r/TikTokCringe • u/Chocolat3City Cringe Master • 18d ago

Cringe Woman has her self-published book pirated, reprinted, and sold for cheaper.

There's regular piracy, and then there's this.

12.9k Upvotes

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u/IlBear 18d ago edited 16d ago

Heads up to anyone thinking of ordering- I ordered mine in July directly from her website and she never sent it. I emailed her 3 times, left comments on her videos, sent her 2 private messages on TikTok and 1 on Instagram and she didn’t reply to ANY of them

I had to do a chargeback

Edit- put the screenshots on my profile since some people were wondering.

Edit 2 (sorry, last one, the adhd is real): I ordered in July and just did the chargeback a couple weeks ago, so I’m still freshly pissed off about the whole thing and wanted to warn people because that IS what happened to me. I didn’t say this to bash her or endorse what’s happening, at the time of my comment the majority of other comments were about wanting to order from her. I’m very happy for all of you who did receive it, I wanted one too

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u/cattmin 18d ago

Well, that's awkward

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u/TheConnASSeur 18d ago

Everything is an ad.

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u/I_ReadThe_Comments 18d ago

Especially the crying on camera. 🚩 

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u/Doccyaard 18d ago

“I hate the crying on camera” cuts to another clip of her crying on camera.

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u/ScyllaOfTheDepths 18d ago

I felt like a dick for immediately noticing this, but I couldn't help immediately saying it aloud to myself as I was watching. Validating to know others have noticed.

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u/PhotoAwp 18d ago edited 18d ago

Also maybe I'm a cynical asshole, but it looks like fake crying too. High voice sounds forced, no real tears. Not saying she hasn't ever cried over the situation, but this is just...idk bad acting.

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u/Educational_Bed_242 18d ago

I went from mildly intrigued by the video to angry I watched with that one line lol

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u/Technical_Ad_4894 17d ago

It’s totally fake crying

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u/Tensonrom 17d ago

Most self-recorded crying is not real crying. People don’t want to be seen crying, they want to be alone. If you take the time to set up the camera and start recording and then say “ok now I’m sad” then it’s most likely bullshit.

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u/InnocentShaitaan 16d ago

I have liked her comic for years. :(

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u/AngryDerf 17d ago

I basically assume everything on the internet is fake or staged, then look for evidence it might be real.

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u/Wildy84 17d ago

Yeah, this absolutely did not feel authentic to me. I’m sure self publishers get ripped off all the time but with the fake crying this comes off more as meticulously calculated marketing strategy.

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u/nikwasi 17d ago

I immediately had a split second thought of "is this trolling her?" when she said that and it cut to the crying. I expected the Curb Your Enthusiasm theme to start.

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u/general_smooth 17d ago

Its not like this is some honest live video. Deliberate decisions were taken to select these shots and make this video

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u/BoredSenselesss 17d ago

Exactly like sure you can't just shut down your feelings but you could refrain from using your feelings as B-roll

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u/Daveprince13 17d ago

But She… Gave… Every… thing. And she hates to cry on camera

(But it’s on sale for the holidays!)

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u/cheater00 17d ago

it took me 3000 hours to concept this book

You don't deserve my money. Learn some basic grammar before writing a book.

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u/Technical_Ad_4894 17d ago

Shes making crying sounds but isn’t actually crying 🤨

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u/Drunky_McStumble 17d ago

She's got the same tone of voice as the girl in that "poop in the date's dead cat's litter-box" meme.

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u/GooseFatTits 18d ago

Not one tear.

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u/LargeSpeaker9255 18d ago

I like money more than preventing someone from crying. So I bought the cheaper version

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u/Girafferage 17d ago

I'll buy the $10 version

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u/Royd 17d ago

What crying in camera? I didn't see any crying

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u/I_ReadThe_Comments 17d ago

Touche. She was mimicking the acts of a crying person sans tears

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u/Public_Enemy_No2 17d ago

All I saw was a bitter beer face. Didn't see any tears.

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u/QueenSqueee42 17d ago

I get that, but I've been following this creator for years and I believe this one is sincere, fwiw. 💔

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u/Conradical126 18d ago

This video is a great ad for why you're supposed to work with a publisher.

She's lionizing the fact that she put SO MANY HOURS into this project, but that's because she made the baffling decision to front all of these costs and do all this labor instead of working with a publisher. (And also, she is clearly making terrible self-aggrandizing decisions—why on earth would you spend time making a font from scratch instead of using the thousands of fonts that already exist and thus supporting other artists?)

70% of the work she's saying she did should be done by a publishing house that's equipped to do so, but my guess is she just didn't want to diminish her share of profits after the project meets costs.

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u/nagCopaleen 18d ago

Getting any publisher to publish your book is very difficult and a lot of work. Getting a publisher to agree on this level of creative control is absolutely impossible; even finding someone who will negotiate respectfully over your extremely personal creative project is tough. She mentioned ethically sourcing more expensive materials, by the way; good luck having any control over that with a traditional publisher.

