perhaps something) else?
It can only mean one thing.
It's All Hallow's Read season!
Of course, now would be a good time to promote my books, which, as it happens, are perfect (or is that horrible?) for the Halloween season. But instead, I thought I'd talk a little about what inspired the series. (Which is a clever way to sell a product without actually appearing like I'm selling it. You know, the whole "I'll appeal to your sense of comradery while secretly I'm here to promote my stuff" method.)
Anyhoo, I've read a lot of comments that suggest Eve's story is similar to the The Munsters . Maybe some of you are too young to recognize the reference, but it was an old television show, which featured a family of monsters living among us normal folk--except for the niece, Marilyn. She was human. She never made much sense to me.
In part, Eve's story was my answer to The Munsters. After I decided that my main character would be human and live with a family of monsters, I made it a point to explain some of the things that bothered me about The Munsters--namely, how did a human girl come to live with monsters? And why did a monster family move to the human world in the first place? (Translation: You see, I'm a serious writer, and serious writers analyze what's wrong with other bodies of work and make them better. Serious like.) From there, the story became its own, and that's about as far as The Munsters reference goes.
A more significant influence on Eve was Ray Bradbury's short story The Homecoming . If you haven't read it, there's an excellent edition with artwork by Dave McKean. The story is about a young boy, Timothy, who is raised by a loving family of monsters. He doesn't fit in, though. He's not like the rest of his family. It is a sad story, full of beautiful metaphors. It has gotten better the older I get. (Notice how I connect my story to Bradbury's in order to make myself sound like a serious writer? Brilliant!)
Some people have mentioned that Eve Hallows is similar to Neil Gaiman's Newberry Award-winning The Graveyard Book . It's one of my favorite comments, because it has a strange sort of meaning to me. Gaiman's is a story about a young boy, Nobody Owens, who lives in a graveyard and is raised by ghosts--well, mostly ghosts.
No book has ever terrified me more. (Wait for it...) When I'd finished the first draft of Book of Shrieks, I learned that Neil Gaiman had written a book about a boy raised by ghosts. Of course, my first reaction was to raise my fists and curse Mr. Gaiman's name. My second reaction was to avoid The Graveyard Book like a loud noise coming from a creepy basement. I did eventually read the story, just to see what familiar ground we covered, and much to my happiness, I discovered the stories weren't all that similar, though if you've read and enjoyed The Graveyard Book, you just might like Eve (Bam!), though mine is a quirkier tale, and there's the little fact that I'm no Neil Gaiman. (Trials and tribulations. It's not all roses and back-pattings for this author! I have to climb mountains, just like you!)
If asked for an elevator pitch, I usually say Eve is a cross between
The Jungle Book
and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Neither inspired the story. Mostly, it's an easy answer. (Also, per my comments above, i.e., my immeasurable cleverness, both stories are meant to make Eve sound better than it really is.) Both are classic stories almost everyone knows, though I suspect in the case of The Jungle Book, more people are familiar with the Disney version than Kipling's original. Whatever. It's the fish-out-of-water aspect I'm conveying, mixed with monsters and Halloween. I usually get understanding nods, so I guess it's a good enough answer. (Though now that I'm thinking about it, they might be sympathetic nods ... Hmm.)
But the biggest influence on Eve, (and this is the part where I water the flower of humility, so you'll open yer hearts and wallets) more than any book or movie or television show, was and remains my daughter. When she was little, she loved, loved, loved the movie Monsters, Inc. It is no exaggeration when I say she watched that movie 200 times. I watched it with her at least half of those times. I haven't seen the movie in about eight years, and I can still quote lines from it. When she asked me to write her a story, the first thing I thought of was the two of us watching Monsters, Inc. together. The rest followed.
(Now, buy Eve Hallows and the Book of Shrieks and Eve Hallows and the Book of Shadows. Do it for your country. For your freedom. For Halloween! My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty...)
Harvest moon,
A soft scratching at your front door,
Wind moaning...
