…must you treat me this way? I don’t agree with airing my issues in public, but don’t want anyone else to have similar problems. As usual, I don’t suggest you shouldn’t use the company, as everyone’s experiences are different: read mine and make your own mind up.

Communications between myself and the company have now dried up. Even the previously email-friendly accounts man has stopped replying to my emails. I finally realised that I can’t be amicable any longer? There is a fine line between exceedingly patient and doormat, and I don’t wish to be the latter.

To refresh your memory, my book was released Feb 07. My first royalty statement was due about 6 months later - it arrived, late, but was never paid. After a certain length of time, my contract stipulated that the rights to the book would revert to me (after contacting the company lots of times). The sum that was not paid was VERY small, so I thought it odd that this wasn’t taken care of. An oversight, I thought. So the rights to the book returned to me in Feb 2008 - the company still sold it. I enquired after royalties and was subsequently sold that I hadn’t sold any books…then that I hadn’t sold the qualifying number of books to get paid that period. I did my own research and contact Nielsen, who confirmed that I had sold books (more than I thought).

Since then, I’ve been trying to get paid. It’s not a lot of money, but there’s a principle at stake here, I think. Any money is good for me, but I can’t understand why a company would refuse to pay such a mediocre (to them) sum? I really want to believe it’s all been an oversight, but when everyone stops replying to my weekly emails, I’m not sure that it is. Why can’t people/companies just play fair?

It’s important to note that I did not self-publish, but was published under a traditional contract, after the Undiscovered Authors competition.

I’m sorry I haven’t been keeping this blog up to date, but I was ill over Christmas. My first priority is to wish you all a happy and healthy 2010.

The thing that’s prompted me to write on here is a poll on the Daily Mail website entitled: Is ME A Genuine Illness? Readers of the site are invited to select Yes or No. I’m not only incensed about the callous poll, but about the caustic comments left by some people following various articles on the topic.

So people don’t understand ME? Neither do we and we suffer the day to day (or hour to hour) effects. Neither do the doctors. Just because we don’t understand something, must we dismiss it as false? I would never be so arrogant.

It was the Press themselves who created this stigma for ME sufferers. It began in the 80s (when I was first diagnosed) and they coined the term Yuppie ‘Flu’. Since then, the Press has continued to paint a negative view of those who have to live with a condition that can neither be treated nor explained. Some of the comments left state that they saw someone from ME doing chores or going shopping. How dare they? I, like many other sufferers, often hide how I am feeling in order to maintain some level of normality. Only close family and my dr saw me at my worst because I don’t WANT people to think of me as fragile or incapable. I still have my pride. 90% of my life is spent at home.

There are always going to be people who abuse the term or are misdiagnosed (and recover miraculously) or self-diagnose; this happens with many conditions. Don’t take it as red that someone who has ME is one of those people who simply doesn’t want to work. Most of the people I know who have the condition have lost a lot: jobs, friends, homes, marriages, social lives, etc. We try to do what we can, when we can DESPITE M.E., rather than use it as an excuse to do nothing.

Someone suggested that ME sufferers just whinge all the time: why would we if there was nothing wrong with us? Touche!

I could rant for ages but, ironically, I’m too tired. I actually had an update about my writing but that will have to wait!