Attention, Writers Using CreateSpace!

yvesdot:

(even if you don’t, a quick reblog could help get the word out; this is serious and can affect authors’ royalties.)

CreateSpace has a longstanding problem of hacking. If you receive an email about your royalty information being changed, go to your account immediately and change it back. You will likely find that the name and bank account numbers have been changed (and, as confirmed by other people posting about this problem online, usually you’ll get a Russian woman’s name instead of yours. No idea why.) Make sure to change them back, obviously.

Unfortunately, there is not much to be done to prevent this issue; CreateSpace does not ban you after attempting multiple passwords or trying to log in from different locations. Hackers just keep trying different passwords until they get in. You can change your password, but it doesn’t seem to help.

I actually contacted CS about this, and got an email back saying, roughly, “thank you for bringing this to our attention; we hope to continue serving you in the future.” So they are not really changing anything.

Again, even if you don’t use CreateSpace, this is a serious issue that 1) is going to continue affecting everyone who does, and 2) is important for people to know when choosing a self-publishing platform. Please spread the word, and if you know anyone using this specific platform, please send this to them.