Or is it someone (perhaps something) else?
It can only mean one thing.
It's All Hallow's Read season!
Of course, now would be a good time to promote my books, which, as it happens, are perfect (or is that horrible?) for the Halloween season. But instead, I thought I'd talk a little about what inspired the series. (Which is a clever way to sell a product without actually appearing like I'm selling it. You know, the whole "I'll appeal to your sense of comradery while secretly I'm here to promote my stuff" method.)
Anyhoo, I've read a lot of comments that suggest Eve's story is similar to the The Munsters . Maybe some of you are too young to recognize the reference, but it was an old television show, which featured a family of monsters living among us normal folk--except for the niece, Marilyn. She was human. She never made much sense to me.
In part, Eve's story was my answer to The Munsters. After I decided that my main character would be human and live with a family of monsters, I made it a point to explain some of the things that bothered me about The Munsters--namely, how did a human girl come to live with monsters? And why did a monster family move to the human world in the first place? (Translation: You see, I'm a serious writer, and serious writers analyze what's wrong with other bodies of work and make them better. Serious like.) From there, the story became its own, and that's about as far as The Munsters reference goes.
A more significant influence on Eve was Ray Bradbury's short story The Homecoming . If you haven't read it, there's an excellent edition with artwork by Dave McKean. The story is about a young boy, Timothy, who is raised by a loving family of monsters. He doesn't fit in, though. He's not like the rest of his family. It is a sad story, full of beautiful metaphors. It has gotten better the older I get. (Notice how I connect my story to Bradbury's in order to make myself sound like a serious writer? Brilliant!)
Some people have mentioned that Eve Hallows is similar to Neil Gaiman's Newberry Award-winning The Graveyard Book . It's one of my favorite comments, because it has a strange sort of meaning to me. Gaiman's is a story about a young boy, Nobody Owens, who lives in a graveyard and is raised by ghosts--well, mostly ghosts.
No book has ever terrified me more. (Wait for it...) When I'd finished the first draft of Book of Shrieks, I learned that Neil Gaiman had written a book about a boy raised by ghosts. Of course, my first reaction was to raise my fists and curse Mr. Gaiman's name. My second reaction was to avoid The Graveyard Book like a loud noise coming from a creepy basement. I did eventually read the story, just to see what familiar ground we covered, and much to my happiness, I discovered the stories weren't all that similar, though if you've read and enjoyed The Graveyard Book, you just might like Eve (Bam!), though mine is a quirkier tale, and there's the little fact that I'm no Neil Gaiman. (Trials and tribulations. It's not all roses and back-pattings for this author! I have to climb mountains, just like you!)
If asked for an elevator pitch, I usually say Eve is a cross between
The Jungle Book
and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Neither inspired the story. Mostly, it's an easy answer. (Also, per my comments above, i.e., my immeasurable cleverness, both stories are meant to make Eve sound better than it really is.) Both are classic stories almost everyone knows, though I suspect in the case of The Jungle Book, more people are familiar with the Disney version than Kipling's original. Whatever. It's the fish-out-of-water aspect I'm conveying, mixed with monsters and Halloween. I usually get understanding nods, so I guess it's a good enough answer. (Though now that I'm thinking about it, they might be sympathetic nods ... Hmm.)
But the biggest influence on Eve, (and this is the part where I water the flower of humility, so you'll open yer hearts and wallets) more than any book or movie or television show, was and remains my daughter. When she was little, she loved, loved, loved the movie Monsters, Inc. It is no exaggeration when I say she watched that movie 200 times. I watched it with her at least half of those times. I haven't seen the movie in about eight years, and I can still quote lines from it. When she asked me to write her a story, the first thing I thought of was the two of us watching Monsters, Inc. together. The rest followed.(Now, buy Eve Hallows and the Book of Shrieks and Eve Hallows and the Book of Shadows. Do it for your country. For your freedom. For Halloween! My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty...)
