Sometimes it doesn’t bother me at all that iUniverse and Author Solutions (and now Penguin Books) have one-sided conversations with the world about how great they are, because there are plenty of customers willing to step up and talk about what it’s really like to work with companies that habitually overcharge, under-deliver and make harassing sales calls. But let’s get to the interview with iUniverse Author Kathryn Maughan.
Today, I’m glad to welcome Kathryn Maughan, author of Did I Expect Angels? to talk about her experiences working with iUniverse.
Maughan’s story is interesting because she started working iUniverse just before the company was sold to Author Solutions. This ties in nicely with what we’ve heard from other writers who talk about the “good” and “bad” iUniverse, referring to their feelings about the company before and after it was purchased by Author Solutions. (Or, as I usually think of it — “before Kevin Weiss” and “during Kevin Weiss.”)
Maughan doesn’t really hold too much against iUniverse until she talks about a pushy marketing salesperson named Gracie. At that point in the story, we see the iUniverse many of us have come to know and hate.
Q: Please tell us about your initial search for a publisher and what led you to contact iUniverse.
I wrote a book in 2002 and began an agent search, getting about 40 rejections. I thought I had the tolerance to see it through, but then I began grad school in 2003 (dramatic writing, NYU), and that took pretty much everything out of me. After I graduated, in 2006, my dad suggested I self-publish the book I had written years earlier. I had always thought of self-publishing as the kiss of death, but at that point, I thought, “Well, it’s dead already. Why not?” And yes, that’s about as much thought as I gave it. So I did an internet search. I liked the idea of publish-on-demand because I had visions of a thousand copies of my book mouldering in my parents’ basement. (I live in NY, so they wouldn’t be mouldering in my apartment…no room.) I also liked the fact that they had an affiliation with Barnes & Noble. My book did in fact get into a B&N for a while.
Q: What was the deal you originally made with iUniverse to publish your book? Did you buy a specific publishing package?
I bought the bells-and-whistles package. I knew it included an editorial review, cover art (which I didn’t use), possibility for Editors’ Choice etc. I believe it included more than that, but it’s been years….
Q: What problems did you have with iUniverse, and how did they attempt to resolve your complaints? Were you happy with the result?
This is the thing…I published with them in 2006. Well, I started the process in 2006, and then I hired an editor (yes, through iUniverse) and after that I did an *extensive* rewrite that lasted nearly a full year, so it was published in 2007. iUniverse was not part of Author Solutions at this point. I was actually happy with the results and the responsiveness of those with whom I worked.
I sent in my own cover art (commissioned by a professional book cover artist), so I can’t comment on that. But their development edit was very thorough and it genuinely helped me make the book better. It cost more than some other professionals with whom I’ve since consulted (I’m on my 2nd book now…and no, I don’t plan to self-publish this one), but then I’ve heard other friends talk about freelance editors who charge double what iUniverse did.
Honestly, iUniverse did what they said they would do. I went into it with my eyes open. I was given Editors’ Choice, Publishers’ Choice and Star status, but they never marketed it…nor did they say they would (unless I purchased marketing). They did one copy edit after I turned in the final manuscript. (I have a frenemy who is very, very nit-picky about this kind of thing, who informed me that she had found ONE copy error in the final product. Hey, at least she bought it.) After an initial evaluation, they did say that in order to be considered for EC I’d have to do a rewrite. However…many years later, I know that the book in its initial state wasn’t great. I wrote it initially in 2001/2002, and I rewrote it in 2006/2007 after going to grad school (in writing, no less). I never tried to get an agent with the rewritten book, because I was already under contract with iUniverse when I rewrote it. I view the whole thing as a learning experience.
One problem I had: the book is written with two narrators. One is an educated woman, the other a Costa Rican immigrant. Their voices couldn’t be more different. iUniverse, however, insisted that I put Henry’s story into italics. I thought that was a strange idea, because if you get one sentence in, you know who’s speaking. But Editor’s Choice was on the line (the keys to the kingdom, it seemed), so I did it. And a lot of reviewers said that the italics were hard to read.
The biggest issue I have with them now is their attempt at marketing. I’ll address that next.
Q: How was your book publicized? Did you do it all yourself? Pay for them to help you market the finished product?
