Thursday, February 18, 2021

Update to my "Petty Gods Update"

For those of you who read my Petty Gods Update a couple of weeks ago, an update!

After receiving the notice, and making the post above, I started digging for email addresses and phone numbers for actual people at Lulu (since there's really no such thing as Customer Service there—I mean that literally, I don't think the department exists, as there is never anyone to talk to). 

So I actually found some found information, and dug my way into the system, leaving voice messages for everyone I felt could help my plight (trying to find out the source of the complaint so I could respond appropriately). I called and left messages for operations folks, and the COO. 

Two weeks passed, and I was pretty much resigned to having to start over at Lulu.com (because I still needed the resource for POD, especially for those overseas wanting my books).

Lo and behold, on Tuesday, I received the following email from Lulu.com:

Dear user,

We are not sure if you received our previous email. Your content was flagged during the printing process. ​

Upon further review, we have reinstated the content in question and the Lulu account. Your projects are now in draft status and you may complete the publication process from your Lulu account. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused and greatly appreciate your business. 

Please let us know if we can be of any further assistance.

Regards,
Questionable Content Team
Lulu Press, inc.

Did you read that? Did you see what happened? And when it happened?

During the printing process.

DURING THE FUCKING PRINTING PROCESS!!!

So it turns out, it wasn't even a DMCA complaint that TOOK DOWN MY ENTIRE FUCKING LULU.COM ACCOUNT!!! IT WAS ONE OF THEIR FUCKING VENDORS, WHO COULDN'T TAKE THE TIME TO LOOK AT THE COPYRIGHT PAGE OF THE BOOK TO SEE THAT ALL THE CONTENT WAS USED WITH PERMISSION OF THE ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTORS!!!

Good news is, my Lulu.com account is up and running again. 

Bad news is, I'm setting up an alternate account for ORC (the "official" publisher of Petty Gods), so it may be a couple of weeks before Petty Gods is available in print again. 

I'm also still debating how to handle the PDF version (which was previously available through DriveThruRPG, but I pulled when the Lulu thing happened, just for safety sake, until I was able to figure out what happened.)

Thanks for your patience!


17 comments:

  1. Quite the fiasco! Well-done on the sleuthing/persevering through the process, Richard! =)

    Allan.

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  2. I am glad this saga has come to a good end.

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  3. Ugggh... not fun at all.

    Would you offer the PDF over at lulu under ORC kinda like OSRIC dies via the First Edition Society?

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    1. Unfortunately, Lulu doesn't track PDFs downloads, nor do they keep records of those downloads or account for updates if anything changes. It's actually why I moved PDFs to RPGNow/DTRPG in the first place. It will be available again there soon.

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  4. Glad you are back! I need to order a print version of Wherein Evil Lies!

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    1. https://www.lulu.com/shop/richard-leblanc/wherein-evil-lies-dragon-horde-v2i1/paperback/product-24110025.html

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  5. Have you looked into DriveThru for POD? It didn't cost me much to have my Chanbara proofs sent to me in Korea (they were printed in the UK, I believe, not the US). They also arrived a lot faster than I expected. Of course, that was pre-COVID.

    Then again, I've heard Lulu and OBS both use the same actual printers for POD so it might get flagged again.

    Anyway, glad to hear things are working out.

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  6. Fantastic news! Glad it's sort-of resolved.

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  7. Thankful for your tenacity... 🧙🏻‍♂️🧙🏻‍♂️🧙🏻‍♂️

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  8. So glad to see this is getting updated with corrections. Bravo!

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  9. Any update to the update on the Petty Gods Update? :)

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  10. Hi Richard! When will Petty Gods be available? Thanks

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  11. Was there any luck in Reinstating Pretty Gods or does it remain Underground?

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  12. my essay on gods in begining had an edit that reversed my intent to a factual error id love to fix sometime

    konsumterra@gmail.com

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  13. Hi Richard, is there any development on Petty Gods POD? I'd like to buy it for Christmas if possible.

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