October 2, 2012
Book of Shadows Giveaway
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Goodreads Book Giveaway
Eve Hallows and the Book of Shadows by Robert Gray Giveaway ends October 15, 2012.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads. Enter to win
Goodreads Book Giveaway
Eve Hallows and the Book of Shadows by Robert Gray Giveaway ends October 15, 2012. See the giveaway details at Goodreads. Enter to win
September 21, 2012
Stephen King's Birthday and What It Means to Siri
Today's Stephen King's birthday, and to celebrate I'm reading the latest issue of Cemetery Dance, which features Neil Gaiman's visit to SK's Florida home. The article's floating around cyberspace, too, and most of it can be found on Neil Gaiman's blog.
I also spent the morning downloading iOS 6 to my phone. (I know, I know, I live a life of mystery and adventure.) Of course, I had to play with the updated Siri, which, I should add, is a major improvement over the last version.
Curious, I wondered what Siri thought of Stephen King.
First I asked, Who is Stephen King? Siri's response:
Damn. The man's 65, a famous writer ... and a baseball player? I would've suspected he'd play for Boston, but then again, what do I know? Just to be sure I had the right King, though, I asked a more specific question: Give me a list of books by Stephen King.
Hmm, seems Mr. King forgot to leave me his phone number. No problem. I figured since Siri is now a movie buff, I'd ask it to give me a list of movies involving Stephen King. Yes! I got some answers--well, a few at least. For some reason, I'd thought there'd be more.
Finally, I asked Siri when Stephen King's birthday was, and it gave me a list of contacts to choose from, which, to protect the innocent, I shall not post.
Alas, Siri didn't seem to know Stephen King, and, in fact, isn't much of a book lover at all. Hopefully it won't dampen King's birthday any. I suspect it won't.
I also spent the morning downloading iOS 6 to my phone. (I know, I know, I live a life of mystery and adventure.) Of course, I had to play with the updated Siri, which, I should add, is a major improvement over the last version.
Curious, I wondered what Siri thought of Stephen King.
First I asked, Who is Stephen King? Siri's response:
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Damn. The man's 65, a famous writer ... and a baseball player? I would've suspected he'd play for Boston, but then again, what do I know? Just to be sure I had the right King, though, I asked a more specific question: Give me a list of books by Stephen King.
Hmm, seems Mr. King forgot to leave me his phone number. No problem. I figured since Siri is now a movie buff, I'd ask it to give me a list of movies involving Stephen King. Yes! I got some answers--well, a few at least. For some reason, I'd thought there'd be more.
.png)
Finally, I asked Siri when Stephen King's birthday was, and it gave me a list of contacts to choose from, which, to protect the innocent, I shall not post.
Alas, Siri didn't seem to know Stephen King, and, in fact, isn't much of a book lover at all. Hopefully it won't dampen King's birthday any. I suspect it won't.
September 20, 2012
Print Version of Eve Hallows and the Book of Shadows now available
The print version of EVE HALLOWS AND THE BOOK OF SHADOWS is now available on Amazon. You can pick up a copy here: http://www.amazon.com/Eve-Hallows-Book-Shadows-Volume/dp/1478378069/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1348152423&sr=8-1&keywords=eve+hallows+book+of+shadowsProduct DetailsPaperback: 274 pagesISBN-10: 1478378069ISBN-13: 978-1478378068Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.7 inchesAges: 9+Price: $12.99
September 19, 2012
First Review of Book of Shadows
I'll try not to post every review I receive, because you and I both know it gets boring (well, for you anyway) after a while. But the first few reviews are particularly special to me—assuming it's not some troll trying to verbally bash my head in. I suppose it's natural to want to let your baby out in the world and have people ooh and ahh over it. And, yeah, I'm a proud pappa with this book.
So rather than drone on, here's the first of hopefully many reviews— a 5-starer, I might add— from Lil Lost in a Book:
This book was perfectly horrible! Horrible meaning amazingly awesome, of course. Eve's world once again sucked me in and would not let go until this part of Eve's story was finished!
