I know I’ve already got Patreon and Ream, but FYI, y’all:
Readers can now buy me coffees on … Buy Me a Coffee and Ko-Fi!* 😃
I primarily created this as an option for readers who wanted to support my writing, but didn’t want to commit to a monthly subscription. So if you’re one of those, rejoice!
(And thanks in advance for your coffees. 😊)
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*Why both? The TL;DR is that Buy Me a Coffee goofed and then fixed the problem, but I’d already set up a Ko-Fi in a fit of indignant rage and figured I might as well keep it. 😆
The long story is:
A week after starting my Buy Me a Coffee page and getting a surprising number of tips, BMC spontaneously suspended my account for unspecified “risk concerns”/terms of service violations. When I contacted them to ask for more detail, the reason changed to illegal use of copyrighted material … that I didn’t actually post on the site (and, like, own myself to begin with). It had also changed to a permanent ban. 😮
Anyway, I put all my powers of Polite Southern Lady With A Customer Service Voice to use and replied with a version of , “Y’all, I appreciate the vigilance in defending creatives’ copyrights, but it’s totes ridiculous that I’m being perma-banned for this without even the opportunity to prove I own the material.”
I fully expected BMC to maintain its decision, given how silly it was to begin with … but lo and behold, I got an email this morning saying my account had been re-activated! 😃
Which is to say, big props to Buy Me a Coffee for actually listening to me and fixing the problem. I was fully ready to fire off a warning to my author pals about it … but I also believe in rewarding good customer service, and while my beginning experience was sub-optimal, the speed and ease with which I was re-activated was pretty great.
Also to say, if you’re an author and get a similar deactivation – which I’m pretty sure is bot/algorithm-triggered to begin with – all it takes is a thoughtfully-worded email (or two in my case) to fix the issue.
Also NOTE: Readers who contributed to my Buy Me A Coffee before his kerfuffle should soon receive refunds (if you haven’t already). Since it looked like your coffees were never going to be paid out to me when my account was “cancelled,” I pre-emptively refunded your payments to make double-sure your money actually made it back to you. The point’s moot now that my account is un-cancelled, but I just wanted to let you know, to avoid confusion!