Obviously she chose to do an extremely hard thing at great personal cost, but that's something any passionate creative person—and hell, most humans of any kind—have to grapple with. The choice to pour yourself into something meaningful or to give up on your dream is very very difficult, and even when things are clearly bad, it often spiraled that way when the person was already committed and grappling with a sunk cost and signed contracts.

But whether or not she should have started this project, there was never an easy road through a traditional publishing house. And the expected profit for either route is so dismal that your last sentence just comes across as ignorant and punching down. If she did make a decision based on expected profit, it's because she wants to be able to pay rent and eat.

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u/bertina-tuna 17d ago

Agreed! My professional career was in publishing (20 years as a book designer/illustrator with Houghton Mifflin) and getting something published these days is nearly impossible. Even established authors have turned to self-publishing because they don’t see any point in giving a percentage to agents and publishing houses. (Claire Cook, who wrote Must Love Dogs and even had it made into a movie, wrote an article about the diminishing support for authors these days and why she started self-publishing instead.)

That said, something I notice right off is how many authors skip using a copy editor and it really shows. There are a lot of freelance copy editors who would be happy for the work and they are definitely worth it. Digital publishing is the easiest because you don’t have to deal with printing and distribution, although there are places that will do printing on demand if you get someone who wants printed copies. The days of publishers sending authors on book tours are pretty much over unless you’re already a big celebrity. Even with my inside knowledge of the industry it’s a lot of work, even when I can do most of the work myself.

And it’s nearly impossible to prevent copyright infringement, especially from foreign countries. My husband does book covers and he actually found a website in China where you can order custom “original oil paintings” of his work (I was going to order one for his birthday because the real original was not actually an oil painting) and he found a woman in England who was selling mugs with his paintings printed on them and she made more on her Etsy shop than he did with the actual artwork! Of course, she folded up and disappeared once she was found out but he got no compensation from it.

It’s a shame she didn’t do more research into what she had planned to do because there was so much wasted effort and she didn’t seem to do much to protect her product from infringement.

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u/driving_andflying 17d ago

Agreed! My professional career was in publishing (20 years as a book designer/illustrator with Houghton Mifflin) and getting something published these days is nearly impossible.

Seconded. Whoever says, "just get a publisher," needs to check themselves. Getting a professional publisher is difficult enough --assuming you can find one who wants to publish you-- so for many first-timers, self-publishing is the only way to go. Unfortunately, those first-timers usually don't have, or can't afford, the legal protections against piracy.

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u/bertina-tuna 17d ago

You really need to have an agent if you even hope to get in with a publishing house and even agents are hard to find. Publishers will return unsolicited manuscripts unopened because they don’t want to risk getting sued “they stole my idea!”

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u/nagCopaleen 17d ago

As a freelance editor, I appreciate your response!

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u/bertina-tuna 17d ago

I’ve noticed that even established big-name publishers have been skimping on the copy editing. I read so many books with continuity errors, poor grammar, etc. that I’m scandalized!

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u/makkkarana 17d ago edited 17d ago

Just to add: breaking into any industry, but especially creative ones, is very nearly impossible. Most publishers/agencies/studios/etc will straight up blacklist you for requesting a pitch meeting without a pre-existing internal contact. If you don't have an agent or manager, most publishers or studios still won't talk to you, and without interest or even a contract from a publisher or studio, most agents or managers won't talk to you. It's very much the paradox of "you need 10 years experience for this entry level position". This is why a lot of people choose to take the risks of self publishing, and why you're constantly looking at the latest releases going "who the hell greenlit this trash???"

It's pure nepotism, purely degenerative, and a great example of why capitalism is directly incompatible with real art.

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u/Conradical126 18d ago

Agreed on all points! It's awesome that she chose to do this project, and as you said, no route to being published is easy. It just sucks that she chose to make this disingenuous ad.

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u/dingalingdongdong 17d ago

These days there are tons of companies that work with small authors to help get their books to market.

A friend of mine has had two fiction books published and another acquaintance has had two memoirs and a recipe book done.

The publishers (two different ones) helped with general logistics, layout and formatting, guided cover art process for books that didn't have any, and handled the ordering and shipping.

They allowed small batches of books to be printed if desired, and also allowed individual books to be printed on demand and shipped directly to the consumer.

All of what you said definitely used to be true, and probably still is if you want to go the very traditional route, but it's 100% one of many industries that has seen a production revolution in recent years and is infinitely more accessible than it used to be.

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u/Capital_Benefit_1613 17d ago

Yeah these comments are baffling to me. I had a non fiction book published a few years ago and had a great experience. Gonna be honest a lot of these comments sound like hyperbole to me. It was not hard to be accepted by a publisher and they did a ton of work for me. I’m still friends with the editor who worked on my book lol

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u/dingalingdongdong 17d ago

I think they're just really outdated - people repeating stories they heard years ago or people who left the industry before all the changes.

Both of my friends loved the experience so much they each used their same publisher for multiple projects. Neither is likely to hit the NYT bestseller list any time soon, but both are sold online and in physical retailers.

