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Dear CreateSpace Validation Request Team:
Why is it that after
reading this email I have no idea why I am receiving it?
What caused me to get this email? What is the problem
that started all this? Why am I not told what the
problem is? Again, if a problem exists, why am I not
told what it is?
The message seems to
make a very specific point of not bothering to say what
it's talking about. Indeed, it goes out of its way to be
vague and leave out information that is basic to the
issue. It implies that there is a problem and then goes
to great lengths not to say what it is.
If there is a problem, the author needs to know.
Conspicuous
by its absence is any information not just on what the
problem itself is
but also about what the consequences are for not
responding within four days. This would seem to be
esssential information. One sees only "To publish your
book..." What? It's been published for ages. This makes
no sense.
Authors have an interest in what is
going on with regard to their intellectual property
rights and with the status of their books on
CreateSpace. If the "CreateSpace
Validation Request Team" has
detected a problem, it must not indulge in this kind of
wholesale coyness; it MUST be specific about what the
problem is.
However, it
isn't. No one who receives this email really knows if
the problem is that someone is stealing THEIR work or if
(more likely?) THEY are being suspected of stealing
ANOTHER person's work or (if they click on the "To learn
more" link) if they are being suspected of endless other
no-nos including publishing pornography!
It's clear
that the "CreateSpace Validation Request Team" has some
reason to suspect somebody of
malfeasance of some kind or another—but it doesn't
bother to say if it's you doing
it or someone else or even what the malfeasance is. You
aren't told if you're the victim or the perpetrator of
whatever it is that you also aren't told!
The email
also seems to scold and threaten the CreateSpace authors
this way: "If you
publish books for which you do not hold the publishing
rights, you may lose access to optional services or
your account may be terminated."
Item: My CAT knows
it's illegal to do that, and I don't especially
appreciate the innuendo that I have broken the law. If
the "CreateSpace
Validation Request Team" is
suggesting that I have committed a crime, they should
come out and say so directly, and I will insist upon being
presented with evidence. But the team seems to have an
aversion to saying anything directly or clearly.
Since the
email so successfully tries its very best to communicate
precisely nothing, I had to call the help line to find
out what this was all about.
Although
your excellent phone representative and I were still
only guessing what this email was about, it would appear
that perhaps the
"CreateSpace Validation Request Team" had found that I
had put my books online on my web domain www.tomhascallcole.com and for
that reason has now "suppressed" one of my titles!
Since the
"team" has gone out of its way to exclude the most
essential information, that explanation is only a
guess—but that could be it. And
now I
know what the four-day deadline was about and what the consequences were:
"suppression" of the book.
(The
message itself said, "To publish your book" respond
within four days. But I didn't understand
because...er...I had already "published" the book ages ago.
Obviously, the email should have
said, "Send us something or other or we'll SUPPRESS your
already published title." If the "team" is going to
"suppress" my title, shouldn't this be MENTIONED in the
email?)
At any
rate, if I am correct in my guess that my online copy of
the book is what caused this, please un-suppress my
file. Anything I have published with CreateSpace that is
under the domain name tomhascallcole.com has my
blessing.
All of my
CreateSpace works (both English and Spanish versions)
were written by me alone and
all rights belong to me. For this reason, I appreciate
CreateSpace's concern to protect my intellectual
property rights and those of all the other authors.
My book is
"suppressed" but pains seem to have been taken not to
tell me why. Please reply and tell me specifically why I
received this email and why my book was
suppressed.
Cordially,
Tom Cole
PS: I also
received an email the same day from the "CreateSpace
Validation Request Team" that began:
Hello Tom
In it, I am thanked
for sending the mystery information requested (which I
did not send) and I am informed that all is well and my
files are going through the review process in 24 hours.
This would appear to
be the wrong email.
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