Behind every smear, every false accusation, every manufactured controversy, there’s a human cost—a toll that goes beyond clicks, views, and entertainment. For decades, I've paid that price, quietly, continuously. This isn’t drama; it’s trauma. This isn’t about content; it’s about real life, real health, and the very real pain of defending your own truth against relentless lies.
The Physical Toll
Two heart attacks. Two strokes.
That’s not coincidence—it’s consequence.
Every fabricated narrative, every slanderous claim, every carefully constructed conspiracy theory has left scars. Real, measurable, permanent scars. Stress that becomes illness. Anxiety that becomes chronic pain. Sleepless nights that turn into hospital stays.
And yet, this isn’t something the trolls talk about. It doesn’t fit their story. It’s not entertaining enough. But for me, for my family, for everyone who ever loved these books—it’s the harshest reality.
The Emotional Cost
Imagine, if you can, waking up every day to a barrage of hate. Not criticism. Not feedback. Pure, unfiltered hatred based on lies told and retold. Imagine your inbox flooded with threats, your social feeds poisoned with abuse. Imagine your children having to hear their parent called a fraud, your spouse witnessing the relentless erosion of your reputation and well-being.
This isn’t hypothetical. This has been my reality.
It wears you down. It seeps into every corner of your life. It undermines your confidence, your creativity, your mental health. It steals your peace, your joy, your ability to simply exist without being constantly on defense.
And through it all, you’re told to just ignore it. "It’s just noise," they say. But noise this loud, this persistent, becomes deafening. It becomes defining.
Financial Fallout
The false narratives haven’t just hurt feelings—they've damaged careers. They've blocked opportunities. They've diverted resources and time away from creating and forced it towards defending, towards surviving.
When your work is constantly misrepresented, publishers hesitate. Distributors step back. Deals evaporate. Readers pause, uncertain who or what to believe.
The books still sell, but how many readers never found them because of the lies? How many opportunities were stolen? How much potential was smothered?
DOJ and the Truth About Fraud
In 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice uncovered a massive fraud scheme involving insiders at Amazon and Goodreads—exactly the platforms where my work had been relentlessly attacked. The indictment detailed bribes, fraudulent reviews, targeted takedowns, and systematic sabotage.
For years, I'd lived with the suspicion and disbelief of others when I said this was happening. Finally, there was proof. Not just for me, but for every author who’d faced similar invisible, orchestrated destruction.
Yet, the damage was done. The scars remain. The truth emerged—but only after lives were disrupted, health was compromised, and voices nearly silenced.
Why This Isn’t Just "Content"
It's easy to forget, behind every viral takedown, there's a human being. A person whose life is irrevocably impacted. The internet moves on to the next outrage, but those targeted never fully recover.
False narratives don’t fade—they metastasize. They linger in search results, whispers, and sidelong glances. They become permanent stains on reputations, barriers to careers, roadblocks to healing.
For those spreading lies, it's just another video, just another post. For those living them, it's trauma replayed daily.
It’s Time to Humanize This Fight
We must recognize the real-world consequences of digital cruelty. We must speak clearly about the cost of lies, the human toll of misinformation, and the devastating impact of ongoing harassment.
I'm not sharing this for sympathy. I'm sharing it because silence only feeds the lie. I'm sharing it because truth matters—not just in abstract, but in the real, tangible lives it touches and shapes.
The cost of the lie is too high. It's time we stopped treating human lives as mere content.
Winds of Change – 25th Anniversary Legacy Edition
Launches February 10, 2026
Stand for truth. Stand for healing. Stand for the stories they tried to erase.
—William Robert Stanek
