Dear Diana, iUniverse Representative I'm writing to you now after our most recent conversations and after receiving your email dated April 12, 2016, on the subject of: PD: 470384 – Content Evaluation Results (second round). I would like you to pass this on up the chain of command. I want to start off by telling you that when Jean, the previous check-in coordinator, sent me the first review results from the content evaluation department I submitted to her, it took the wind out of my sails and put me under more stress than I can physically and mentally handle. I am an aged, disabled man, and I'm dying. I'm in a hospital bed in my living room and only have about 6 to 8 percent lung capacity on a seven-liter flow of constant oxygen 24 hours a day just to breath. Every day and night is a challenge just to stay alive now and I'm losing sleep. Even though I have lived with PTSD for most of my life, the emotional and physical strain I'm having now by facing nitpicking demands with iUniverse by wanting me to drastically change my life's story makes me feel that they're moving me quicker to my death. I am now more concerned if future dealings won't put me there. My life is not a lie and I do not want to be forced into changing things because of the litigious fears of iUniverse. One of the major contentions was the use of my pen name and I was flat-out lied to about why it was necessary that I had to change my pen name. No one living other than close family members would know me under the pen name I first submitted for my manuscript; there is no proof that could identify that name with my real name. If there was proof (as I was told), then why wouldn’t you provide me with that proof? And so I was forced to make changes to my pen name (which I did, might I add objectionably). Concerns of Libel/Invasion of Privacy, etc. are referenced, so let’s look at an example of what might be libel. Say someone wrote a comment about another person’s book revealing that the book’s author had been given a dishonorable discharge from the Army; that certainly sounds like a defamatory statement, but only if it is false. The law states that truth is an absolute defense to libel. A defamatory statement must be false and has to be proved by the party who claims to be defamed, but as I state above no one in the story could prove that my story is false. Besides, the genre chosen to publish the manuscript was Bio-Fiction maybe the genre should have been Autobiographical but you should advise the writer as the publisher if this would be better but you have not given any constructive input to the author, what is your job? When I sent the first submission to Jean I told her the names in the manuscript were fictitious, with the exception of a few names, but those people had died well before my manuscript was submitted. I'd also point out that all names are first names with only a couple of those having last names. Weeks after that I received the results from the first content evaluation review. Also at the beginning of my manuscript I added a disclaimer stating that names were changed to protect family members as well as the innocent and the guilty in order to maintain their anonymity. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. No matter, I made the changes anyway because I was told by your company that I HAD to and I just didn’t have the fight left in me at that time. I removed the few things that were requested by her in that email, but the evaluation results were not conclusive nor were they explained completely and only gave a few examples of what they wanted changed; they were vague with no real direction other than the statement that some things may be Libelous or an Invasion of Privacy. What things? Without any other direction or specifics I made the changes including agreeing to the removal of the author’s picture on the back cover. There is no intended actual malice in the telling of my life. The story and what happened in my life are true; my family knows the real facts. The things you want changed make my life a lie, and as close to death as I am I will not do that for your company. I would have written the book with my real name, but I do not like the limelight. I have stated, all but a few people in the book are deceased. Those who are not would not know about and more than likely would not be reading my book. But if they were it would not matter because what was said was true and could be proven true. Even if they somehow were to believe they were in the story, they would only hurt themselves by their own doing in pointing it out to anyone. The thought that a person would bring their bad deeds to light on their own is preposterous, particularly when those deeds are true. It would not be by me telling my side of the story, which is the truth. I know they would not want to bring shame upon themselves then, nor do I want to shame them or hurt them, but what has been said in the book is true. I bring my life to the story because I wanted to help people realize that they really have to be conscious of their choices in any given situation to prevent bad consequences from happening in their lives and to show that a person can turn their life around and do good. Your second review is the same as the first review with no clear instruction or stated changes and unexplained examples. Your demands are unrealistic and go beyond the law of libel. Examples: Change the location where the story takes place, because the story is worldwide, do you expect me to create an Earth # Two? That seems a bit unreasonable. As for the comments on the name Jerry/Terry, both were fictitious names so changing the name again seems to be nitpicking, to say the least. If you have read my manuscript you know I have a very good understanding of the law. I would expect your company to provide to me your customer with what I payed for which was stated in your E-Mails when we payed your company the funds too publish, copyright, and get the ISBN number for the manuscript, as well as marketing and placement of the manuscript. If you do not want to publish my work then cease and desist with any further work on my manuscript and return my money and delete all copies from your computers; I'll deal with getting my book published with another company or on my own. I want to see it published and do some good before I die and leave this Earth. But so far in my dealings with iUniverse I am realizing that this wish is more than likely fictional. This manuscript is one of the last things on my bucket list and a story that I believe needs to be told. Dealing with your company I do not believe that will be a reality. In closing, thanks for the LEARNING experience like I say in the title of my book; TROUBLES life is about SITUATIONS CHOICES CONSEQUENCES THANKS AGAIN FOR NOTHING PD: 470384