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AuthorHouse

AuthorHouse� exists to help authors achieve success -- by their definition. The company was founded in 1997 by an aspiring author who saw a need for a simple and effective self-publishing process. Based in Bloomington, Indiana, AuthorHouse has grown into the world's largest self-publishing house, providing premier book publishing and marketing services for authors.

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Comments on AuthorHouse

Posted by:

Delores

Subject: complaint	Comment #15
Delores I sent in my book to get publshed 3 months ago author house promised me a few covers to look at I received one. They also sent the galley back printed all wrong. The first page they made all the sentences into paragraphs. The entire book is not the way I sent it and now they want to make me correct their mistakes. I have refused several times. They also want me to make corrections on the cover. I don't want to correct the cover I just want to be able to choose another cover. I have sent numerous e-mails and called many times but they only e-mail me back they won't call me and keep insisting I correct their mistakes. By reading the above letters I see why they want me to correct their mistakes so they can charge me. I am on the verge of getting an attorney. Will let everyone know what happens. All I can say to authors is run for your life from the scam artists.

Posted by:

Cloud

	Comment #16
Anyone interested in experiencing what it feel like to have a corporate company take your money, st on your passion, and profit off a piece of your passion via the worst production you have ever seen? Give authorhouse your money. They will make sure to throw together a half aed piece of garbage that takes half a year to create and then further embarrass you by selling it online all over the world whether you approved it or not. Hey authorhouse! I happen to have an old school lexmark printer from the early 90s collecting dust my closet. I think I'm going to start up a business just like you since you inspired me so much. I'll just set that bad boy up on my desk and start taking people's money. Why work for a living and create something quality? You don't. Your a surprising success story. Forbes should do an article on you guys called: "Why wasting consumer time is a good thing." Edited by jerawc on 09/07/10 - 09:36:09

Posted by:

Guest

	Comment #17
Authorhouse, is the best most professional service you can get, very encouraging, supporting and professionals. If your book is good it will sell millions of copies. They are not inept, but have extremely good professionals, polite, very understanding and at times even inspiring. My first book was a treat and finished to the highest excellent standards, and my free copies came in pristine condition. Edited by jerawc on 09/07/10 - 09:36:38

Posted by:

E.A. Bucchianeri

Subject: Authorhouse: Royalty and Copyright Ripoff	Comment #18
To my utter misfortune, I became acquainted and started to use the services offered by 1stBooks publishers now known as Authorhouse, and published my first two books in 2003. At the time, I detected no problem with their services and accepted that being my work was academic, would not sell many copies. I decided to publish my third book with them, a large 2 volume edition in 2008, and due to the reviews and publicity received, and the professors that contacted me personally, I became fully aware of the university libraries and public libraries who processed my work into their establishments, or were interested in my work. However, I noticed the first major discrepancy in their promises was that if I turned my manuscript in within a certain time frame, I would receive fourteen free copies of my work when it was printed. I e-mailed my text, and mailed my contract via snail-mail two weeks before the deadline, I know it arrived on time�I live in Europe, and mail does not take longer than 4 to 8 days to arrive in the US, however, they could not honour the free copy agreement as they hadn't received the contracts on time. They never mentioned the agreement included receiving the contracts, just the manuscript. I received just my usual free review copy of each volume. I decided to let the matter go. Then, they have a very careless attitude with other aspects of their services. For example, their Press Wire program that sends your Press Release electronically to 14,000 media outlets. Where did I find my academic books being promoted? In the financial sections of these media outlets, and not to my target audience found in the academic, history, biography, or even literature, areas. (I also discovered my university level academic book on classical music categorised as a �children's book�.) However, the major problems developed with royalty accounting. I began keeping a record of the copies available of my new two-volume work at Amazon US, UK, Canada, and their Marketplace vendors. (This is practically the only way you can discern how many books may be selling in the public domain.) Considering this is Print On Demand, when a number of available copies drops, you can expect it to be a sale since stores have no reason to keep raising and dropping the numbers unless they make a sale and then re-list the book. (For the record, I withdrew all my publications from Authorhouse June 14th 2010.) Authorhouse's numbers were way below the daily tallies I kept from the Amazon numbers, they only reported between 10% and maybe up to 20% of the sales on any given quarter. Today for example, I received the worst report yet: they reported only 1 copy of Volume One sold in the second quarter (April 1 to June 14th, the time I withdrew my publications from them), and only 3 copies for Volume 2. According to my numbers from the Amazon rankings and marketplace sellers in the US, Canada and UK: 28 copies of Volume 1 sold, and 27 of Volume 2. Therefore they have reported only 4% of the sales, and they obviously are pocketing the rest. And this does not include other sales that may have been made through other sellers like Barnes and Noble, etc. However, there is no way to be compensated for these discrepancies, Authorhouse demands you provide receipts of all sales as proof of your claim�how on earth do you track such receipts? Authorhouse knows it's an impossibility. Of course, Nielsen Book Scan offers sales report services, but you cannot use them to reclaim royalties, or display or disclose your sales report to any third party as Nielsen deems such action a breach of trademark confidentiality and would possible incur a lawsuit. The simplest answer would be to cancel all contracts with Authourhouse, but this is not as easy as they make it out to be. To date, they continue to reassure me my books are no longer in print, but as I have discovered today (September 7), they are still listed with UK wholesale distributors as available within 5 days as Print on Demand, so they are technically still available by Authorhouse illegally. 1st Books / Authorhouse in my estimation is the most disreputable company allowed to carry on a business offering a sham service to the public, robbing authors of the fruits of their labours. Surely they are required to have a business license to operate as all other businesses? How can any state issue a license and continue to allow such a rogue business like this to continue? They are operating on such a large scale, and if they are doing this to every author, then one must consider the possibility they are committing grand larceny on a massive scale. They claim to have thousands of authors with their company. Authors Beware

Posted by:

jerawc
Administrator

Usergroup: Administrator
Joined: Apr 09, 2008

Total Links: 66
Total Comments: 1

	Comment #19
This is a comment on the post above by E.A. Bucchianeri in regards to the tracking of number of books being sold. There is often confusion on this (no matter who the publisher is, AuthorHouse or otherwise) when it comes to available books for sale on Amazon. On Amazon you may see that your book has 21 New or Used copies available from various sellers. This does not mean that you sold 21 copies of your book and are owed royalties on them. The companies offering your book for sale most likely did not buy a copy of your book and then are listing it for sale in Amazon's Marketplace. They pull only the the data for your book through the distributor and list it for sale without having stock on hand. If they do get an order for your book they would then place an order through the distributor and reship it to the customer and then you would be (or should be) credited with the sale. So while your book may show numerous copies for sale through the Marketplace which would seem like you sold that many copies and are owed royalties, you may not of actually sold any. (Kim Martin, self-pub.net)

Posted by:

terry harris

	Comment #20
My name is Terry Harris, and I published a nonfiction book with Trafford in 2003. Since Authorhouse got involved with Trafford I have been cheated out of royalities left and right. This company is scum,and I would not publish with them again. Since there are so many writers who have been cheated by Trafford/Authorhouse we should commence a class action law suit against them. I read on the net that there is an SEC investigation of Authorhouse for tax fraud. Also there is at least one other suit against them.Let's get together and go after them legally.

