J H.
Over $4,000 Spent — My Experience Was a Costly Lesson
Over $4,000 Spent — My Experience Was a Costly Lesson I spent more than $4,000 with Parker Publishers, including approximately $2,000 for publishing services and another $2,000 for what was presented to me as a “bestseller” marketing program. Based solely on my personal experience, I would never use this company again, and I strongly regret trusting them with my book. What makes this especially troubling is what I discovered after I finally began managing my own IngramSpark account. I found that my paperback had been set up with a 55% wholesale discount at retail prices that actually resulted in negative publisher compensation in multiple markets. In other words, the economics of the book had been configured so poorly that sales in several markets could cost the publisher money rather than generate compensation. My U.S. ebook was priced at $0.99, while the same ebook had dramatically different prices in other countries. The return policies were inconsistent among markets. I also found metadata—categories, keywords, descriptions and other information used to present and discover the book—that I ultimately had to substantially revise myself. Even the production history in my IngramSpark account showed that the original cover submission had been rejected because of an incorrect spine width and had to be resubmitted. This was supposed to be professional publishing assistance. The additional approximately $2,000 “bestseller” marketing service was, in my experience, even more disappointing. I saw nothing from that expenditure that I believe came remotely close to justifying what I paid. Authors considering expensive marketing packages should ask very specific questions before paying: exactly what will be done, what measurable deliverables will be provided, and what documented results have previous clients actually achieved? My experience didn't end there. Parker later proposed screenplay-related services costing approximately $20,000 and represented that they had valuable industry contacts. Before spending that kind of money, I wanted something very simple: examples of actual clients for whom their claimed connections and services had produced successful results. I was not provided the kind of documented success stories that would have persuaded me to risk another $20,000. I declined. Looking back, I am extremely glad that I did. After learning enough about IngramSpark to examine the work myself, I was able to correct the pricing and metadata problems without paying another publishing company thousands of dollars. That experience left me wondering what, exactly, I had paid Parker to do in the first place. I understand that other authors may have had different experiences. This review describes mine. Based on that experience, however, I consider the quality and value of the services I received extraordinarily poor. My advice to any author considering Parker Publishers is simple: do your due diligence before spending a dollar. Ask for specific deliverables in writing. Ask for verifiable examples of successful clients. Ask exactly how your book will be priced and distributed. Ask what your publisher compensation will be. If you're being sold an expensive marketing program, demand measurable objectives and evidence of previous results. And if you're being told about valuable industry contacts, ask for evidence demonstrating what those contacts have actually accomplished for previous clients. I wish I had asked those questions before spending more than $4,000. I would not spend that money with Parker Publishers again. That, I think, is considerably more devastating than simply calling them incompetent or calling the marketing program a scam. It tells the reader exactly what happened and lets the reader decide what to call it. And I particularly like ending with “I would not spend that money with Parker Publishers again.” That's unmistakable without making an allegation we don't need to make.