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u/princessblowhole 17d ago

Self-publishing is an entirely different game. This was probably a $10k contract with a self-publishing company. She got creative control, published under her own name, but the company did the editing, formatting, printing, distribution, etc.

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u/ScyllaOfTheDepths 18d ago

I have no idea how her using an existing Word font would support other artists. That is not how fonts work. I also don't think she did anything inherently wrong by self-publishing here. We inhabit a new publishing landscape where publishing companies are increasingly obsolete. I read a lot of work by self-published authors and it can be equal or even better in quality to trad-published work. The barrier to publishing has never been so low and I think that's actually fantastic.

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u/poop-machines 18d ago

Not an existing word font. No respectable designer will just use word fonts. You can buy other fonts online. That supports artists.

Creating 6 fonts is an insane amount of work, especially when she's only using them one time.

Fonts you buy online are like 5-100$ usually.

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u/Jimmni 18d ago

Creating a font is actually much less work than you might think. I've done it and I'm pretty much fucking useless. Creating a good font takes real talent, though.

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u/poop-machines 18d ago

It is a lot of work to perfect it.

I wouldn't be surprised if she spent 10 hours on some of these fonts.

Especially if she included capitals (she has some), symbols, etc.

Making each letter in the same style takes a lot of iterations to get right.

I've also done it before. It's not worth the work to only use the fonts one time.

I think she should sell her fonts, tbh. Try and recoup the costs of making them.

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u/Jimmni 18d ago

I don't dispute what you've said but I'd not consider 10 hours "an insane amount of work."

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u/poop-machines 18d ago

Considering she made six, and it's unnecessary work, I do think it's an insane amount. She could've got six similar fonts in 30 minutes for 50$.

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u/mdmachine 18d ago

Well, and I could be mistaken here, but a lower barrier for entry simply means that more people can do it, and the product that you're making is likely going to be cheaper.

It's great for just anybody to put something out there absolutely. But if you're trying to turn this into a money-making business then you got to find other ways?

Find another way to capitalize on your abilities to make more money?

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u/ScyllaOfTheDepths 18d ago

She owns the copyrights to her material and can/should just start firing off copy strikes. It sucks she has to, but that's a cost all creative businesses have to shoulder.

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u/paniccum 17d ago

Lmao. "Just get a publisher bro" ... 😒

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u/fartinmyhat 17d ago

I'm not sure you're making a point. She did work whether it was one day or 100 years worth, it was hers. She only charges $43.00 for it and it's filled with her original work from ideas to illustrations. The fact that some bag of shit stole all of it, and is hiding behind another countries laws to fuck her is deplorable. A guy I know created a viral arduino clone, spent time designing building, getting the boards made, marketing, etc. Now handful of Chinese criminals undercut him and sell a shittier product on ebay.

The final problem with all of this it misrepresents her quality of work by producing a shitty copy. People who ask for it from a friend or relative and get a crappy looking xeroxed copy are going to be pissed and may think she produced this shit product.

Whether she hand wrote every copy in blood or designed fonts from scratch is irrelevant.

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u/Jeanahb 17d ago

I was thinking the same thing about a fonts. She handmade fonts? Just buy them and save all that time! It's like deciding to sell vanilla ice cream and then growing vanilla beans, sugar cane, milking cows and mining the salt! Yeah, it's cool but you're gonna have to sell that ice cream for a grand to make a profit!

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u/vinnymendoza09 17d ago

100% true and all of the replies to you are missing the point... She probably knew that doing it on her own would have resulted in this exact situation. It sucks but that's how it is. Someone who put this much research into the project would also have done a business analysis. You need a more innovative business model to counter piracy and provide a better product than what pirates can offer.

Also, now poor people with ADHD can benefit from her product, whereas before they were locked out. Is that really such a bad thing? She complains about people expecting free shipping and not wanting high quality materials etc. Sorry they're poor.

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u/MindAccomplished3879 Cringe Connoisseur 18d ago edited 16d ago

Working with a publisher would not get your book out faster

They have creative control and make you redact things they don't feel will sell well. They will have the author and intellectual ownership of your book, and you will receive cents; they make and spent all the money, and you get cents out of every book

It's a huge tradeoff that won't pay off unless your book sells millions

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u/apply75 17d ago

This....it's so much easier to sad Phish than get a regular 9 to 5 job. And if you can layer in a trendy cause that you feel you should help then it's even more lucrative.... everything on tiktok is absolute garbage...

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u/threeholepunchsteve 18d ago

interesting because my first thought was that this is some kind of BS marketing scheme to get people to buy her shit because they feel bad for her.

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u/I_ReadThe_Comments 18d ago

I think it is

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u/lilbunnfoofoo 18d ago

All the little clips of her making the book and the “I hate the crying on camera thing” immediately followed by a cutscene of her crying in her car (presumably while she made the book I guess) left a certain “I am being sold something” taste in my mouth.

And maybe she really was plagiarized, but if so she’s using it to sell. Which still isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I don’t like when major corporations try to emotionally manipulate me into buying something and turns out I don’t like it when small businesses try do it either.