I love Eve's family! They are just so close-knit and all around awesome! And I was also glad to see new monsters...like the new URNS agent. That was just wow! Funny too...
You can read the rest of it here.
September 14, 2012
Eve Hallows and the Book of Shadows Is Out Today ... Mostly
Yup, you read that correctly, EVE HALLOWS AND THE BOOK OF SHADOWS (Book #2 in The Nightmare Series) is available today ... at least the ebook version is. So far I've seen it up at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. The Kobo version is coming soon, as well. And for you print fans, you should be able to purchase the book sometime next week.For those of you not familiar with the series, you should stop reading this now and get yourself a copy of EVE HALLOWS AND THE BOOK OF SHRIEKS. Because SHADOWS continues Eve's adventures, and, really, reading a series out of order is silly.
EVE HALLOWS AND THE BOOK OF SHADOWS
Ever since encountering The Source and its minions on Halloween, Eve Hallows has found life surprisingly quiet … not to mention adorably boring! So when Dad receives a Ouija message that she must return to Gravesville, Eve couldn't be happier—at least until she discovers the Director of URNS, also known as the Grim Reaper, has a special job for Eve … one that will lead her to New York City and to the true identity of The Source.
With The Book of Shrieks offering zero help and a new URNS agent driving the school boys—and Eve!—crazy, Eve's beginning to realize this whole saving-the-world nonsense isn't what it's cracked up to be.
All this and she still has to find The Book of Shadows....
And here's some of the early buzz:
Anonymous Reader 1: Wow, you finally finished the book. Now you can finish fixing the back deck like you promised me last year!
Anonymous Reader 2: You're a grown man writing for children! When are you gonna get a real job?
Anonymous Reader 3: How many times do I have to tell you? I'm not reading the book until you buy me an iPhone.
New York Times: Mr. Green, per our guidelines we will NOT be reviewing your book. If you continue to contact us we will be forced to pursue legal action.
I_AM_NOT_ROBERT_GRAY: A masterpiece! This may be the best story ever written. It's as if Neil Gaiman, J.K. Rowling, and Stephen King wrote the book together, and then called upon Shakespeare's ghost for line edits.
Now, if that doesn't put a fire under your buns, I don't know what will.
August 9, 2012
Eve Hallows and the Book of Shadows Coming Soon
EVE HALLOWS AND THE BOOK OF SHADOWS is all ready to go—both the print edition and the ebook. I've been holding off on releasing it, in all honesty, because I'm still hoping the series will get picked up by a publisher, and I'm waiting to here back from one in particular. If that doesn't work out, then the book should be available early September.
But what kind of author would I be if I didn't at least leave you with a small teaser, right? So here's a somewhat rough description of BOOK OF SHADOWS (Book 2 in the Nightmare Series, for those who aren't familiar with Eve's story) and the completed cover....
Ever since encountering The Source and its minions on Halloween, Eve Hallows has found life surprisingly quiet … not to mention adorably boring! So when Dad receives a Ouija message that she must return to Gravesville, Eve couldn't be happier—at least until she discovers the Director of URNS, also known as the Grim Reaper, has a special job for Eve … one that will lead her to New York City and to the true identity of The Source.
With The Book of Shrieks offering zero help and a new URNS agent driving the school boys—and Eve!—crazy, Eve's beginning to realize this whole saving-the-world nonsense isn't what it's cracked up to be.
All this and she still has to find The Book of Shadows....
But what kind of author would I be if I didn't at least leave you with a small teaser, right? So here's a somewhat rough description of BOOK OF SHADOWS (Book 2 in the Nightmare Series, for those who aren't familiar with Eve's story) and the completed cover....
Ever since encountering The Source and its minions on Halloween, Eve Hallows has found life surprisingly quiet … not to mention adorably boring! So when Dad receives a Ouija message that she must return to Gravesville, Eve couldn't be happier—at least until she discovers the Director of URNS, also known as the Grim Reaper, has a special job for Eve … one that will lead her to New York City and to the true identity of The Source.