I never even looked at iUniverse marketing. I don’t remember if they didn’t offer it then, or I already had other plans. I hired a marketing firm, and they turned out to be a big dud, even though they came highly recommended. The marketing that turned out well was what I did myself, contacting lots and lots of book bloggers. I got some really good reviews, actually…and not from my mother. 🙂
A few years later, after iUniverse was purchased by Author Solutions, they began calling me every so often to try to get me to buy more packages, marketing packages. The first time, Gracie asked me if I would like to get the book into bookstores, for $750. (keep in mind, it’s not guaranteed, it’s just taking a step to the POSSIBILITY of getting it in bookstores.) I said no. Or maybe she didn’t say anything about the $750, and I asked? I don’t remember. I said no. The next time she phoned, she said, “I’m calling to talk about getting your book into bookstores.” I said, “For $750?” She paused and then tried to talk around it, and I said, “For $750?” Finally she said, yes, that’s what it cost.
I explained that I had spent all the money I was going to spend on this book, and they tried really hard to put on the pressure. I’m a midwestern, polite-to-the-point-of-death person (you could be stabbing me and I would ask you to please stop), and I ended up shouting over this woman, “Gracie! Gracie! Gracie! I am not buying any more services!” She was going on about how iUniverse was the number one self-publishing company. I said, yes, I have already published my book with them, and I’m not doing any more for it. In a very accusatory manner, she said, “So what do you expect me to do with your book?” I said, “Nothing. Let it go.” “You want me to ignore your book?” She seemed very angry. It was truly strange. Later I kept getting messages on my machine, about one every three months: this is iUniverse and we want to talk to you about a marketing plan for your book. I wouldn’t call them back. After a while I f igured out a trick: go to your profile and change your phone number to 000-0000. They haven’t called since.
Q: Is there anything else you want to add?
I honestly wonder if their practices have changed since they were purchased by AuthorSolutions. I felt that I got what I asked for when I self-published. It was the marketing that felt shady to me.
Over the weekend an Author Solutions representative, attempting to comment incognito, left a response to my post “Calling Bullshit.” Initially, my plan was to ignore the comment. After all, it’s not my style to pander to trolls or idiots. But after sitting on the information over the weekend, I concluded that letting this kind of deception slide does a disservice to the writers I’ve been trying to help the past couple of months.
So here’s one more item to add to the litany of iniquities committed by Author Solutions: its employees leave supposedly anonymous comments on blog posts and lie about their credentials in half-assed attempts to defend the company’s business model.
At first glance, you might think Julsbug2k is just some anonymous commenter with a soft-hearted view of the company and ludicrous notions about what “self-publishing” means. However, Julsbug2k is actually AN EMPLOYEE of Author Solutions. And not only does he not disclose this information, he also claims to be “a business journalist who follows, among other things, acquisitions.” There isn’t even the tiniest speck of truth in that statement. The author of the comment is an outright liar.
So, I’m asking everyone to read the comment again, this time with the knowledge that it was written by an ASI employee:
This is truly and interesting post. Corporations that manage a portfolio of brands is nothing new. For example, GM does this. Each brand is targeted to a specific demographic. As a business journalist who follows, among other things, acquisitions — will Author Solution’s roll its imprints into one over times. No. That wouldn’t make good business sense. I would bet each imprint, like GM’s brands, target a different group of people. Contrary to your assessment, this approach brings more choice to the market.
You also misunderstand self-publishing as an industry. I would argue that not even independent artists are truly independent because they rely on supplies from other manufacturing firms. Paint from the paint makers, canvas from the canvas makers, etc. Musicians are the same, they rely on audio equipment from audio manufacturing firms, etc.
So publishing independently is really assisted publishing. Companies like Author Solutions, LuLu and dozens of smaller publishing houses bring together services that authors can use to bring their work to print. Just like a mechanic brings together parts from other vendors to repair your car, or a builder brings together building materials from vendors to build a house. Or, how independent musicians use equipment not of their making to record, distribution and market their work to the public.
Following the announcement of the sale, I offered Penguin an opportunity to make an official comment, and they chose not to respond. I think it was a stupid call, but it was their stupid call to make. However, that doesn’t mean I’ll stand by while one of their newly purchased twits pretends to have credentials as a business journalist and tries to con my readers into believing that the Penguin and Author Solutions so-many-imprints-you-can’t-keep-track-of-which-ones-we-own business model “brings more choice to the market.”
If someone at Penguin or Author Solutions has the intestinal fortitude to answer my questions for real, you know where to find me.
While I was earning my English degree in 2006, I started working part-time for The Saturday Evening Post. One of my jobs as an editorial assistant was to wade through the stacks and stacks of media kits and press releases sent to us by public relations firms and in-house departments. Next to researching copyright inquiries, it was my least favorite part of the job. That’s because 98% of every press release just reeked of bullshit. The percentage might be higher for an Author Solutions press release.