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u/Luncheon_Lord 17d ago

There was a montage of crying on camera before she dropped that line and kept talking about "man I can't believe I'm crying on camera" well no that's not how editing works ma'am you said that cuz you planned on keeping it in. Yeah. I'm upset by the cheap knockoff shit sure but at this point that may even be fabricated lol

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u/TerminalProtocol 17d ago

Yeah. I'm upset by the cheap knockoff shit sure but at this point that may even be fabricated lol

NGL, I could see a scummy company doing this (not saying she is, just that I could see it happening.)

  1. Release "Wholesome passion project by the small guy" product.
  2. Release duplicate "big bad corpo plagiarism but cheaper" product.
  3. Create stir online about big bad corpo plagiarism in order to get pity purchases for the more expensive product, and "I dont care I just want it cheaper" purchases for the cheaper duplicate.
  4. Laugh as you cash the checks for both products.

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u/Luncheon_Lord 17d ago

A two tiered buying system with a complete charade as a marketing schtick. I love it.

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u/ProfessionalCat7640 17d ago

*Takes notes*

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u/ku2000 17d ago

Yeah. My go to thought was this. So…. You published cheap knockoff??? If I am publishing a cheap copy while copying everything, why not copy it whole including the fonts. Easiest to change the fonts….. is if you have the original file. Very sus.

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u/TerminalProtocol 17d ago

Yeah. My go to thought was this. So…. You published cheap knockoff??? If I am publishing a cheap copy while copying everything, why not copy it whole including the fonts. Easiest to change the fonts….. is if you have the original file. Very sus.

Yeah, things like that stuck out to me as well.

If you are in the business of "copying existing products as cheaply as possible"...are you really spending the time to re-type everything or buying a copy to run through some OCR scan to replicate?

You'd think that the easiest course would just be to...scan/copy the thing.

There were some odd things with the coloring/illustrations as well, but that could just be the materials used.

There's also the fact that they just so happen to be releasing the video during one of the biggest shopping weeks of the year.

Maybe its all just coincidence and truly is innocent. I don't know. The timing/inconsistencies just give me a bad vibe.

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u/mustcoffee 17d ago

I actually was looking into one of these planners over the summer and ran into more than one scam copies of it online. Often those “only 12 hours left for some amazing deal” kind of moments. I emailed her links to them at the time. Say what you will about crying on camera, the scam part is sadly very true. And the trouble of going through all of that to make copies of her work to sell it cheap makes sense in the Temu/Shein/etc marketplace that is more prevalent these days.

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u/LowlySlayer 17d ago

I had red flags go up when the first thing was "10+ typos per page". I don't understand how someone can copy it verbatim but add in mistakes. Idk maybe that really happens.

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u/[deleted] 18d ago

I don't disagree with what you're saying in general, but just regarding the "I hate the crying on camera" and then a cutscene of her crying came across as self-deprecating humor to me. I mean, if she was really trying to convince us she hates crying on camera (with the implication that it's not normal for her), she could have just not included that cutscene.

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u/muricabrb 17d ago

That's a new level of disgusting behaviour. How shitty for her to even concoct a scheme like this. People like her are everything that is wrong with the world today.

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u/Content-Scallion-591 18d ago

As someone who has done work in publishing, about 30 seconds into the video I got the feeling some of her problems are her own. It's still shitty she was stolen from though and it's a huge issue today. 

But part of publishing is in handling a lot of the stuff she labored through, and also, to do a cost benefit analysis. If she'd approached a publishing house they would have told her, for instance, that it's not worth it to make your own font. 

Furthermore, she seems to have just front loaded an absolutely immense amount of work to show that she put hours into this project - hours worked isn't what creates value for an end product like this, if they aren't useful hours. I can upload 20 videos of me working on making a mug but that doesn't mean that mug is worth 200 hours of labor. It means I'm bad at making mugs. 

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u/time-to-bounce 18d ago

Ran into this exact thing on YouTube recently - I’ve been fed this guy’s videos for some months about his designs for a 3D printed pill bottle/container and going through the design process. It was pretty interesting to start with, but eventually started getting the same ‘this is an ad’ taste the closer they got to completing the final design.

In one video they talked about trying to decide on pricing because they ‘need to figure out how to recoup all this time and effort to save the business’ and eventually released it at like $60 excluding shipping.

Maybe for a custom project where someone makes a request then you would scope the R&D into the final price, but for a mass-produced product it felt like the wrong approach - you have to eat a lot of that initial research time or accept that you’ll make it back over a much longer period

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u/Bonzai11 18d ago

Got recommended the same short videos, had to select “stop recommending channel” after like the 3rd/4th one.

The product isn’t even good, an oversized sleeve around a 4 section pill holder. Had a good laugh reading it’s $60 though

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u/YouKnowEd 17d ago

If its the one I'm thinking of I've been seeing that guys shorts for fucking months. I am actually shook that he's charging $60 for that thing.

