It's a dog eat dog world!

 

I am a simple person; not unintelligent but maybe naïve. I write in a methodical way. I answer emails promptly. I do half an hour exercise on the treadmill most days. I try to eat healthily. I sound a bit boring but certain things do excite me. I love writing. I love organising the programme for my writing group. I enjoy supporting the group leaders in my ACW role as Groups’ Coordinator.

I introduce myself in this way to establish in your minds that I am not at all a rogue or a criminal but I nearly behaved in a less than Christian way to a fellow Christian author. What did I do? To explain I need to tell you a story.

My self-publishing journey began in 2015. My first attempts, to my embarrassment, resulted in poorly formatted, badly titled offerings with typos as an added extra. I’m sure we’ve all been there. Practice makes better, even if not perfect. I begin to master the art through talking to fellow writers on the ACW FB page, beginning my own writing group and scouring the internet for useful advice. And of course, lots of prayer.

Then I heard the most amazing opportunity indie writers had, to increase the distribution of their books, through IngramSpark. I couldn’t afford a professional editor but I did work at my formatting and was grateful to beta readers for their advice. I decided to self-publish a bible study devotional, “Is Faith Enough?” as an experiment before publishing a heartfelt bereavement experience “Pandemic Peaces”. (I slipped in those titles so any interested party can look me up on Amazon).

I was excited my books would reach a wider audience, especially when an invoice indicated a USA bookstore had bought some books. Not so great when the next invoice came and showed some negatives on it. What was this all about? I looked on the IngramSpark community forum to discover that some writers had gone bankrupt because they had been landed with bills they couldn’t pay. The problem was that the discounted distributors paid the authors less than the retail price but when books were returned the deduction was the full price which the customer had paid, resulting in a negative balance. I didn’t really understand how this could happen. Why would a bookshop return so many books. Yes, occasionally you get a badly printed copy but not in huge numbers, surely?

Well, I panicked. I withdrew my two books and closed my account with IngramSpark.

Fast-forward to last week and a conversation with my son.

“Did you know that you can return books on audible?”

“No, I didn’t so how does that work?”

“You don’t have to give a reason, you just click on ‘return’ underneath the listing on your account page.”

Well, there was a book club selection I hadn’t enjoyed and had got it on audible because I didn’t want to read it. So, I tried it and it worked just as my son had said. I was returned a credit. The next day I thought about this again and realised that maybe that is what happened all those years with my books in Ingram. The returns. People had read them and then just returned them, thus debiting my account.

 So what was to stop me returning all the books I had read. I looked at the titles. Some of them were Christian writers frequently featured in ACW page and “Christian Writer”.

I did my research. Did this mean that if I returned a book the author would not receive their royalty. Sadly yes. What seemed like a good idea for the customer, could become the author’s nightmare. Did I want to do that to my fellow Christian authors? It’s not illegal. It is unethical. I won’t be returning books or audibles unless there is a genuine mistake or bad print/recording. Shame on you distributors and Audible.

Sadly, we are in a world where ‘try it and buy it’ and ‘don’t like it, take it back’ is commonplace. The consumer rules.

About the Author

Rosalie Weller is an ordained minister in the Uniting Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa. She has contributed to “Closer to God” the South African Scripture Union Devotional in 2020, 2023 and 2024, Worship & Word UPCSA Devotional 2024. She has written several bible study guides, available on Amazon, a historical novel, and a bereavement journal. Her YouTube channel highlights a biblical reflection and an original poem every month. Website www.rosalieweller.com