If a press release was a person, it would be a husband leaving a voicemail just before his wife gets off work. He knows she won’t be able to answer, but that’s perfect. Because he wants to be able to feed her a few lines without having to answer any follow-up questions.
“Going to be home late tonight,” the husband explains. “Tutoring someone from my comm class. Don’t wait up!”
This involuntary revulsion for the press release made it hard for me to enjoy the press release vetting part of my job. I was charged with finding one or two that were newsworthy and getting the rest out of sight. My confession here? I wanted to toss them all. No, I wanted to burn them all, and then dance around the blazing trashcan wearing war paint.
But an activist’s critique of journalism isn’t complete without also taking a stab at a journalist or two. If the press release is a slimy husband, the lazy journalist is the wife who ignores all the signs. When the message ends, she doesn’t immediately try to call her husband to get more information. The next morning, she doesn’t look at the receipt he left on the nightstand after emptying his pockets the night before. She doesn’t ask if he meant to keep that old bank account open after two years.
The wife just goes on folding the laundry.
The journalist just retypes a lede.
And, with a few exceptions, that’s pretty much what happened on the internet yesterday with the Pearson-Penguin announcement. Author Solutions and Penguin put out a press release, and then a lot of reporters decided thinking critically was just too much work. Or maybe they had too much on their plate already. Or maybe they figured no one really cared.
Whatever the case, by and large mainstreamers considered a 500-word press release and a press conference call with Penguin CEO John Makinson the whole story. (By the way, still can’t believe I didn’t get an invite to the press conference call yesterday!)
There were some notable exceptions to the thoughtless regurgitation of information, some brilliant critiques; however, they didn’t come from mainstream sources. They came from concerned publishing bloggers, online watchdog communities, and haters like me.
Speaking of me… Last night I wrote a little bit about the spin in the official press release announcing Pearson’s acquiring of Author Solutions, lamenting how they want us all to think that most of Author Solutions’ employees work in the U.S. I also voiced my disapproval of the non-response response I got from Erica Glass. But I didn’t say much about any of the rest of the Penguin turds rising to the water’s surface after the release of that document.
Well, that’s what today is for.
Let’s start by taking this beaut from the official press release attributed to Penguin CEO Makinson:
“No-one has captured this opportunity as successfully as Author Solutions, which has rapidly built a position of world leadership on a platform of outstanding customer support and tailor-made publishing services.”
Oh yes he did just use “Author Solutions” and “outstanding customer support” in the same sentence. I’ve already collected an encyclopedia of complaints against this company and it’s imprints in just the last couple of months. The short list of recurring issues includes: making formerly out-of-print works available for sale without the author’s consent, improperly reporting royalty information, non-payment of royalties, breech of contract, predatory and harassing sales calls, excessive markups on review and advertising services, failure to deliver marketing services as promised, telling customers their add-ons will only cost hundreds of dollars and then charging their credit cards thousands of dollars, ignoring customer complaints, shaming and banning customers who go public with their stories, and calling at least one customer a “fucking asshole.”
Oh, if only I were talking about one bad experience. I am not. Author Solutions is not an isolated blemish on an otherwise clear-skinned face. This vanity press and its numerous imprints are the full-blown cystic acne of the publishing world. CEO Kevin Weiss is a painful boil. Marketing VP Keith Ogorek is the sticky pus. And the executives at Pearson and Penguin are on course to establish themselves as the oozing pustules of the book industry unless they turn things around.
Sound mean? Good. My issue with these guys isn’t that they have unhappy customers, it’s that they ignore them. My problem isn’t that the Author Solutions royalty system is a joke, it’s that they refuse to fix or even acknowledge that it’s a problem. It’s not the amount of money the execs take home, it’s how they get it. It’s not that they have no respect for writers, it’s…no, wait. It’s definitely that they have no respect for writers.
Next there’s that laughable bit where Author Solutions and Penguin people refer to themselves as self-publishers. Yet mainstream reports not only don’t call them out on it, they don’t even question it.
“Formed in 2007, ASI is now the world’s leading provider of professional self-publishing services.”
We’ve talked about this already. The model that Author Solutions uses is a vanity press model where books are published entirely at the author’s expense and only a small portion of the royalties go back to the author following a sale.
People! For the love of God! Self-publishers—individuals who piecemeal parts of the process like cover design and editing to individual professionals—don’t give up 80% of their royalties in addition to paying thousands of dollars for a multi-million dollar corporation to do the legwork. (Don’t even get me started on what Author Solutions does or, more likely, doesn’t do for those exorbitant fees.)
