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99.9% of my interactions with fans are delightful. #DeltaGreen fans, in particular, are a great bunch. They want to talk, they want to explore ideas within the paradigm, and most of all, they want to be frightened. So, new publisher, how to deal with the OTHER .1%?
Clear lines of communication make some people feel that they can say ANYTHING to you. I've had more than a few "WELL ASSHOLE!" emails and DMs. Usually, this is for something exceedingly stupid — like shipping a book to Australia with real, live, postal rates.
Other times, it's some political tangle and the language and insults are invariably worse. My policy is the same for both. 1) Did you order something <nameless numberhead guy>? 2) Here's your money back. 3) You're fired, don't come back.
This policy comes from decades of being in this market and interacting with a community in a way that most in other media only dream of. (Hell, we designed #WildTalents <with> the help of the Wild Talents mailing list, and it was awesome).
Many industries scream 'the customer is always right'. #TTRPGs are NOT one of those industries. The upside is almost all the people you interact with will be non-nasty people who are coherent and kind. Those that ARE NOT will identify themselves instantly.
I used to try and smooth these situations over, no matter how egregious the insult or crappy comment, but the truth is, every interaction like that is eating up effort better spent on making something cool, and they always come back.
Once they learn their tantrum works they'll do it again, and again. But we're lucky. RPGs are not a scale based business. You can move a couple thousand copies and have a hit. Remember, it is not worth the $29.99 sale to suffer through such inanities—ever. Choose your audience.
The other fans of your product will thank you for it.
