You’d think the hard part of being an indie writer is actually finishing and publishing your work. For me it’s also the fun part. Then, of course, you’re supposed to know everything about cover design, blurb writing, keyword picking and spending a lot of time on social media to find your tribe and tell them your work exists.

This summer, I’ve added detective and lawyer to that work.

When Belleville – Prospector Finch’s Harem Adventures part 1 got its first review it hurt. It was a one-star review telling everyone it was a mess, probably written by AI and to stay away from it. It hurt to see months of work be casually and wrongly dismissed. On top of that, Amazon uses that first negative review to lower the book’s visibility.

I kept writing, of course, because that is what writers do!

When I announced Ilzed – Prospector Finch’s Harem Adventures part 3 on Facebook’s Haremlit group, I was surprised by a comment asking me if I had used AI to write it. The tone and words they used reminded me of that initial one-star review. And when Ilzed also got a one-star review as its first review, I realized something was going on.

I became a detective.

This is what I found out:

1. A user name AbbeFaria left a one-star review of my first book, despite no verified purchase.
2. Their account has only that one review, and the profile name is a fake name. Currently the reviews are hidden on his profile, but not where they were posted. To me, this appears to be a way to avoid being discovered.
3. On Facebook, a user named Stephen Leavy responded critically to my book announcement using the same words and tone. In a separate post, he mentioned working on a haremlit book. Shortly afterward, a one-star review appeared on Amazon from Steve Dirickson also mentioning the story’s been written by AI. Again, no verified purchase.
4. I strongly suspect that “Stephen Leavy,” “Steve Dirickson,” and “AbbeFaria” are the same person, as the language, tone, and terminology used in both the Facebook comment and the review are strikingly similar.
5. Additionally, Steve Dirickson appears to have posted similar one-star reviews targeting other authors in the same haremlit genre using the same kind of comments in their reviews.
6. Then, on the haremlit channel on Discord, Stephen, using the name ”Devon Hexx,” refers to our discussion about his Facebook comments. Here again, he mentions that I may have used AI to write my books. If you read it, it can be seen as positive, but I’m probably sensitive to the more dismissive tone of the post.

I’m the kind of person who feels bad about leaving a three-star review on books. I’ve stopped doing that. I know how much effort writing a book takes. And I also find there’s a difference between a ’badly written’ book and a book that I simply didn’t like.

Anyway, I told Amazon what was happening and got no reply. So, here I am, targeted by a heckler, ignored by Amazon customer service, and the discoverability of my work being impaired by the Amazon algorithms. So, I left. I decided to make my own book store. It was a wonderful feeling of freedom – and a whole lot of work that I would have preferred to use for writing.

So, happy about my shinny new store, I got another surprise: someone probably used my epubs to publish my work on Amazon. One of the Reddit group moderators noticed this and informed me.

And now, I’m a lawyer trying to get Amazon to take those books down. Two parts are already down, the last one is still under review.

Apparently, I’m damned if I’m on Amazon, and I’m damned if I’m not.

I could grin and bear it because someone feels threatened by my excellent work and someone feels they can make money off my excellent work. But that’s not what I feel at all. I feel very vulnerable and alone.

Maybe I should just write for my personal enjoyment instead. Take everything down and make a fun hobby without all the stress. I don’t know.

This summer, I tried to figure out what to do. And, of course, I have to start with you, my readers. Most haremlit readers like to read their stories on KindleUnlimited. So, I’m returning to Amazon to make sure my stories are on KU.

Because of all the work involved to publish the latest versions of the books and wondering how to best use my website as my book hub, and coping with the heckling and piracy, I haven’t made the transition yet. And I really wanted to spend all this time writing instead.

It will happen soon, so please bear with me for a little longer.