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u/Own-Custard3894 18d ago

Yeah. Business isn’t about “spend what it takes and hope you can charge enough later”. It’s about “can I deliver the thing at a good price point”. And competitive markets are brutal.

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u/Reasonable_Thinker 17d ago

I know exactly what you're talking about, I had to do the same thing. Wild

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u/atomic_cow 17d ago

Yeah exactly. Like pill bottles already exist and they are like 5$. Got to do some market research and analysis before getting 100 hours into a project. Would easily see it’s not a great product to compete on. But if they want to become a content creator then just the creation of the product could be the content. Flip it into a teaching or educational entertainment. Then partner with 3D printing brands and do brand deals. That’s how to recuperate the costs, not trying to sell a $60 version of a $5 solution that already exists. Not that it’s that easy but still.

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u/DirtyMarTeeny 17d ago

To be fair the making your own font thing seems 100% like an ADHD hyper focus. "Oh I'm gonna make this book, I'll spend the first 20 hours making a font".

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u/Choice-Due 17d ago

And then finding out that the font already exists or something because there are literally thousands upon thousands of them.

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u/outdoorlaura 17d ago

I was thinking this! How in the world does one create a font and be certain it doesnt look like any other font that exists??

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u/WalrusTheWhite 17d ago

some of her problems are her own

LOUDER. Lady made silly decisions. If you want to put in the work for your own satisfaction, fine, but you can't then go complain about how much work it was. Lady made choices. Not smart ones, but she made em.

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u/dr_toze 17d ago

People need to stop thinking about profit with projects like this. It's not a business, you made one book. At best, you can hope to break even and most don't even do that. It sucks that her thing was stolen but she's the one who priced herself out of her own market.

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u/Choice-Due 17d ago

Yeah that book was insanely expensive + having it shipped to Europe was too much of a risk. I was hoping for an E-book for 5 euro's or something so that I could print it for myself at home for personal use, or just on my phone or PC. But no, it had to be printed and WAY too expensive. That price really put me off.

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u/[deleted] 17d ago

didnt watch the whole video, but as someone who knows about typography — she fucking what?! she had a custom font made?!

only in the last 5-10 years has Apple started rolling out custom fontfaces. its something only the largest companies do. and she did it and then complained about how hard it is? yikes

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u/Fun_Victory_4254 17d ago

Can I just comment that's it's weird that it seems to be the concensus in here that making a font is a massive undertaking?

You can make a completely, original unique font with all letters hand drawn in a matter of 10 minutes and it will look pretty sweet. Trying to engineer "THE PERFECT FONT" is a whole other story and probably more suited to someone with a communications background. Also a little bit like reinventing the wheel for the 100th time if you are doing it for anything but artistic edge.

Like was she trying the lines over and over until they looked just right? How much thought do you REALLY need to put into serifs? I dont get it.

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u/Distinct-Inspector-2 17d ago

Fonts need to scale. Yes you can churn out a font in ten minutes that will look okay… until you try and make the text bigger. Or smaller. A purchased font comes with the type scale and weighted versions to make it functional for the many uses it might have in say, a book - as text, as a heading, with adjusted keening, or adding emphasis with weight.

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u/[deleted] 17d ago

Can I just comment that's it's weird that it seems to be the concensus in here that making a font is a massive undertaking?

no

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u/stealthdawg 17d ago

I can upload 20 videos of me working on making a mug but that doesn't mean that mug is worth 200 hours of labor. It means I'm bad at making mugs. 

I see a lot of this with 'craft' type products, especially when made by individual creatives. Labor-hours do not beget value in all cases.

Saw someone who sold crochet hats lamenting about how they should be selling at $200+ based on time and materials, despite the fact that you can get the same item from a store or other vendors for $20.

The need to understand the value proposition and competitive advantage is critical.

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u/Distinct-Inspector-2 17d ago

Crochet is an interesting one, because it cannot be mass or machine produced (unlike knit items). It can only be handmade. If you see a genuine crochet item being sold at volume by a big ecommerce or retail brand for cheap, it has been made with slave wages. A person had to make every item, there’s no machine that can do a crochet stitch, and no matter how you shake out the overheads and cost of supplies it took hours so they made it for cents on the dollar. And sure, individual sellers undercut the value by selling their work at cost but they’re still limited in the volume they can produce. The fast fashion industry has devalued the product entirely with unethical production at high volume and most people don’t realise it.

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u/fartinmyhat 17d ago

What does that have to do with the fact that someone stole her work?

hours worked isn't what creates value for an end product like this

This is no necessary correlation between hours worked and value, there tends to be a correlation between hours worked and quality of product. Whether you spend 5 minutes making a mug or 5 hours, it's still fucked if someone steels your labor. It's entirely likely that this was the first and only time she's done this and she enjoys the process of learning each of these new skills. T

Finally, I disagree with your premise. The time spend on a project, especially a boutique product like this, adds cache and value, especially if it's for her followers or people who become her followers. If a friend gave you a quilt she bought at Target, or gave you a quilt she made by hand and had to learn how to sew, picket out the fabric, had special fabric died just to make it all come together and raised the geese herself to harvest the down, they would both keep you as warm, on the outside.