Self-publishers are independent writers and artists. Say it with me: in-de-pen-dent. Sure, they pay for someone to print their book or they pay a web service to make their title available, but they don’t share their profits. They keep them. Not 20% of them, not 50% of them—all of them.
In a WSJ article, Kevin Weiss is quoted as saying, “We have seen a rapid change. When I got here four and a half years ago, we were still labelled as vanity publishing and we were somewhat the scourge of the industry.”
Oh, Kevvy. Aren’t you precious.
Once you’ve had enough of what the press release does say, it’s time to address what it doesn’t say. Around 2007, just when most people were starting to think you couldn’t find anything in the publishing world worse than a typical vanity press, Author Solutions proved us all wrong.
The company started buying up once independent presses, building “informational” websites as a ruse to funnel traffic to their companies, and launching new marketing service brands just about every other week. The press release doesn’t mention all of these subsidiaries: Author House, iUniverse, XLibris, Trafford, Palibrio, Publish in the USA, FuseFrame, Pitchfest, Author Learning Center, WordClay, BookTango and AuthorHive. Because that would destroy the illusion of choice Penguin so graciously offers writers.
For the record, the following are questions I sent Erica Glass of Penguin, followed by the response I received:
Author Solutions has a number of imprints that critics believe are kept in place to limit choice in the market and deceive consumers who “shop around.” Does Penguin take a position on this?
Penguin offered no comment.
Are there plans to consolidate iUniverse, Trafford, WordClay, AuthorHouse, Palibrio, Publish in the USA, et al. to a single brand?
Penguin offered no comment.
Sources inside Author Solutions explain that the royalty system is a shambles. Reports and payments are habitually late, which breaches the publishing contract. Does Penguin have a plan in place to address this issue, either by upgrading the system that tracks this information or through some other means?
Penguin offered no comment.
Author Solutions has been accused by Indiana residents and its own employees of “cramming cubicles” to receive tax cuts from the state on the basis of job creation, only to fire those hires a short time later and rehire in the Philippines. Does Penguin plan to continue with Author Solutions’ outsourcing model?
After I initially reached out to the folks at Pearson and Penguin Books USA for comment on their recent acquisition of Author Solutions, I received a very short non-response from Erica Glass, the Media Relations Manager at Penguin.
“What questions are you looking to have answered?” she wrote.
It’s not the open and welcoming reply you hope to get from a company’s media relations department. Clearly, I am being screened. Otherwise it would have been, “Let me put you in touch with…” or “Sure, what can we tell you?” Even if they needed time to prepare statements, I’d expect something along the lines of, “We are working to get you answers to your questions and will be in touch.” However, so far it’s been total silence on their part.
Public reaction to the sale has been mixed. Some who watch the publishing industry closely are confused, wondering why any company with a decent reputation would willingly take on Author Solutions. Some are excited, hoping the purchase will give self-publishing* the legitimacy it lacks. Others are taking the news like they’ve just received word their grandmother willingly contracted an STD.
.@EmilySuess This is lunacy of the highest order. What idiot took this deal? Bertram must have known they were unloading a dud…
— Claire Ryan (@rayntweets) July 19, 2012
To me, the most disturbing part of this story isn’t that Pearson and Penguin would chance marring their reputations by taking on Author Solutions; it’s their insistence that nothing will change. It’s like they believe the world will find the same ol’, same ol’ reassuring rather than appalling. That somehow keeping Kevin Weiss as CEO and giving him a seat on Penguin Group’s board will make us all sigh in relief. “Neither company will be laying off employees or executives,” writes Jeremy Greenfield, reporting for Digital Book World.
There are other things that bother me. In the official press release, the company states: “[Author Solutions] has approximately 1,600 employees, located primarily in Bloomington, Indiana and Cebu City, the Philippines.” Most people will read that and conclude that the majority of Author Solutions employees work in Bloomington, Indiana because it’s given first billing and comes immediately after the word “primarily.” Not so.
PR people are good at penning fuzzy sentences that are technically true when a linguist parses them, but ultimately deceptive when the public reads them. As an employee has already explained, there are now approximately 1,200 employees in the Philippines, comprising as much as two-thirds of Author Solutions’ entire workforce. Call Author Solutions or Penguin out on this fact, and they’re likely to show you their palms and shrug. But we said the majority were in Bloomington AND Cebu, you know—collectively.
