Tor Books is very scared of me. So scared they’re trying to shut my promotional platforms down by having their followers mass report me after they harass and gaslight me. It’s absolutely crazy that a company would do this, but this is where we are in 2018. Why? I’m a #1 Amazon Bestseller, a successful crowdfunder, an award winning author. All without their approval.
I mentioned the other day how Tor employee and the EIC’s wife Teresa Neilsen Hayden started harassing me on Twitter by making a passive aggressive snide remark on my character and telling her following I’m not really a #1 Amazon Bestseller (I am). I naturally sent her a screen shot back to prove the fact, but it didn’t matter. This was the first time she had interacted with me ever, and it was an attack from her position at Tor with the obvious attempt of trolling an independent author:
Teresa spent a whole day harassing me and fellow conservative author Robert Kroese. She’d tap in threads, make absurd claims specifically with the intention of getting us angry by broadcasting complete lies, and then block anyone other than the authors themselves who said anything about it to make it appear as if there was an echo chamber responding only on her side and that there as no dissent from what she was saying. She spent a FULL DAY targeting me over and over and then blocked me once I posted too many facts about her falsehoods. She sent dozens of tweets in this harassment effort.
After it was determined she couldn’t get away with lying about my Bestseller status, she immediately proceeded to bash the bestseller tag as if it were no accomplishment. She spent another FULL DAY doing this over multiple tweets, engaging a hugo nominee in the process to help make the attack escalate and create a “pile on” effect.
Then she had the gall to act as if I were the aggressor for questioning why this is okay with Tor that someone very public from their company goes out and harasses independent authors and tries to knock them down as they’re getting to a successful point. That is not an ethical thing to do with your competition as a large corporation, after all:
But that didn’t stop there. Even though I’m blocked, not responding, have moved on for my life. All of yesterday was still a “I hate JDA even though I’ve never interacted with him” day on her feed with multiple character assassination attempts:
Ironically, she most recently has accused me of “predatory behavior” which is exactly what she’s doing from her position at Tor:
She even got other authors like Steven Brust, Wesley Chu, and James SA Corey to jump on a pile on of me and start making nasty tweets about me, mocking my bestseller status. But what did Twitter do? Well, her fans mass reported me in an effort to hold me down.
Twitter blamed the victim. Why? Because I’m conservative and they’re the liberal publishing establishment. Now I’m out of being able to use my promotional platform for a week because Tor Books harassed me. This is more than messed up, and I believe it was completely intentional on Teresa’s part. I’m now shut down and unable to promote my books to my 5,000 fans for a whole week:
It makes sense. I was getting HUGE momentum. I still have my #1 Bestseller, they can’t take that away from me. But the very week after that, I’ve launched a crowdfund campaign in a completely different genre – superhero comics, and that’s proving to do well also. In just 3 days I’ve gotten 95% of my funding goal of $6,000. This scares the hell out of the establishment because not only am I doing great on Amazon, but now I’m showing I can be a fundraising machine for creative projects.
Moreover, my books are all better than theirs. Even though Tor author Steven Brust wants to throw shade at me without reading my books in an effort to keep the gatekeeping going:
I can’t promote my project anymore. They took that away from me, and that is very wrong for a big company like Tor to do on every level. Please go out and share this post and share Flying Sparks with the community. They’re not going to hold me back or slow me down for a second. I’ll just find other avenues and you will NOT silence me, Teresa.
For people who pride themselves on being so much smarter than the rest of us, they’re remarkably bad at realizing when they’re playing directly into your hands.
Clearly they are too stupid to understand the Streisand Effect. Once again, that’s to Jon’s benefit.
But clearly another example of what the President said about the foul and illegal actions of Twitter.
I feel that feel. Twitter has me banned for a few more days over a tweet a moderator obviously took out of context because a mere look at my friends lists reveals I’m not racist,homophobic,transphobic, or sexist. My friends are a very diverse bunch. I’ve seen “other people” constantly get away with lewd/crude/potentially offensive posts with the biggest difference between us usually being a blue checkmark.
What pains me about this story is you already seemed to be picking up steam and doing well for yourself before this power-mad woman brought the axe down on your writing career. (Mostly because you complimented someone she didn’t like,big whoop.Not everyone always has the same opinions,that’s just real life!)
Regardless, as someone who writes and draws I’ve found it increasingly tough to get my work out there as well,and it’s partially because I too have had positive things to say about most of the people within comicsgate and gamergate.
Anyway,don’t give up. “Someday” we’ll be beyond this petty nepotism as Jericho comes crumbling down but it may require us to fight and be a bit louder in the meantime. Never be silenced and never be forgotten!
Hi Jon,
Will you be offering worldwide shipping for Flying Sparks eventually? I see it’s USA only at the moment.
Hey Guillermo — I added in new tiers for international shipping today! Thank you for the support.
Sounds like Tor doesn’t like having competition from indie authors.
My jaw is on my chest. She has an insane meltdown on Twitter, and *you* get banned.
I’d say appeal it, but by the time they’d get to it, you’d be back on again. And you’re getting indirect attention – other people are telling this story for you, so you may come out ahead in the long run. I certainly hope you do.
Dear Jon: There’s a saying that applies here:
“Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level and beat you with their superior experience.”
There’s no point in arguing with either of the Haydens. There’s no point in arguing with a Trotskyite such as Steven Brust (of whom I was once a fan). Indeed, there’s no point in arguing with anyone in the SJW Left. Their positions are religious in nature; they did not reach them through an exercise of reasoning or the examination of evidence.
Several other commentators have advised ridicule. Sometimes that works. But in the event that it doesn’t, or that you become tired of the whole mess, a snort and a dismissive wave will suffice. Being dismissed enrages them about as much as being laughed at.
Dear Mr. Del Arroz,
Other people have said it better – the Torlings are stupid, small and have the maturity of middle-school mean girls; keep your chin up, reasonable people don’t believe them; all those good things that are true and real. Me? I just bought more of your books from Amazon. If I ever need to get a book from TOR (hasn’t happened in a couple of years), I will go to my favorite local used bookstore.
It stings to have people lie about you. But keep focused, keep writing, I’ll keep purchasing.
As a fellow hispanic and comic artist, I am glad to see this project prosper. I made some fanart for you!:
https://walterbl6.tumblr.com/post/176400269874/fanart-of-flying-sparks-by-jon-del
I am sorry about the twitter stuff. This highlights the need for alternative social media channels.
Thank you!!! 🙂 I appreciate the work will share the fanart around.
I read a lot of science fiction and fantasy. Can’t say I’ve read anything by Stephen Brust. He’s not as popular as he thinks he is.
“Why? I’m a #1 Amazon Bestseller, a successful crowdfunder, an award winning author. All without their approval.
I mentioned the other day how Tor employee and the EIC’s wife Teresa Neilsen Hayden started harassing me on Twitter by making a passive aggressive snide remark on my character and telling her following I’m not really a #1 Amazon Bestseller (I am). I naturally sent her a screen shot back to prove the fact, but it didn’t matter” well show us because I checked and you aren’t doing well on amazon…you need to show this. Otherwise it sounds like self promotion.