I spent a rather longer time and far more money than I wanted in order to self-publish this book. I did it because I felt it needed to be done. That the weaving community needed to hear this information. And it needed to have actual woven samples to truly bring home the message that every woven thing should be wet finished (unless there were special circumstances).
Over the years I have had people tell me my price was too high. I didn't do a good enough job to be asking that much money. But I had debt to pay for so I did not lower my price - I had to stick to my guns in order to pay the bank, pay for food, keep a roof over my head.
In the end I did finally sell all the copies (about 900). And then people still wanted the information.
So during my time of 'pause' while I was dealing with chemotherapy, I photographed all the samples, and a friend turned the text and photos into a PDF and I started selling those through my website using a Paypal link.
Mostly that has gone reasonably smoothly but every once in a while the internet fails and the buyer does not receive the PDF. Perhaps their service provider won't allow a file the size of the PDF or they haven't given permission to receive email from me or it gets caught in their spam file, or who knows?
When I launched the PDF of Magic on blurb, I almost closed the link on my website, but sales through my website continued, maybe 8 to 10 a year. So I left it.
But.
Once again someone paid for the PDF through my website and did not receive it. Six days later, they lodged a complaint with Paypal, saying that I was a fraudulent account. They never contacted me to see if I'd sent the file (I had). They just lodged a complaint.
Before I saw the accusation of fraudulence, I had forwarded the original email with the file attached.
I just now sent a message through Paypal to the customer saying that I had just re-sent the file, and because she had accused me of being fraudulent, I was also refunding her purchase price.
And then when I went to disable the link, of course I could not find it. After digging around in the bowels of Paypal for 20 minutes, I give up.
I will leave the link for now, and perhaps contact Paypal help/support to find out how to once and for all get rid of the two automatic links for Magic and Weave a V.
I am not hard to find. If someone has used my website to purchase something, they could have used the contact form to email me to find out if I'd sent the thing. But they didn't. They went straight to Paypal and made a baseless accusation.
If someone has a problem with me, I suggest they contact me. So if you hear rumours of me being a rip off artist or a fraud, please be aware that there is more to the story.
The only thing worse than this scenario is someone having a technical issue with blurb and expecting me to fix it. There is a reason I went with a third party provider.
So please, if you hear of anyone wanting a copy of Magic in the Water, it is available in print or PDF from http://blurb.ca If you are outside of Canada, use http://blurb.com
If someone wants a copy of Weave a V, I do still have some left and will be happy to sell you one.
2 comments:
When you were marketing "A Good Yarn," one segment that I purchased went astray somewhere between BC and California. I contacted you, and without question you sent a second copy (which reached me promptly). I will never forget that you absorbed the cost of the postal service's incompetence and didn't even ask for reimbursement for the additional postage. Anyone who complains to a third party before contacting you doesn't know you very well.
I’m sorry this has happened to you. Your book, Magic... was not overpriced. Mind boggling the number of creeps there are!
You have done so much for the weaving community. Much love & gratitude.
Post a Comment