So then the media cut and paste a line or two from the press release and—perhaps unwittingly, perhaps not—perpetuate the deception of Author Solutions as this American, nee Hoosier, company with a smattering of employees overseas. (For the record, Author Solutions has been registered as a For-Profit Foreign Corporation** with the Indiana Secretary of State since February 2, 2007, incorporating in Delaware and taking tax cuts from Indiana.)
So, yeah, there are definitely some questions I want Penguin to answer.
*You can put lipstick on a penguin… Author Solutions (and now Penguin) have established themselves as being the leader in “self-publishing.” As media reports of the sale have made their way around the internet, it’s clear to see reporters are buying this too. Author Solutions imprints are vanity presses.
**Not at all unusual for a corporation, but let’s not pretend they’ve been devoted to creating Hoosier jobs. It’s always about the money they don’t have to pay.
In case you haven’t heard, it’s official: Pearson buys Vanity Press
“LONDON–Pearson PLC , a provider of education and consumer publishing services, said Thursday it acquired Author Solutions Inc from Bertram Capital for 116 million dollars in cash, adding that it expects the acquisition to enhance adjusted earnings per share in its first full year.”
So I’m getting asked on a number of fronts what I think about Bertram Capital selling Author Solutions to Pearson, another publisher with ties to Indianapolis. I think the people of Bertram Capital are probably relieved to have that monkey off their back.
I think Pearson has a lot of housecleaning to do, but it’s like an employee says, “Everyone thinks it will be better. Unless they change the leadership, I don’t see how.”
More in the works. Stay tuned.
UPDATE 1:14 PM EDT: After reaching out to Pearson, my inquiry was forwarded to a media relations representative for Penguin Books. (If you’re confused, Penguin is owned by Pearson. Or Penguin is to Pearson as iUniverse is to Author Solutions. Sort of.) Whether or not my questions will be addressed by the company remains to be seen.
Remember author Joan Moran? She’s been fighting for months to get a $150 refund from vanity publisher iUniverse. She called, she emailed, she Tweeted. But the self-publishing imprint’s parent company, Author Solutions, wouldn’t even bother to respond to her. While they tracked down Lawrence Fisher on his blog to give him a refund, they simply ignored Joan. For months Author Solutions denies the refund.
Until today, that is. They finally broke their silence on the issue after Joan Moran emailed CEO Kevin Weiss last week. He, of course, passed her complaint off to someone else. There were some apologies and “we can’t help yous” followed by a, “let me check with my boss and get back to you” when it became apparent that Joan wasn’t going to relent. Earlier today, Joan received this:
Hello Ms. Moran,
I have discussed the situation with my supervisor and we are unable to offer you a full refund at this time for the proofs that you purchased. We fulfilled the service you requested in purchasing your files and as outlined in your publishing agreement. If I can assist you further, then please do let me know.
It’s polite, I’ll grant that. But don’t you just love how the representative cites the publishing agreement as a reason why they can’t give Joan her money back? From a consumer standpoint, it’s reprehensible. This is precisely why authors keep working to organize a class action lawsuit.
iUniverse and Author Solutions willfully breach the contract’s royalty provisions every quarter for every customer. In fact, they still haven’t posted items that should have been reported April 30. And yet, somehow, they just can’t issue a refund for misleading a customer into purchasing a document twice because it’s not in the contract.
Joan paid them to create this text file of her book when she bought the original package, but they charged her another $150 to email the PDF to her when she wanted to leave. The customer service rep led her to believe that she would be able to edit the document once she had it. Then later told her that everyone knows you can’t really edit a PDF.
Jerk.
So no, Author Solutions says. You can’t have your $150! Our hands are tied, can’t you see?
Funny they don’t have a problem ignoring their contract when the company stands to profit from it.
I guess that’s one way to keep the books looking good for a financial suitor.
I’m not going to lie, when I heard that HR at Author Solutions begs employees to go to Glassdoor.com and submit favorable reviews, I laughed so long and so hard that the muscles in my belly literally ached. I mean, someone get Scott Adams on the phone, because this is the stuff Dilbert is made of.
Because they’re only now begging employees to talk nice about them, I have concluded three things:
HR wasn’t at all concerned with the scathing reviews until I called attention to them here and here,
Things are getting really tense around Author Solutions, what with that sale looming and all, and…
I’m a badass in the tenacity department.
Now, several people have asked me if it’s against Glassdoor.com’s Terms of Service for HR to be “asking” current employees to submit favorable reviews. It’s a really, really good question. Sadly, the answer appears to be no.
