Just be good to each other.

 

  It just never seems to fail. Things are going well and then the proverbial wrench gets thrown in the fan. Over the last few days, one of the Breaking Rules Publishing authors showed their true colors, and it wasn’t pretty. When he came to us we had a conversation about his reputation. He let it be known that there were some people on Twitter that were out to get him. The comments that they are spreading were incorrect and they have been trying to bring him down for years. We gave him the benefit of the doubt and took him on.

          Well come to find out – those few Twitter people that are trying to warn the writing community about this guy – all true. It didn’t take long to figure that out.

          The decision, after some heated conversations, threats of a lawsuit on his part and rude comments to and about our authors left me to remove this writer from our website – Amazon and Kindle. Interestingly enough, after an inspiring conversation with our lawyer, we were reminded that nowhere in the contract does it say that we will place your book on our website – Amazon or Kindle. Of course, for sales purposes, it is in our best interest to place our authors there. However, when one of your authors threatens you with a lawsuit it might be best to distance yourself from them. So we have. Did we indirectly outsmart him? Possibly. Will he continue with a lawsuit? Well, the people on Twitter tell us that he has been threatening them for years and nothing has to their way yet – so the likelihood is – No. What I can tell you is that even after many requests to stop emailing and messaging us on Facebook we have had to block him. Of course, we will keep the emails for any such lawsuit to provide the harassment and signs of lack of integrity that he has.

          His continued responses of his rights were actually interesting and reminded me of the No Shirt – No Shoes – No Service sign you see on store windows. Right? Dude – this is my company, you have no rights here. You have the contract and we have not broken it. You don’t get to interpret it and you don’t have a say on how I should run my business and you don’t get to tell me what to do – make demands and now – you don’t have the right to promote your books on my website – Amazon or Kindle. You win!

          So what comes now? Well, as a few of our authors and my BFF have suggested – it’s time to put this guy up on a shelf and let his contract run out or wait for him to pull out. But for now – it’s business as usual. Has this been a waste of time? Yep – no question – dealing with him was like speaking to the highest-ranking narcissist on the planet. The good news, we don’t bend to bullies – submit to peer pressure or negotiate with terrorists. And that is pretty much how he was coming across.  

          As we move forward from this we plan to do a bit of a background check on the authors that are coming into our house. What we’re trying to do here is create a writing community. One where the members help to promote – support and encourage each other. What we don’t need is someone who has an ego the size of Texas and the character of 45. We need good people that want to see others advance as well as themselves and to help in that process.

          Now my rant is over. We’ll step over this guy and go on with our work and get it all done – and done well.

          Thank you for letting me get all of this off my chest. I thought it best to let you all know that this person will no longer be on our website. His reputation and rants will not shine on you in any way. It’s my job to protect you all from this – I will not fail.

          

          Thanks for all of your support and encouragement. I appreciate it – I really do.