The Fussy Librarian

When you get your first book traditionally published it's a thrilling event. Even with all the work that as gone into marketing and promotion, it's still been exciting, dare I say fun. One of the things I did to help promote my debut novel was contact newspapers, multiple marketing websites such as Ereader, Awesome Books, The Fussy Librarian, etc.

Each of them had a form to fill out including author information and the description of my book. As The Bully deals with multiple social and family issues, including sexual assault, and racial violence, I felt it was important to post a trigger warning in each ad.

Through Awesome Books, I was contacted by another “author” who blatantly brags about his abuses of trafficked women of color, as if it's one big party. Horrifying that any man who does what he does believes he's not doing anything wrong.

I don't blame Awesome for that. They do their job, they do it very well and I've been pleased with their services.

The Fussy Librarian on the other hand...I don't even know what to think. I paid for their marketing services, I indicated dates that I'd like the ad to go out. The ad went out two days late, and, they cut and edited the book description without checking with me first. But the worst part? I specifically noted a trigger warning for graphic violence, sexual violence, and racial violence. Because the story depicts very important issues within American families and society.

When the ad in The Fussy Librarian went up, it noted sexual violence, animal cruelty and torture, nothing was said about racial violence. Not one single word.

I contacted the “Head Librarian” in regards to this and he said, there wasn't enough room in the “space races” and it had to be cut to fit the template. So, it would seem to me, The Fussy Librarian thinks less of the rights of People of Color than the rights of animals.

There are three more ads coming out that I had previously purchased from them before I was aware of what they had done. There is nothing I can do to stop that. There was no point in arguing, or pointing out his wrongness for what he'd done. He showed within that first email that he was only going to justify his choice. However, from this point forward, I will never use The Fussy Librarian and I recommend that no one else use them either.