An Author’s Technology Lament

I’m three days out from an exhilarating (and exhausting) experience participating in Writer’s Row at the PGH Book Fest in Pittsburgh! The thrill of meeting readers eager to buy one of my books got my adrenalin going. I came home ready to tackle my current writing project and get the next book moving along.

Instead, I’ve spent three days battling technology issues.

Have you ever had to cancel, transfer, update or otherwise a phone, laptop, software and more and been told it would be a “smooth and easy process” and that the provider is “there to help you”? But then your experience doesn’t match the promise?

Hello! I understand your pain.

Let me digress for one moment so that my story makes more sense. Authors write for the love of the craft and, daily, meet the struggles of trying to monetize their work. A book you buy, let’s say at Barnes & Noble, for $18.00 will net the author about $1.00. Audiobooks you get on subscription or for $11.00 - $15.00 need a very high quantity of sales to meet the cost of creating the audio book which can range from $3,000-$5,000 for an experienced narrator. That’s a lot of sales! Much like all of you, we face rising costs and the need to spend very carefully. Book festivals are the best outlet for authors because we meet readers and make a profit!

Okay, back to my lament.

I retired in 2023 thinking I would both write books and run a small security awareness consulting business. I purchased a three year subscription to MS 365 Business Professional from GoDaddy where I’ve leased my domain - booksbyjanetroberts.com - since 2016. I learned, quickly, that I was more interested in writing books than consulting. In the ensuing three years, I’ve learned that my books sell a little but not enough for expensive purchases.

Time to audit and revise to cut costs.

MS 365 Business Professional came up for renewal at GoDaddy for a shocking price of $1200 for another three years, with a “discounted” offer of $800. It took less than 3 seconds to say “no renewal for me”! I only use four of the nearly 10 products in that package. I needed to preserve my Outlook, MS Word, and Excel history, so I saved my documents and downgraded Outlook at an extra cost leaving me able to continue use while I determined next steps. I assumed once I moved to a cheaper alternative, I’d get a partial refund.

A quick Google search showed MS 365 Business Basics had everything I needed and purchasing directly from Microsoft would be $6.00 per month. Yep, that’s right $72.00 a year. A difference of $584 over three years. I had GoDaddy move my Outlook email to the Microsoft tenant*, I purchased Business Basics, and a nice guy at Microsoft named Roshon helped me transition. It seemed smooth and easy as promised.

* A tenant represents the private, secure boundary within a cloud server. It holds your users, domains, licenses, and specific security or email control policies.

BUT…

Tech support: Actual experience vs. “smooth and easy”.

After working on the purchase and set-up with Microsoft, I was able to go to office.com and use Outlook, Excel, Word, Teams, and PowerPoint. Yay! I was back in the saddle and working again.

Then I began receiving pop-up messages that Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is required by Microsoft. Since I already have the MS Authenticator app, I figured “no problem”. Instead the experience was “no bueno”! The app no longer worked.

Tech support needs moved me from “smooth and easy” to actual experience.

I tried to call Microsoft for help. Ever do that? Don’t. You’re sent to help.microsoft.com to put in a support ticket. Rather than drag you through the misery of this process I’ll tell you three things:

1. Once you email permission to Microsoft to move forward with the ticket, say a prayer you get a good representative (one you can understand) because wherever it goes you cannot follow via call or do anything to help except…

2. Update notes on the support ticket to keep the ticket alive and hope for a call back.

3. The initial email from Microsoft says that if the problem isn’t resolved in 7 days, they will close the ticket.

In the vast abyss that is The Land Of Can You Get Microsoft Support, I did receive an answer after 24 hours telling me diagnostic tests said GoDaddy had not released the tenant and Microsoft did not have the access to fix the Authenticator app.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Microsoft sent me back to GoDaddy. I tried text support since the queue to get a call answered was lengthy. GoDaddy said they had released the tenant and all the emails had migrated, they did not have control, and to go back to Microsoft.

At this point, I realized I’d moved from paying customer entitled to service and support to a ping-pong ball required to be the intermediary between two tech teams that won’t talk to each other. Mind you, I directly asked them to talk to each other and “they can’t”. GoDaddy is a vendor for Microsoft, so the reasoning as to why I have to run interference is beyond me.

We’re at a stalemate. I leave notes on my service ticket to keep the issue alive. Each company says the other’s assessment of the issue is wrong. I have no required MFA set up, no ability to call Microsoft, and I’ve lost three days of writing time.

Additionally, GoDaddy says they don’t owe me a refund for the 37 remaining pre-paid days of MS 365 Business Professional that were cancelled or for one year of downgraded email which they no longer manage and which has been moved - allegedly - to Microsoft. I need to sell 12-15 books or more to meet the amount they owe me. I average about 10-20 books per in-person event so one event this summer will be targeted to counter the lack of refund.

I told Godaddy I would be sharing this on Substack.

Not giving up yet.

Today, I put another note on the Microsoft service ticket (I’m guessing they’ll soon have my picture posted where they can throw darts at it!) asking for a different MFA option than the Authenticator app. To their credit, a support representative called in an hour.

Unfortunately, much like I cannot get the hang of speaking Italian despite many Duolingo lessons, the support rep who called me cannot speak English in a way that is understandable and definable. The support rep asked me to open “Quick Assist” so she could remote into my laptop. It’s clear on the ticket and notes that I have an Apple MAC. Quick Assist is for MS Windows, not MACs. I finally, after struggling for ten minutes to understand one in every 5 words, told her I knew she was trying but to please send me back to the original support rep who was able to articulately speak English.

I then went back to the service ticket and wrote a note, hoping it ensured that I get a new call. I’m trying not to think that they will call me when I’m in the grocery store or at the gym or taking a walk and I’ll lose the chance.

Is this a rant or do I have a point?

If you’ve made it this far, you’re probably wondering either what is my point or what can a reader do to help the authors whose books they love to read. Sympathy cards? Candles? Empathy? All good, but not as good as a book review or recommendation.

Authors are good souls, diligently turning out high quality creative work. I think that defines most writers I know. It takes me 2-5 years to write, finish, and publish a book. Many writers, like me, are doing this work independently. We are the agent, publisher, publicist, and marketing arm all in one! Time is precious and often life gets in the way. Technology is supposed to make things easier. Sometimes it does - once you get it set-up and running!

This is where I’m going to make a plug for readers - if you like a book - to leave a positive review somewhere. Those reviews move algorithms. Those reviews are like word of mouth. Those reviews warm our hearts and compensate for the ups and downs, the expenses, the hours of struggling with technology, and more. Don’t like writing reviews? Just give 3 to 5 stars.

Better yet, tell all of your friends and family that you found a new author you like and you recommend they read his or her work! Because once I crawl out from under this technology nightmare and get back to writing, I’ve got ideas, I’ve got passion, and I may finally have ….Time!