iUniverseReviews of iuniverse.com

No communication end of review.

Multiple balls were dropped during this process. The books did finally come out, but with errors and issues, and it took much longer than I was led to believe. Also, I wish that I had been told up front that many of the publishing processes and services were being done by workers in another country where English is not the native language. Communication was lacking throughout the entire process.

They do what they advertise but they WILL sell your information to third parties. Keep that in mind when pursuing a contract with them

Everything preproduction went great. I was extremely happy, then my book launched along with a very expensive marketing package and it went downhill fast. My book has been on sale for 2 months now and nothing that I paid for has gone live. I have no website, no scripted launch, no dates of when things will be ready, nothing. I don't have access to any of this either. I understand that there needs to be some self involved in self publishing, but getting sold the resources and not being able to use them is unacceptable. I couldn't imagine a more blundered launch. Really gives off a "take the money and run vibe"

DO NOT EVER DO BUSINESS WITH this place can't say business because no one is professional. Their reps laugh at you when they feel you know more than what you should. No one returns calls not even the Executive director. I took my files from this company and dont you know they still published my book anyways? Yes and then had the nerve to build a website for their company page and didn't have my custom page built like I pay for them to been have done. So if somebody buy my product from them funds go straight to them and what do I get? NOTHING! Self publishing is all about you keeping 100% of your royalties with them you only get 25. LOOK CHECK THIS OUT, I asked for my money back since the site wasn't ready and I had already pulled my files and what do you know NO ONE returned my call but you better know when I called back to get my money they're telling me it's in process. They also made me pay for a design service that was already included in my package and then gone try and put a skirt on it by giving me a discount on it. This pissed me off PLEASE dont ever work with this company and I hope my influence carry enough weight to stop their place COMPLETELY!!! And tell me, what sense does it make to create a website built with their company name that you can only make 25% royalties from when you paid a pretty penny in advance for them to build you a custom site IN ADVANCE which would allow you to make 100% of royalties which is deserved?

You want honesty. Well Iuniverse in my opinion has a revolving door when it comes to employees. It seems like everytime I would find a good person they would be gone. It started with Kim my salesperson. The employees are overworked and probably under.......... Service is slow and one must constantly do follow up, it is almost non existent. Profit is the company's main motivation. Now Kelly Ferguson is a delight. Joe S......cannot remember his name was good but took over 6 months to edit my manuscript for me for which I am grateful. There was one guy from the Philippines who was excellent but the rest the kindest thing to say is they are over worked which effects the service to clients. Being a new author I lacked the experience of the book publishing industry. Not an industry I would highly recommend. I found the process much better with Xlibra as I published two short books with them. I also found out everything is under the same umbrella like Balboa with Author Solution. Fake marketing. Tt is a racket in my opinion. Good old fashion client service is a thing of the past.

I am a Canadian author and purchased the Chapters Indigo Review package under the impression that it would be tailored for the Canadian market. The process started out seamlessly, with the editorial evaluation, editing process, and interior approval going well. However, there were several times where I was talking to different people about my project — and most of the time I was contacting people that took forever or did not respond to me at all, and come to find out someone else was assigned to my project without my knowledge. Additionally, I was told the Canadian price could not be printed on the back of the book — even though as a Canadian author that will be trying to sell my book to local bookstores with the custom sell sheet in my package, the Canadian currency needs to be on the book for consumers who will be thinking in Canadian dollars, not USD. If this is meant for Canadian authors, the assumption should be that the book needs to be tailored for the Canadian market; therefore, Canadians will be looking at the Canadian price, not American — Canadians shouldn't have to convert prices when purchasing a book, it should already be done for them. And when I brought this up again after the published date, I was told I had to pay a resubmission fee — despite already bringing up this issue before the book was published, and the importance of it. Overall, I would say iUniverse is a good option for American authors, but the Chapters Indigo Review Package is not good enough for the Canadian market, and definitely needs to be more tailored before I suggest anyone use this package.

I wish I did more research before publishing my first book with this company. The entire process was rushed and the cost was beyond me. The quality of my books are usually extremely poor and I always have to call back Content Distributors to let them know about the poor quality and unmarketable books I tend to receive. It sometimes feels like a dream for me and I cannot undo anything about the entire publishing outcome. I wouldn’t suggest anyone purchase from this company. The customer service is fairly okay.. they are super great at pitching sales at you. In the end, the experience is a total waste of money!