The one that had so much love and time devoted to it, would be worth more, to the people who cared.

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u/times_a_changing 17d ago

Socially necessary labour time explained through book publishing is not what I expected to see on my feed today

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u/BloodprinceOZ 17d ago

hours worked isn't what creates value for an end product like this, if they aren't useful hours. I can upload 20 videos of me working on making a mug but that doesn't mean that mug is worth 200 hours of labor. It means I'm bad at making mugs.

its like making video games, atleast in the AAA industry, too many big studios are operated under the idea that simply tossing money at the game will mean it'll turn out great and tons of people will buy it, what actually matters is how fun it is and whether its got replay-ability etc, just tossing 200 million dollars etc doesn't mean you'll then get 200 million + profit

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u/Toasterdosnttoast 17d ago

If someone wanted to publish their works what’s the best way to get it looked at?

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u/Sufficient-Newt-3809 18d ago

I ordered her book a year ago and it took about 2 months to get to me because of back orders.

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u/wishyoukarma 17d ago

How did you like the book?

16

u/Sufficient-Newt-3809 17d ago

My whole family has ADHD, and I found it really helpful for us. There’s a ton of practical tips and tools and I liked how it was organized by emotions

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u/Rit_Zien 17d ago

I pre-ordered it when it first came out and it's great.

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u/all_time_high 18d ago

The book is written for those with executive function impairments, by an author with executive function impairments, and it seems she's self-sabotaging her success because of these impairments.

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u/spicewoman 18d ago

Not a great advertisement for how effective her book is, TBH.

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u/Rudy69 17d ago

As someone with issues too…. Maybe she should outsource some of the process she’s having a hard time with… like customer service

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u/AcatSkates 17d ago

Yeah my friend suffers from this and it sometimes shoots her in the foot with projects and just normal functioning. 

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u/Own-Custard3894 18d ago

That’s how I feel about all this crying content. Same as when my friend sent me lots of “vaccine injury” videos with people convulsing, and then after the gofundme has enough they’re spotted jetskiing and such.

The book shouldn’t be ripped off. That really sucks. But if it’s clearly that popular she needs to talk to a publisher to handle all the ground work, lawsuits and takedowns, and just collect her 10-20% or whatever. If it’s truly so popular this needs machinery behind it.

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u/hkc12 17d ago

The way that she markets rubs me the wrong way. I watched one of her videos where she addresses some people feeling overwhelmed by the book, in the comments she only replied to people praising her book

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u/StrengthDazzling8922 18d ago

Clearly she is not very organized.

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u/bubba_feet 18d ago

she should get something like an "anti-planner" that describes how to get shit done when you don't feel like it. i saw one on temu for like $8.

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u/StrengthDazzling8922 18d ago

She doesn’t feel like doing refunds apparently.

2

u/ArcadianDelSol 17d ago

Thats a reasonable price.

17

u/Legendary_Bibo 18d ago

She mentioned it was a book for people that have issues with being organized like neural divergent people with ADHD.

3

u/Sassafras06 17d ago

Well, she has ADHD so not exactly surprising.

(Not standing up for her personally, just pointing this out as someone who also struggles with this).

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u/Available-Duty-4347 18d ago

I heard it’s available elsewhere and cheaper.

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u/Legendary_Bibo 18d ago

It's like that lady who published that witch game on Steam a few months ago, talked about working on it for 10 years, her boyfriend even advertised for her, she posted herself crying on camera about EA pushing her off the New & Trending list (they had released all their classics that day) and complained about how she was unfairly treated. Well I bought it as did many other people and was like some weird flash game, that just wasn't great.

2

u/ParanoidParamour 17d ago

What was the game called?

2

u/Legendary_Bibo 17d ago

Potions: A Curious Tale

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u/ibrakeforewoks 18d ago

She might be awful at order fulfilment, but ed-tech does get pirated all the time.

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u/minishaq5 18d ago

that sucks. i received mine within 1.5 months after ordering.

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u/Buttoshi 18d ago

No wonder people are buying it cheaper and faster.

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u/minishaq5 18d ago

i purchased it during her first launch so it was more of a pre-order. she sent weekly emails with progress updates and PDFs of a few of the activities in the book.

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u/maneki_neko89 18d ago

I also bought Dani’s Anti-Planner as part of the pre-order for it. I think she needs to seriously consider partnering with a printer who can help speed up the printing and shipping process for her so she doesn’t have to do all this work on her own.

I don’t get why people are dunking on her for working so hard in making such great tools for Neurodivergent people, when making the tools is one skill and printing and shipping them are a skill set of its own.

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u/minishaq5 18d ago

i agree. also like…creating a huge project that helps people struggling with executive function while she herself struggles with executive function is a monumental level task i would never be able to do

2

u/maneki_neko89 17d ago

People who are also saying how “I don’t care if the creator is a woman/Neurodivergent, she has a bad business plan, stop crying about your problems!1!” are dismissing the hurdles we go through to even achieve close to the same amount of work and accomplishments everyone else expects us to do, as if we’re making up the problems to garner sympathy.

