'Yes, I will tweet exactly what you said': Social media manager maliciously complies with author's demands

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
May 15, 2023 3:00 PM EDT

Some clients aren't ever satisfied with the service they receive. Regardless of the industry you're in, some clients just can't be pleased — they'll always find something wrong with the product you deliver to them. Or worse, like with u/Gimlili's story shared to r/MaliciousCompliance, the client thinks they're better at your job than you!

Working in publishing with a job running the company's social media, this person said they encountered an author who was launching a non-fiction book. After creating a plan to tweet out different things at a scheduled time, the author disagreed with the way the OP wanted to tweet about the book. Not only did he disagree, he became a nightmare to work with, demanding that the OP post his tweets as is and as fast as possible. The OP was ready to teach this terrible client a lesson by using his own words against him. 

After that, check out the worst travel hack ever.

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  • 01
    Font - r/r/MaliciousCompliance Posted by u/Gimlili Yes, I will tweet exactly what you said. M Told this story to a friend and they said I should post it here!
    via u/Gimlili
  • 02
    Font - I used to work in publishing and part of my job was managing our company's social media accounts, when we were running a campaign for a specific book we would supplement that campaign by tweeting about it. It usually had no provable impact on sales but would make the author happy.
    via u/Gimlili
  • 03
    Font - I was running a campaign for a big non-fiction author, I initially had no contact directly with the author but drew up a social calendar with suggested content and timings and sent it through the lead marketer. I heard nothing back so I started tweeting as planned.
    via u/Gimlili
  • 04
    Font - I was then told by the lead marketer that the author wanted us to tweet more, I was happy to do that but needed to balance that with the 20 other books we were publishing that week so I suggested we do 2 more tweets at peak times but that I would need some new content because tweeting the same message over and over again is not particularly effective, especially for non-fiction.
    via u/Gimlili
  • 05
    Font - Now, at this point the author found my work email address online and decided to email me directly. I then received 4 emails in 15 minutes (in all caps, badly spelled and bright red, I kid you not) telling me all the things I was doing wrong.
    via u/Gimlili
  • 06
    Font - Apparently this author wanted to market his 800 page history book as a sensational, romance filled family epic. We had included some marketing on this side but we were still making it clear that this was a history book, not a fiction one. He wanted to skip that bit and mislead people into thinking it was historical fiction.
    via u/Gimlili
  • 07
    Font - The author proceeded to dictate ten tweets to me that he wanted me to tweet that day, I went to ask the lead marketer if this was in line with her campaign and she told me to do whatever he asked.
    via u/Gimlili
  • 08
    Font - In the time it took me to speak to the lead marketer the author emailed me an additional 5 times escalating massively each time and ultimately telling me he would get me fired if I didn't do this right now and post EXACTLY what he told me to post.
    via u/Gimlili
  • 09
    Font - So I did that, I posted each of his requested tweets exactly as I had sent them to me. None of them had links to purchase, none of them had images, several of them had spelling mistakes and he consistently spelled his own twitter handle wrong.
    via u/Gimlili
  • 10
    Font - When he complained I forwarded the series of abusive emails he had sent me to the head of marketing and he was banned from ever communicating with Marketing staff outside of his lead again. I did get a bit of side eye but I was told to just delete the tweets and ignore any further emails from him. Edit: referred to the book as fictional instead of fiction doh
    via u/Gimlili
  • 11
    Human body - VeeBeeEll That author must have patient editors.
    via u/VeeBeeEll
  • 12
    Smile - BadMinotaur Sounds like this one might need handlers more than editors.
    via u/BadMinotaur
  • 13
    Font - Atheist Comic I hate people who threaten to get you fired unless you do what they say.
    via u/AtheistComic
  • 14
    Font - Sam-Gunn It's almost like they hire you because your company knows how best to market to people, whereas the author might not! 415 Reply Share Gimlili OP :O what a shocking statement!
    via u/Sam-Gunn
  • 15
    Font - 1UpEXP Dude, I hope you practiced CYA when you worked there. This right here sounds just like something that could've been used to transport you to the underside of a bus.
    via u/1UpEXP
  • 16
    Font - Gimlili OP Yeah, I sent all the tweets to the lead marketer for approval and sent the emails over. She clearly didn't review either and just clicked yes.
    via u/Gimlili
  • 17
    Font - Bete-Noire One of the reasons you "used to" work in publishing? 35 Reply Share Gimlili OP Pretty much! Loved it while I was there but in retrospect huge amounts of things were really toxic. Including my own approach to the job to be honest, I was so bitter by the time I left.
    via u/Bete-Noire
  • 18
    Gesture - complexcompoundword You're a saint. I don't know how you do this.
    via u/complexcompoundword
  • 19
    Font - opliko95 Wait, why write nonfiction and market it as fiction? While I'm not saying historical fiction is easy to write, it seems like the research that went into making the book "realistic" would be just lost as people thinking it's fiction would never notice it. If this was an idea of someone other than the author, I would understand it, but spending a lot of time on something and then making sure that time was lost?
    via u/opliko95
  • 20
    Font - Unless he just didn't really do the research, based it on something he got from reading something on the internet for a few minutes and he didn't want anyone to notice it :) Maybe "historical fiction" was actually accurate to how well he handled historical accuracy?
    via u/opliko95
  • 21
    Font - I actually know a few people that enjoy nonfiction books more than fiction, just because they are about something real, but I haven't met anyone who disliked nonfiction just because it was about something real, so I really don't know what he was doing. Did he expect that larger group of people look for fiction sensational epic?
    via u/opliko95
  • 22
    Font - Gimlili OP I think he more wanted a best of both worlds situation, he is a great historian and the book was very well researched and written but I think he saw the success of historical fiction writers and thought he could be both.
    via u/Gimlili

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