Posted by:

Harold

	Comment #21
AuthorHouse is a vanity publisher. They're good for yearbooks, family history books, and old ladies that just want to see their bad poetry published, but they're not good for anything that might depend on sales to the public. They're marketing sales staff are like predators going after any money they think you might have left in your pockets. They are ruthless. When I made it clear that I wasn't going to throw thousands of dollars into their company for a bunch of vague promotional schemes, they left me alone for about 2 weeks. Then another salesman called and pushed an $800 social media package. They offered a Facebook page, an account on Twitter, and something on Shelfari, which I hadn't heard of. I did some in depth checking and found that 100% of what they were trying to sell me was available for free, from these various sites. The book coordinators are very hard to communicate with. They don't like answering their phones and emails take 2 days to get a reply, if they reply at all. It gets very frustrating. My next book, I'll consider using Lulu.com, or find something new. I also read of a good number of authors not getting their royalties because AH claimed they didn't sell any books. I'm always sure to drop the name "Nielson's bookscan" while talking to them on the phone, or emailing. Nielson's does book sales tracking, and AH knows it. I figure if AH knows that I know about Nielson's they might be less likely to try claiming that I didn't sell any books. Good luck!

Posted by:

Guest

	Comment #22
They have improved some - perhaps because of all the discontent? They are now sending covers, galley text in PDF for approval. Yet, my consultant sent the back cover as being the front cover. And yes, no one ever answers their extension because most are away from their desk. Letters also go unanswered. Doesn't anyone there speak good old American? No, they are all from someplace else with poor English and a thick accent...Publishing success is painful!

Posted by:

Beryl

	Comment #23
I have just sent my second book to Authorhouse. I think a lot of the adverse comments printed on this page are totally unfair. Once you get to understand their procedures it becomes a lot easier. To be fair my first book 'Student Nurse 60's Style' had many problems with the editing, but I could not fault the cover design or the galley set out. With my second book 'Wild Child' the cover looks fantastic even though it was not my first choice, because of the problems with editing I had it edited first by someone local. Both of my books will be available as E books as part of the package. I had originally sent my second book to another publishers who said they did a shared cost publishing scheme they wanted �9,000 as a 'contrabution'. My first book has sold over 600 copies and is still selling well.

Posted by:

unhappy

	Comment #24
Absolutely to all of the above! This is the most manipulative Mickey Mouse company I have ever had the displeasure of working with! They made hundreds of mistakes on my manuscript, and then sent it back with different ones. They did not fix mistakes that I made, and paid to fix. They told me the manuscript was perfect, and I continued to find their mistakes...but different ones! They do not speak English, and therefore, do not know the English language enough to even capitalize a letter after a period! Now that I am just published, I am sure that they will not pay me all of my royalties. I am spending a lot of money on advertising. My preview copy was supposed to be here yesterday, and now I am being told that it will not arrive until next week!!! They lie and manipulate and have absolutely no morals or ethics!!! How can get out of my contract? I would be willing to work with others to file a lawsuit! I am already talking to a lawyer! How can best track my sales so that I know that I can insist on getting paid my royalties? How do I make sure, once the contract is null and void, that they will not reproduce my book and sell it with a different title etc.? Help!!!! I researched this company before I chose them, and even the Better Business Bureau gives them an A rating! If only I had known!

Posted by:

Lisa O'Donnell

	Comment #25
Those who complain a lot are either of the following: illiterate (doesn't know how to read agreements and fine prints) delusional (money doesn't just start rolling in while the book is published, you know) unprepared (SELF PUBLISHING is SELF EXPLANATORY ENOUGH. There are expenses required for others to take on your job). Sheesh. You guys are forgetting that AuthorHouse publishes your book, yes. Retail and Distribute using the biggest distributors, check. Market for a fee, check. They can control all these. One thing they cant? The decision of the book buyers.

Posted by:

Anonymous

	Comment #26
What AH did to me was that, althogh my book did not need any editing, they made a few mistakes on purpose as they wanted $10/word and a minimum of $25 for each editing. When they sent me the first edited work, I realized that there were other mistakes and typing errors for the correction of which they were asking for more moeny. This process went on and on, every edited galley came back with new typing errors, and finally I used the services of an attorney and I later found out that the editor (Trent) had left AH. However they agrred not to charge me for the new errors but unfortunately there are a few typing errors on which people even give negative comment.

Posted by:

joan

	Comment #27
if you just want to see a book published it is fine

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