Last week, I posted about Joseph Herrera, the author of a book called God Doesn’t Exist: And Yes, I Can Prove It. It seemed like the Christian formatter for his book had stuck an anti-atheist message in one of the bookmarks and added in his own links in the appendix.

I’m happy to say there are some positive updates to this story.

First, the book is finally available on Amazon.

Next, the formatter, Jacob Drake, has been dropped from Smashwords’ “recommended” list. Drake also refunded Herrera’s fees — which was not an admission of guilt, Drake explained, but just a quick way to resolve this unfortunate situation.

Finally, Smashwords’ founder Mark Coker went through the files and emails from both guys and ran his own investigation into the matter, eventually siding entirely with Herrera. In an email to him, Coker wrote:

Joseph, Thank you for sending me the files. I’ve completed my investigation, and have had several emails with Jake. He steadfastly denies altering the files whatsoever. Yet based on my inspection of the files from each of you, I find his protestations implausible. Furthermore, I find it implausible and impossible that you could have doctored your own files — as he speculates — to build a fictitious case against him. I came to this conclusion based on the versioning properties of the documents I inspected. I’m going to drop him from my list. It pains me to do so because he’s provided great service to many of our authors. On the other hand, I refuse to work with service providers who are dishonest to our authors. Our relationship with our authors is paramount, and I trust this unfortunate incident does not sour you to Smashwords or the many fine professionals that remain on the list. best wishes,

mark

That’s excellent customer service right there, so kudos to Coker for tackling this problem himself instead of pawning it off to someone else.

Herrera appreciates all the support he received from readers of this site. Now, his focus can go back to where it should’ve been all along: promoting his book.