With The Book of Shrieks offering zero help and a new URNS agent driving the school boys—and Eve!—crazy, Eve's beginning to realize this whole saving-the-world nonsense isn't what it's cracked up to be.
All this and she still has to find The Book of Shadows....
July 24, 2012
Getting Back in Amazon's Good Graces
Last week I mentioned that I had a little tussle with Amazon over a story I'd written several years ago. In short, they believed I didn't write the story, and I believed I did. They threatened to suspend my account over it. This made me sad.
Not long after I mentioned the issue, I received emails and comments from authors who had a similar experience with Amazon and shared my frustration. Obviously, Amazon has some work to do in this area.
In the end, however, I managed to get back in Amazon's good graces, and my account has been restored. I even received a nice little apology from them. I'm still not entirely sure why Amazon flagged one of my stories as suspect or what I could've done differently to prevent this from happening in the first place, but whatever. It's over.
I can say that if you run into a similar problem, what seemed to work best for me was contacting Author Central. Since KDP does not have a support number, you have to email them with any questions or concerns. In the past, they've been very helpful, but for this issue, that route didn't work.
Even though Author Central is a different department, they must work with the KDP folks in some capacity, because a few days after contacting an actual person, the problem was resolved. My suggestion to you is as soon as you receive an email from Amazon regarding a problem with one of your stories, contact Author Central immediately. It'll save you a lot of aggravation.
Good luck!
Not long after I mentioned the issue, I received emails and comments from authors who had a similar experience with Amazon and shared my frustration. Obviously, Amazon has some work to do in this area.
In the end, however, I managed to get back in Amazon's good graces, and my account has been restored. I even received a nice little apology from them. I'm still not entirely sure why Amazon flagged one of my stories as suspect or what I could've done differently to prevent this from happening in the first place, but whatever. It's over.
I can say that if you run into a similar problem, what seemed to work best for me was contacting Author Central. Since KDP does not have a support number, you have to email them with any questions or concerns. In the past, they've been very helpful, but for this issue, that route didn't work.
Even though Author Central is a different department, they must work with the KDP folks in some capacity, because a few days after contacting an actual person, the problem was resolved. My suggestion to you is as soon as you receive an email from Amazon regarding a problem with one of your stories, contact Author Central immediately. It'll save you a lot of aggravation.
Good luck!
July 18, 2012
Amazon and the Big Bag of Suck
I wrote a short story a few years back called GARBAGE, INC. Nothing particularly memorable, but I needed something to read at a convention at the time, so that was what I went with. This was September 2010, if memory serves. A few weeks later, I decided to self-pub the story as an e-book, not because I had any dreams of retiring from the profits, but because I was interested in this new avenue of distribution--more or less, I wanted to test the waters. I published on Kindle and Smashwords, the latter meaning the story would be available at other e-tailers, including Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iTunes, etc.
I sold maybe 20 copies of the story since then.
Fast forward to April of this year. I thought I'd offer the story for free through the KDP Select Program. I'd had a decent amount of success with my MG novel EVE HALLOWS AND THE BOOK OF SHRIEKS when I offered it for free, and I wanted to see if I'd have similar success with GARBAGE, INC. Yeah, not even close. After 5 days, the story was downloaded about 200 times. I'd accomplished that in the first hour with BOOK OF SHRIEKS. Oh, well. Experiment over.
About a week after the free period ended, I received an email from Amazon stating that my account could potentially be terminated because Amazon's automated web scouring minions found GARBAGE, INC. still listed on Sony's Reader Store. Crap! I'd removed the story from Smashwords and had checked to make sure it'd been taken off B&N, Kobo, and iTunes, but I'd forgotten about Reader Store, mostly because I've never sold anything through Reader Store. It's the easiest one to forget.
I explained this to Amazon through email, and, as an act of goodwill, I unpublished the story from Kindle until the problem was resolved.