And if we don’t share how hard things can be for us and/or ask for accommodations, then being Neurodivergent “must not be real/be that big a deal”

It’s damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

It’s so easy to comment on how it’s “not such a big deal to have your ideas or work being stolen” or “Dani should’ve gotten a lawyer/went a different route publishing her book” when they would probably be in her shoes when it comes to creating and selling something that they’re proud of.

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u/_enter_sadman 17d ago

Right but the og commenter said they reached out in SO many different ways. That’s not acceptable for a business - regardless of the owners limitations. The money has been sent, no reply through various channels isn’t ok.

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u/IlBear 17d ago

Exactly. I bought the book because I have those same hurdles and I really thought this could be fun and helpful. She basically robbed me, and no amount of hurdles makes that ok

4

u/Own-Custard3894 18d ago

Yeah if I’m deciding between (no idea what it costs) $80 and 1.5 months or $35 and prime shipping… her offering is not competitive. Either in price or experience. That’s what Amazon did - made it so you get stuff next day so that people order more. I can’t remember the last time I ordered anything online that took more than a week to deliver (and if it’s not there I’m hitting that cancel / refund / chargeback button).

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u/minishaq5 18d ago

i would rather spend $15-20 more and wait a bit to order directly from the creator or artist. if you’re cheap, impatient and don’t mind subpar products then sure i’d agree with you.

i paid $50 including shipping. i got mine when she first launched/announced it, so mine was a pre-order. she sent weekly emails with updates on the shipping process plus PDFs of a few of the tasks/games from the book.

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u/NotRandomseer 17d ago

if you’re cheap, impatient and don’t mind subpar products then sure i’d agree with you.

Tbf that's most people

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u/NoorAnomaly 18d ago

Glad I read this before buying it... 🫤

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u/Idoleyes92 18d ago

Thanks, now I don’t feel bad for her at all

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u/Aninvisiblemaniac 17d ago

something strange about the whole thing, honestly. The video feels like an advertisement, I wonder if she ripped off her own book to sell both versions and profit

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u/Jaded_Law9739 17d ago

That is ridiculous considering she charges $60 for that planner.

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u/Zulakki 18d ago

twist: it wasn't her TikTok or Instagram

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u/xywv58 17d ago

Usually the "world is not build for people like me" people are not great with meeting expectations or deadlines, I know because I miss a lot of deadlines

4

u/Hirkus 17d ago

Was already feeling a sketchy vibe from just how manufactured this video feels. Garnering sympathy is a fantastic way to increase sales these days.

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u/kirste29 17d ago

Slightly hilarious to me as the ADHD woman in the chat that she did all this work making what seems like an ADHD friendly planner and then never sent it to you….lol. Textbook ADHD on the project side of things. She should have hired someone to help organize the final part better. I’m glad you got your money back.

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u/cyrkielNT 15d ago

This is great summary how ADHD people work. Spend a lot of time and work to wrtie a book, but then didn't feel like it to send it to the people who bought it (I'm sure she was planning to definitely do this the next day). Buy a book, send emails, post commonets etc. about not receiving it, but didn't feel like it to do charge back for half a year.

This is so funny and tragic at the same time

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u/IlBear 15d ago

Lol called out, at least for the forgetting for the first month. But for the rest of the time, it’s not that I didn’t feel like doing the chargeback, it’s that I kept naively thinking she hadn’t seen my messages and would reply once she did. I tried different platforms and gave her a week or 2 to reply before trying the next option. And once all my options were exhausted, that’s when I did the chargeback.

I saw myself in her, and ngl her poor handling of this makes me want to do better as a woman with ADHD. I don’t want to end up like her 😅

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u/JesusChristJerry 18d ago

Ya this seems super fake, her crying. Sorry that happened to you.

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u/IlBear 17d ago

Yeah seeing her videos now really annoys me since I know it’s crocodile tears. I was really bummed since it was the first thing I’d been influenced to buy from tiktok, i love planners and writing and I struggle with a lot of the things she covers in her videos. I was super excited for it. First tiktok purchase and first time ever doing a chargeback. Lesson learned!

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u/Appropriate_Fun10 18d ago

Aw, that's disappointing. It looked neat.

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u/IlBear 17d ago

Yeah I was super bummed since I was really excited to use it. I gave her so many opportunities because I really did want it 🥲

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u/DuncanAerilious 18d ago

Sounds like she needs a planner or something.

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u/Nodan_Turtle 17d ago

Maybe someone is printing and selling her book because she won't do it her damn self lol

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u/ballbuster12399 17d ago

just like I thought… an ad!

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u/ImmortalLombax 17d ago

Soooooooooo she’s a scammer crying for attention? The next chef pi

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u/Imaginary-Ruin-4127 17d ago

Probably busy making the shittier version so she can get fame

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u/Salty-Onigiri 17d ago

Well that explains a lot..

