Please don't treat me this way. #rant
An author stopped payment on an advertising package, the dispute being one of no communication. The claim was that I had not made contact with the author.
To be fair, that is a likely scenario. I'm often slow to respond, and it isn't unheard of for me not to respond at all. My email organization leaves much to be desired. I'm working on it.
On top of that, I have really bad depression, so if your email lands in my inbox at the wrong time of my roller coaster of mental instability, I could miss it altogether, thinking that I will get to it during a better time, only to lose it in the onslaught of new emails.
But that wasn't the case with this scenario. The author's email was not lost. I didn't respond to the first one, but there was a good reason for that, which applies to most authors. If you have purchased a long-term promo that gets put on the site when it falls into the lineup, I may not respond to your inquiry about when it will run.
I don't always have time to answer all those emails, especially if the promo is soon to arrive. If I am behind on promos, I may give you a blanket response saying that I don't know when it will run but that I did receive the payment.
I really don't know when a promo will run. I simply do them in order. I don't actually schedule them, so asking me such is wasted effort.
The promo in question ran a few days after payment went through, less than a week, which is pretty good turn around time since so many people have been buying promos recently. Since I put the author's Twitter handle in the post title, I don't usually bother with an email to tell them the post is up. It should be more than obvious once they get on Twitter.
It wasn't obvious to this author for some unknown reason. Even after going back and forth with this author, I couldn't figure out what happened. How the author missed more than a hundred tweets with their handle in the tweet is beyond me.
After the author missed the promo and the onslaught of tweets, they contacted me via the contact form on the site. The page clearly states that it isn't the best way to get ahold of me. But in this case, I did send an email to the address provided, answering the question about payment and the post.
That email was not received by the author. Even when I gave proof of that email, the author still wanted to blame me. It was not my fault. I did what I was paid to do. It wasn't my fault the author missed the promo, the tweets, and the email from me.
Please don't stop payment if you haven't heard from me or think that I have stiffed you somehow. Please email again. And again if necessary. Even on my worst days, I will see that email or that third email and respond. Stopping payment is irritating, especially since we aren't talking about very much money. Most of my promos are under $30.
My prices are cheap because of the way I do business among other factors. I don't charge enough to give each author email consultations.
Since most authors don't miss promotional tweets from me and are usually happy to wait in line, I'm not going to change my email policy because of this incident. I don't email authors to let them know their post is scheduled or upcoming, and I don't email when the post goes live. I also may not respond to an email that asks about timing. It will be obvious when the post goes live.
Once again, if an author is really concerned, please email again. Don't stop payment.
If you buy a long term advertising package, it could be weeks before I get to you depending on what's going on at the time. Know that when you purchase it. If you want faster service, buy a short term package instead where you get to pick the date. Even in that case, please give me at least a week to put a short term package together. Getting one together in a day or two can be too much sometimes.
Edit: since my email is clear, as described HERE, I will try to answer more of the types of email described in this post, but that doesn't mean my answers will change much. For example, I will probably simply say something like, "I don't know when it will run, but you are in the queue."
Rant concluded.