Amazon never responded. Sony removed the story from Reader Store. I thought everything was okay. I never republished the story again because, as I mentioned, I only sold 20 copies of the damn thing anyway. No big loss, as far as I was concerned.
Around the beginning of June, I received another email from Amazon:
Hello,
During a review of your catalog, we found that one or more of your titles contain content that is freely available on the web. Copyright is important to us – we want to make sure that no author or other copyright holder has their work claimed and sold by anyone else.
Garbage, Inc.
If, in fact, you are the sole owner of the publishing rights for the books listed above, please provide the URLs for all websites where you have previously published this or any other Kindle content. Please respond within five business days with the requested URLs so we can verify you have the sole publishing rights, or the books will be removed from sale in the Kindle Store. If the content of your book(s) are in the public domain, please confirm this and include the information you used to make this determination.
If you have already unpublished the books listed above, please reply with that information. We ask that you unpublish any other book that closely matches content that is freely available on the web for which you do not hold the sole publishing rights, or whose content is not in the public domain. If we discover any other titles you have submitted fail to comply with these conditions or do not meet our Content Guidelines in any other way, your account may be terminated.
Say what?
I responded that I was not aware the story had been distributed for free anywhere and asked if they could provide that information so I could correct it. I also informed Amazon that I unpublished the story back in April based on a prior email. I took complete responsibility for the issue, figuring I did something wrong. It was, after all, possible I'd published the story on some site and had forgotten about it. It happens. I'm a promotion whore. I put stuff all over the place and forget about it.
Once again, I received no response, so I also followed up with KDP support, and--shocking--received no response from them, either. Eventually, I let it go.
Yesterday, July 17, to be exact, I received yet another email from Amazon that my account has been suspended:
Hello,
We recently contacted you from kdp-quality@ regarding Kindle book(s) you have which contain content that is freely available on the web. You informed us that you have unpublished the following book(s):
Garbage, Inc. (ASIN: B00413QO8Y)
Because you have not proven that you hold exclusive rights, we have temporarily suspended your account. While your account is suspended, you will not be able to access or modify any books in your bookshelf.
To reinstate your account, please reply to {email address} with the following confirmation: “I confirm that I will remove any content for which I do not have the exclusive publishing rights and that I will adhere to all terms in the Content Guidelines when submitting new content.”
Until you respond to {email address} regarding this issue, your account will remain suspended. To prevent termination, we encourage you to review our content guidelines and unpublish any other books that may violate our policiesWhat? First of all, I removed the content back in April, so why are they bothering me now? Secondly, even though it's my content, I'd already removed it and begged for forgiveness several times. Thirdly, since this problem began, I have not received a single response from Amazon, except for increasingly threatening emails, to which, at this point, I'm not even sure what I did wrong.
As a next step, I contacted a representative from Amazon's Author Central, and he assured me the issue is with Amazon and not with me. He said he'll contact KDP directly to resolve the issue.
Maybe it'll get resolved, or maybe I'll get another threat, this time demanding my first born unless I can provide proof she is my child. Either way, Amazon needs to reevaluate how they handle such situations. It's frustrating as hell.
Look, I applaud Amazon for cracking down on cases where people are illegally uploading material and passing it off as their own, but what they're pulling here is just stupid.
I sold maybe 20 copies of the story since then.
Fast forward to April of this year. I thought I'd offer the story for free through the KDP Select Program. I'd had a decent amount of success with my MG novel EVE HALLOWS AND THE BOOK OF SHRIEKS when I offered it for free, and I wanted to see if I'd have similar success with GARBAGE, INC. Yeah, not even close. After 5 days, the story was downloaded about 200 times. I'd accomplished that in the first hour with BOOK OF SHRIEKS. Oh, well. Experiment over.
