Amy
Never paid royalties or given a refund offered for services not rendered.
This press somehow gets the reviews here removed. But, in simple terms, i have over $600 in royalties that were never paid and a $750 refund that was offered for an ebook formatting they never did which was not refunded. I did a chargeback with Amex for that amount, and they kept the royalties stating it was an invalid chargeback. But, somehow the chargeback was then reversed and they still kept royalties. I sent a letter from my attorney, which they offered the money only if I signed an NDA. The NDA was something they had been trying to get me to sign from the first moment I expressed a problem with them. They flip conversations and try and treat me as though I was trying to scam them. I only Wanted my 100% satisfaction guarantee, my money returned for services not rendered, and my royalties. I offered to take my reviews down once this happened, but out of principle refuse to sign an nda. It's been a total nightmare for me. It was my first time self-publishing, and it will be my last-even though now I know exactly what not to do and recognize the red flags. If this company was who they claim to be they would have resolved this and paid my money. I have all of the photo evidence, which I also turned in to my State Attorney General-it's on its way to Florida's next. I wish I had better news. But, I brought them a beautiful book that was already complete which they promised to help me get in print by a deadline that was not met-everything unraveled from there. They accuse me of things that aren't true, and I only want my money owed. Thank you.
Response from Gatekeeper PressDec 11, 2025
This author was abusive to our staff and threatened to disparage us in an attempt to extort a refund for services rendered and approved by her. We terminated our relationship as a result and have been subjected to a campaign of harassment since. A quick examination of the 80+ reviews she has left for other companies suggests this is a serialized behavior and we are not her only victim. Ms. Stewart repeatedly violated our Author Code of Conduct, which states our authors, "agree to be respectful and professional in all communications, and not engage in abusive, harmful, or offensive language." After following her direction exactly as provided and receiving her written approval to publish, she falsely accused our staff of "bamboozling" and "lying to her", told our staff how "disgusted" we made her, and demanded refunds for services rendered and books delivered in good condition. All under the explicit threat of publicly disparaging our company if we did not comply. She later filed and lost multiple chargeback disputes with her credit card company. Before it became clear Ms. Stewart was acting in bad faith, several members of our outstanding staff attempted to accommodate her in every way possible (as we do for all authors). Ms. Stewart continued her belligerent behavior and eventually accused us of criminally falsifying sales reports. In spite of this, we offered to assist in transferring her book to another company upon termination. We have documentation of all of the above and are happy to share it with anyone concerned. Gatekeeper Press has worked with more than 3000 authors worldwide since 2015 and paid out more than $4 million in royalties. Fewer than 0.1% of our authors have expressed dissatisfaction. A rate unheard of in any industry. We take pride in our work and consider author happiness sacrosanct, which is why we are the global leader in independent publishing.