You’d think that coerced reviews would be frowned upon by the website, considering it needs to be taken seriously by employees and job seekers to maintain any sort of authority in its niche. Here’s the thing: anonymous reviews are awesome because they protect employees from vindictive bosses, but anonymous reviews are also bad because Kevin Weiss himself could sign up for an account (or two or seven) and leave a glowing review of the company if he wanted. How does Glassdoor police something like that and still provide anonymity to users?
So far, HR’s suggestion that employees leave favorable reviews hasn’t led to any systemic review tampering on the site anyway. Even the writer of recent four-star review “It’s a good job, but not a career” spends more time discussing the cons and frustrations of working for the company than talking about how great it is. And while that same employee approves of Kevin Weiss, he or she still only awards two stars to Author Solutions under “Culture & Values.” To me, that says a great deal.
Sources reveal to me that morale inside the company, specifically at Indiana offices, is terribly low anyway. Those that fear their jobs might be outsourced to the Philippines probably don’t see much point in posting happy reviews just to appease the execs. And anyway, who could be happy dealing with angry customers, shoddy office equipment, and an apathetic executive management team all day, every day?
But reviews do matter to job seekers, so I just want to take a second to address Bloomington and Indy employees directly:
I know you work with some good-hearted, knowledgeable professionals, and I’m not asking you to leave bad reviews or even leave reviews at all, but if you do? Don’t sugarcoat it because you fear HR or fear your boss. Just tell the truth—whether its good, bad or anticlimactic.
And cheer up! Because you and the rest of the internet get to watch this hilarious video of Kevin Weiss (CEO), Joe Steinbach (General Manager, Cebu) and Bruce Bunner (VP, Global Sales & Marketing) line dancing on the beach. (At least until someone starts giggling and it gets yanked from YouTube. If that happens, don’t worry. I have another present for you guys.)
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ignIJil1as] Because at Author Solutions you can either earn a living wage or have a beach party…but you can’t have both.
If you’re an iUniverse customer, you should know that a few people on the inside care. You should also know you’re not the only ones that parent company Author Solutions has taken advantage of. I’ve received word from sources inside Author Solutions that there’s more you and the tax paying citizens of Indiana should be pissed off about, like Author Solutions tax credits.
One of my biggest concerns with the company as a resident of Indiana is that shortly after Gov. Mitch Daniels toured the Bloomington Offices and praised Author Solutions for “insourcing” jobs from China, Author Solutions started laying off employees and sending jobs to the Philippines. This disgusts me for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that Author Solutions was awarded an Economic Development Tax Credit for creating those Indiana jobs in the first place. Here’s an excerpt from an undated press release on the AuthorHouse website:
“The Indiana Economic Development Corporation offered Author Solutions up to $575,000 in performance-based tax credits and up to $100,000 in training grants based on the company’s job creation plans. The Monroe County Commissioners and the Bloomington Economic Development Corporation have supported property tax abatement to assist the company with new job creation in Monroe County.
The company, which employs 230 associates in Bloomington and 50 in Indianapolis, is currently identifying candidates for creative, customer service and technology positions.”
But things changed. In April 2011, Terry Lee Simpson wrote this letter. In it she complains, “It has come to my attention that Author Solutions, a local self-publishing company owned by Bertram Capital, has recently laid-off more than fifty employees since the beginning of this year.” She urges officials to look into the problem saying that as an Indiana and Monroe County taxpayer, she feels “extremely ripped-off.”
It seems pretty clear that Author Solutions was playing the tax loophole game with the residents of Indiana. Whether or not the company conformed to the letter of the law, Indiana residents got the short end of the stick. An employee recalls:
“I don’t know the exact numbers but I can tell you that two years ago … there were not enough desks or chairs for everyone. Parking was horrible, and people would park along the curbs to get a space. They were moving filing cabinets to hallways to make room for more desks. The Indianapolis office was the same way. In fact, some people had to start working from home because the landlord said we were using too many parking spaces.”
…And Run
Contrast that to today, after numerous layoffs and a transitioning of the workforce to the Philippines, and this is the picture of Author Solutions one employees sees: “Now in Bloomington there is a whole section of about 25 desks that are empty. There are 3 or 4 vacant offices. In Indy, almost one entire half of the office is vacant and is being disassembled.”
An anonymous employee tells me:
“More and more jobs keep ending up in the Philippines… There are now 1200 employees there. 1200!!! That means over 2/3 of services, sales, customer service and marketing are being done out of the Philippines! And the rest of the US staff? Most of them don’t work on the core imprints. There are a handful of people who work on iUniverse and AuthorHouse in the US. The rest of the staff — they only work on the partnerships (Abbott Press, Westbow, Balboa, Inspiring Voices, Crossbooks, Dellarte). Why? Because those partners are smarter than to allow untrained Filipinos to work on their books! There is not a single Trafford or Xlibris employee in the US!”