About a week after the free period ended, I received an email from Amazon stating that my account could potentially be terminated because Amazon's automated web scouring minions found GARBAGE, INC. still listed on Sony's Reader Store. Crap! I'd removed the story from Smashwords and had checked to make sure it'd been taken off B&N, Kobo, and iTunes, but I'd forgotten about Reader Store, mostly because I've never sold anything through Reader Store. It's the easiest one to forget.
I explained this to Amazon through email, and, as an act of goodwill, I unpublished the story from Kindle until the problem was resolved.
Amazon never responded. Sony removed the story from Reader Store. I thought everything was okay. I never republished the story again because, as I mentioned, I only sold 20 copies of the damn thing anyway. No big loss, as far as I was concerned.
Around the beginning of June, I received another email from Amazon:
Hello,
During a review of your catalog, we found that one or more of your titles contain content that is freely available on the web. Copyright is important to us – we want to make sure that no author or other copyright holder has their work claimed and sold by anyone else.
Garbage, Inc.
If, in fact, you are the sole owner of the publishing rights for the books listed above, please provide the URLs for all websites where you have previously published this or any other Kindle content. Please respond within five business days with the requested URLs so we can verify you have the sole publishing rights, or the books will be removed from sale in the Kindle Store. If the content of your book(s) are in the public domain, please confirm this and include the information you used to make this determination.
If you have already unpublished the books listed above, please reply with that information. We ask that you unpublish any other book that closely matches content that is freely available on the web for which you do not hold the sole publishing rights, or whose content is not in the public domain. If we discover any other titles you have submitted fail to comply with these conditions or do not meet our Content Guidelines in any other way, your account may be terminated.
Say what?
I responded that I was not aware the story had been distributed for free anywhere and asked if they could provide that information so I could correct it. I also informed Amazon that I unpublished the story back in April based on a prior email. I took complete responsibility for the issue, figuring I did something wrong. It was, after all, possible I'd published the story on some site and had forgotten about it. It happens. I'm a promotion whore. I put stuff all over the place and forget about it.
Once again, I received no response, so I also followed up with KDP support, and--shocking--received no response from them, either. Eventually, I let it go.
Yesterday, July 17, to be exact, I received yet another email from Amazon that my account has been suspended:
Hello,
We recently contacted you from kdp-quality@ regarding Kindle book(s) you have which contain content that is freely available on the web. You informed us that you have unpublished the following book(s):
Garbage, Inc. (ASIN: B00413QO8Y)
Because you have not proven that you hold exclusive rights, we have temporarily suspended your account. While your account is suspended, you will not be able to access or modify any books in your bookshelf.
To reinstate your account, please reply to {email address} with the following confirmation: “I confirm that I will remove any content for which I do not have the exclusive publishing rights and that I will adhere to all terms in the Content Guidelines when submitting new content.”
Until you respond to {email address} regarding this issue, your account will remain suspended. To prevent termination, we encourage you to review our content guidelines and unpublish any other books that may violate our policiesWhat? First of all, I removed the content back in April, so why are they bothering me now? Secondly, even though it's my content, I'd already removed it and begged for forgiveness several times. Thirdly, since this problem began, I have not received a single response from Amazon, except for increasingly threatening emails, to which, at this point, I'm not even sure what I did wrong.
As a next step, I contacted a representative from Amazon's Author Central, and he assured me the issue is with Amazon and not with me. He said he'll contact KDP directly to resolve the issue.
Maybe it'll get resolved, or maybe I'll get another threat, this time demanding my first born unless I can provide proof she is my child. Either way, Amazon needs to reevaluate how they handle such situations. It's frustrating as hell.
Look, I applaud Amazon for cracking down on cases where people are illegally uploading material and passing it off as their own, but what they're pulling here is just stupid.
July 3, 2012
Monroe County Book Expo 2012
I'll be signing books (along with a bunch of other fine authors) at Eastern Monroe Public Library on Saturday, July 21 from 10 AM-3 PM. I'll have plenty of goodies on hand, including, of course, copies of EVE HALLOWS AND THE BOOK OF SHRIEKS. So if you're in the area, stop on by.
Hope to see you there.