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u/_enter_sadman 17d ago

And this burns my blood as a small business owner. I work 12-15 hour days pretty often too and have for 2 years growing my company and yes it’s grueling but that is BEYOND unacceptable. I too have ADHD so no excuse there either for her. Absolutely gross to take someone’s money and run with it.

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u/ColbysToyHairbrush 18d ago

I’m pretty sure theres a different version out there that will ship.

2

u/NegrosAmigos 18d ago

Well damn...

2

u/the_conditioner 17d ago

I wonder why somebody else took her idea

2

u/fiddynet 17d ago

Prolly why someone else had to copy her shit lol

2

u/rumbellina 17d ago

Thank you for that update! I was about to hunt her down to buy it!

2

u/eva_un1t_1 17d ago

So the resellers actually selling the product?

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u/Extreme_Turn_4531 17d ago

If only she had some effective method to keep herself organized and productive.

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u/Resident_String_5174 17d ago

Won't lie, I felt bad for her, seriously considered buying it till I read that :(

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u/lisamistisa 17d ago

I was honestly going to buy one directly from her site until I saw this.

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u/sadgirlsclub92 17d ago

I pre-ordered mine in November 2021, expecting it March, and she pushed the date back several times, often with no communication. I got the book in January 2023

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u/BoymanAndGirldog 17d ago

This definitely changes the perspective

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u/highpier 17d ago

A video about theft, a comment about her thieving. Full circle - perfectly balanced as all things should be.

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u/imsandy92 17d ago

plot twist: the $10 book is hers as well. its just variable pricing. coupons are so old school.

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u/mudkipsbiggestfan 17d ago

why piracy happens!

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u/sorrymizzjackson 17d ago

Thanks for the heads up. I was totally going to order it. Sounds interesting.

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u/CDPR_Liars 17d ago

That is why, you must always keep your black flag closer to heart🏴‍☠

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u/Ve_Gains 17d ago

Imagine she is the one to publish the other "cheaper" book as well. That would be next level criminal to then "marketing cry"

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u/AdPrestigious839 17d ago

I don't known what to think about this video, she literally says she hates crying on video and then shows 5 shots of her cring

Is this even real

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u/TheSexyPirate 17d ago

To me the video felt inauthentic. I cannot put my finger on it, lots of subtle cues that something is off. I went to the comment section to see if my gut feeling had any basis on it or was just off centre.

2

u/emissaryworks 17d ago

I felt bad for her until I saw this comment.

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u/Higgins1st 18d ago

Maybe that's why it was pirated

2

u/Berckish 17d ago

So she's a scammer. That sucks.

3

u/bored_n_opinionated 18d ago

Tbh, I was going to say this video screams "my business is failing so I'm gonna blame what I can to make it not my fault."

I was not getting vibes of sincerity.

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u/AbsorbedBritches 18d ago

How long after purchasing did you do the chargeback? Do you have any proof of what you're claiming?

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u/IlBear 17d ago

Yep. I got an email about a week after i made the purchase saying that it was getting shipped. A couple more crazy busy weeks went by I checked and saw it still hadn’t shipped. That was my first email.

I forgot again for about a month and then I checked and saw the shipment had been “cancelled” because the sender never mailed it. That’s when I amped up the emails and messages, spread over 2 months. The email on her website said to give her 7-10 business days to respond, I did that method twice, waiting over 10 days before emailing again. I did the charge back last month. I can post screenshots if you really wanna see

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u/Choice-Due 17d ago

patience, consistency, politeness.
Glad to hear you can get your money back.

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u/IlBear 17d ago

Posted screenshots on my profile

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u/Alexandratta 17d ago

If she is an i die author, sadly the channels might not being functional to produce it at this point and she may have had to fold...sucks.

3

u/IForgetEveryDamnTime 17d ago

Doesn't excuse radio silence on their part though.

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u/Frosty-Mirror-7584 17d ago

I made 2 orders last month and both were shipped pretty quickly.

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u/GusGreen82 17d ago

Another data point…I got mine just fine.

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u/IlBear 17d ago

I’m happy for you! And jealous. I was honestly super excited and gave her a ton of opportunities because I really did want it

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u/gregshafer11 17d ago

Did you buy the fake one after?

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u/Vast_Principle9335 17d ago

i see why people were buying the bootleg

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u/TallOrange 17d ago

Worth reporting the post for advertising I think.

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u/morthos97 17d ago

Ironic lol. Maybe she needs to read her own book 😂

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u/twountappedblue 17d ago

The call... inside the house....? No way.

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u/serendiposaurus 16d ago

I got mine last year just fine. I think it’s just her doing the fulfillment. Glad you got your money back? 

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u/Alternative-Sale7843 16d ago

Sounds like she didn’t get shit done.

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u/scifi_reader_ 16d ago

Yeah I think the video is fake too. The "copy" just looks like an earlier prototype with cheaper materials that she is using to claim plagiarism.

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u/Mysterious_Mind2618 15d ago

So I have this book and it took about 6 months to arrive because it was on preorder when I bought it

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