Seventeen: Part Two

In December of this last year, I wrote a post about an experience I had where I received an influx of returns from Ingr@amSp@rk (IS). I wrote about the experience as a heads up for other indie writers who might be thinking of going this route. It took a month (and eight emails from me) to finally get something other than perfunctory answer about what was going on (I kept getting the same “here is our return policy copied and pasted from our website” rather than someone actually reading what I was asking).

I had reached out to some groups I was in on social media, as well as posted to the Authors Guild community board, and I got quite a lot of responses from folks going through the same thing. My writing bestie also had a slew of returns around this time.

My friend opted to reach out to IS and ask for a bill so that he could pay it off and get rid of the debt. They told him that’s not how they do things – the debt would be paid from future royalties.

Cut to earlier this year – an invoice arrived in my inbox. Not a bill. An invoice telling me that the card I have on file has been charged for an amount they deemed required based on these returns. There were three lines – all with the same description, all with a quantity of one, and all three different prices. Nowhere on this entire invoice did it tell me how many book returns I was being charged for, or even what I was being charged for – like printing versus shipping:

I got on the IS chat and demanded to know what the specific math was for these charges; I also asked what the timeline was for when they move from “paid by future royalties” to “we charged your card for the entire amount.” The chat got nowhere, and they asked if they could email me the answers within twenty-four hours. I said ok.

They responded by coping and pasting the compensation policy and hitting send. I wrote reiterating my questions, ready to have another month-long back and forth. They said they had to forward my request to someone else. In this case, I did get an email a few days later with an answer to the first question. They neglected to answer the second.

To me, this is utterly ridiculous. I shouldn’t have to demand math on what they are charging me – this should be transparent on that initial invoice sent.

My writing bestie has opted to end their relationship with IS, and I don’t blame them. I will be following suit once I can find an alternative. Again, just another heads up if you are considering self-publication.