And the picture in the Philippines isn’t pretty either. The employee likens it to a sweatshop and says the people there are “packed like sardines for pennies a day. No training, no publishing expertise, just shove those books through the assembly line and sell, sell, sell!”
Customers See No Benefits From Cheap Labor
I’m assured that in addition to the number of authors who I’ve interviewed here already, there are still hundreds more who have been ripped off by the company.
The refund process was even changed to take greater advantage of customers. So the longer a customer waits to ask for a refund, the less they get. This works to the company’s advantage because most of the authors wait to ask for their money back, always thinking the company deserves a second chance to make things right.
Refunds work like this: if you have just purchased a package you can get a 100% refund, but as soon as you submit your manuscript it drops to 75%. After you start design, it drops to 50% and so on until eventually you actually have to PAY Author Solutions $150 or $750 to get a worthless PDF of the file you already paid them to create (Schedule A, Section 9 of the publishing contract).
If labor costs less, they don’t have to pay state and county taxes, and no one’s getting a refund where is all the money going? No doubt it’s being used to make the company appear more profitable to buyers. Rumor has it that an announcement on Bertram Capital’s sale of Author Solutions is just around the corner.
It’s Time for Authors & Hoosiers to Act
As a sale becomes more likely, one employee has a message for iUniverse and other Author Solutions customers: “I can completely sympathize with authors… I wish they would all speak up.” Another employee says, “If you want to get revenge, better alert Publisher’s Weekly about everything you’ve dug up, and get organized with the Attorney General NOW.”
Get in Touch Now:
Fran Marburgh Office of the Indiana Attorney General Consumer Protection Invoice 302 West Washington Street, 5th Floor Indianapolis, Indiana 46204
Indiana residents should vocalize their objections to local and state representatives as well as let Author Solutions execs know their abuse of tax code provisions for employers who are actually committed to job growth in Indiana is unacceptable.
Here we go again. Another iUniverse/Author Solutions FAIL.
On Friday, I got an email from Mark Thornton, one of the iUniverse authors I interviewed back in May. Mark is an assistant producer for a Louisville-based AM radio station, and in that capacity he discovered something quite unsettling about iUniverse and its parent company, Author Solutions, Inc (ASI).
Mark writes:
I’m an Assitant Producer at WGTK 970 AM, and I book authors to be on one of our talk shows.
There’s a publication that every radio station in America uses: RTIR Radio-TV Interview Guide. Anyway, iUniverse is charging their authors to place ads in RTIR and listing the Author Solutions phone number 812-339-6000 ext. 5222 and the contact person Kelly Rynard, but that extension is not vaild and there is no Kelly Rynard at Author Soultions or iUniverse.* So the writers are paying iUniverse to promote their book to Radio and TV producers, but when somone calls to book an interview they hit a dead end.
I used the Internet to track down the author we wanted to interview, and she was shocked to find out that her ad was useless.
Mark gave me the phone number for RTIR. Armed with that and the power of Google, I started digging. What I found was pretty repulsive, but sadly not surprising.
Authors Can Buy Ads Directly From RTIR
Author Solutions’ imprints iUniverse, Trafford, Xlibris, Publish in the USA** and Author House all encourage authors to purchase RTIR ads through their website. However, as is the case with their Trifecta Book Review Services, these vanity presses fleece authors by tacking thousands of dollars on to the original supplier’s price tag.
There is nothing preventing authors from buying ads directly through RTIR, except perhaps the misleading copy on Author Solutions websites.
ASI companies don’t spell out what RTIR stands for, presumably to prevent authors from discovering they can buy ads without the middleman for thousands less through Radio-TV Interview Report.
ASI companies brag that the RTIR packages include “professionally written content (with your final approval),” making it sound like ASI’s people provide this service when actually RTIR includes copywriting in their base price.
iUniverse’s Mark-Up on Ads is Unholy
Sources: RTIR Ad Rates, Deadlines and Other Information and Author Solutions’ company websites.
Just how the math works depends on several factors: Does ASI purchase the 1/2-page or full-page ad from RTIR? Does the customer buy 1/4-page or 1/2-page ad from ASI? And does the customer go for a 1-, 3- or 6-issue package? I ran all the scenarios, and estimate that ASI takes in anywhere from $2,000 to $18,000. (Those numbers assume that ASI doesn’t get a price break from RTIR. The gap could actually be bigger.)
Here’s a look at what iUniverse, Trafford, Author House and Xlibris imprints pocket when authors pay for these advertising services:
Missed Publicity Opportunities for Authors
Like Mark mentioned, there’s more than just price jacking going on here. The information printed in the ads points radio and TV producers to an invalid extension and an employee that is no longer with the company. Mark kept digging until he found the author he was looking for, but how many others don’t bother? How many authors should have been contacted for interviews and weren’t? And how many authors paid thousands of dollars for nothing?
The way I see it, Author Solutions has failed epicly this time. First, change the ad copy, idiots. Second, reroute or reassign extensions when an employee leaves. Third, stop being such an awful employer. It’s like those DishTV commercials:
When you run a scam business, your employees hate working for you. When your employees hate working for you they leave in droves. When they leave in droves, current employees don’t know where to route calls for former employees.
So my question for Kevin Weiss and Keith Ogorek is this: Are you guys too stupid to anticipate that this would be a problem, or do you just prefer collecting thousands of dollars from your customers without having to provide any actual services? My bet’s on the latter. Because then your employees don’t have to work for your authors, they just have to make more sales calls for you.
*A search on LinkedIn revealed that there was a Kelly Rynard who worked at Author Soultions from June 2010 – November 2011. **The imprints Author Solutions owns seems to grow exponentially every time I search the web. Publish in the USA is the latest one I’ve stumbled across. I refuse to link to the site, but you really should see it. It’s like the Time Cube guy made it for them.
Have you been keeping track of the Author Solutions employee reviews on Glassdoor.com? Of course you haven’t, so let me give you the skinny. We start with one good review and wrap up with two more bad ones.
The Good Review
I’m glad to see that someone at the company decided to take my suggestion to heart. On May 22, I wrote: “one has to wonder where the loyal employees are hiding, if, in fact, there are any loyal employees to be found.” Then yesterday, I found a 5-star review from someone at the Fort Mitchell, KY offices* who claims that the company is growing so quickly a few hiccups are to be expected. You can read the review in its entirety here.
That Author Solutions review really tickles me. I mean on one hand, ZOMG! It’s so fast-paced you might not be able to hang. But on the other, there’s a three-month ramp up period to help you along, so you’re good. (Granted, I imagine it does take some time to master the art of pushing overpriced marketing services on people who have said repeatedly they don’t want them.)
I also love how the employee lauds what other employees have grudgingly identified as croneyism. Also, lookie! The review has bumped Kevin Weiss’s approval rating all the way up to a whopping 20%!
The Bad Reviews
That approval rating and the company rating of 1.6 would probably be higher, except that two other 1-star reviews have also been added. (I’ve posted excerpts for your convenience, but you can see the full reviews by clicking on the dates at the end of the quoted material.)
“Being owned by a private equity corporation, treatment of employees and client satisfaction are AuthorSolutions lowest priorities. The wages are low and the benefits are minimal. Discipline is maintained by regularly singling out employees for harsh treatment through intimidation, work overloads, artificial production goals and eliminating positions to transfer to their facilities in the Philippines. Management actively recruits employees to spy on other employees. On the job training is minimal and employees are expected to sink or swim on their own. Expertise and seniority are not valued and promotions are often based on obsequiousness to upper management, not skill. For these reasons, employee turnover is high and moral is low.” — June 21, 2012
and another from a Fort Mitchell, KY employee…
“Aside from the pay being significantly under normal expectations, shortly after starting to work there, they had the gall to actually pull a bait and switch on pay, by changing the CarrerBuilder advertisement from ‘base salary plus an aggressive commission structure’ to ‘draw against commission’ with net loss of $17,500/year in guaranteed income, plus they raised the minimum acceptable performance metrics level by 33% without discussion, comment, or any additional compensation in doing so.” — June 13, 2012
What it Means for iUniverse Customers
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: High employee turnover and dissatisfied employees are bad news for the customers of any of Author Solutions vanity presses, including iUniverse, Xlibris, Trafford, and Palibrio. Just to be safe, I’d stay away from Abbott Press (Writer’s Digest-branded line), Balboa (Hay House-branded line), WestBow (Thomas Nelson-branded line) and Inspiring Voices. But you don’t have to take my word for it. Plenty of customers have already warned you:
*Fort Mitchell, KY offices located at 228 Grandview Dr., Fort Mitchell, KY 41017 with phone number (859) 916-5741. I’m not sure what strategic reason they have to maintain offices here, unless they 1) want to split employees to break down communication and lessen solidarity or 2) found a way to get economic development tax credits from Indiana AND Kentucky.
