PageFree Publishing Company review: Non payment of Royalties 12

I initially signed a contract with PageFree Publishing in mid October 2006 to publish "I Need Therapy"
I paid $399.00 for the basic package, submitted my manuscript and I was promised to have the finished product back in my hand within 30 days.
That didn't happen, after six weeks I began emailing the president of the company, Kim Blagg. I was given one excuse after the other as to why my book wasn't ready.
After much stress and countless emails later, I finally received the finished proof of my book on January 18, 2007, three months after I initially submitted my manuscript.
It took another two months to work out the corrections. I received my first book by Federal Express March 19, 2007. To say that I was extremely disappointed was an understatement.

The book looked cheap, amateurish, and poorly put together. Some of the pages were coming apart from the spine. It looked as if I had gone to my local print shop and had this book printed.
I immediately emailed Kim Blagg and expressed my displeasure with the book. She replied back that I had a case of what they in the business called " dream reality" Which she explained and I quote (as transcribed from email) "When an author publishes their book, they create a vision in their mind of the finished book, and everything that goes on from that point forward. They might miss details in the process or not understand what aspects are controllable, and when the finished product is in hand, it doesn't match their mental vision."

She did, however agree to replace the book proof with another book of better quaility since the pages were falling out.
But get this...when I received the replacement copy it was someone else's book (Gilbert Asamoah) Harmony in the Body, with my cover on it! Published by AuthorHouse, I still have this book by the way, it has been an inspiration to me.

I was so upset and disappointed, I decided to scrap the manuscript, chalk it up to a "you get what you pay for experience" and start over from scratch. I sent Kim a polite email telling her that in my excitement to have my book complete obviously I had overlooked some important issues, this book was something that I had put a lot of time and effort into and I expected it to be to my satisfaction before making it available to the public, therefore, I wanted to withdraw my book from the printing process until I made the necessary changes.

I decided to republish my book with PageFree against my better judgement mainly because I wanted to keep my cover and they had the rights to it, also because after going through so much the next go round just had to be better.

I retyped my manuscript...all 30 plus thousand words and re-submitted my manuscript on 05/04/2007. This time paying for one of the more expensive packages. I selected the "Paperback Preparing For Bookstore Package at a cost of $1, 799.00 I also paid $350.84 for In-Depth Editing for a total cost of $2, 149.84

I was once again, given a time frame of about 30 days for completion. On June 11, 2007 I gave a follow up email to touch bases and see how things were going. I got no reply.

On June 18th I sent a second email in which I was very upset and conveyed as much to Kim.
Kim replied that "They'd had considerable equipment problems-computers were down for a week after lightning rendered the main drive corrupt and put out their central air-conditioning, which added to delays. But everything was back on track and she would have my proof to me shortly."

On June 21st, I emailed Kim again to express my displeasure at the delays and told her that I decided to republish with them against my better judgement and I should have gone with my second choice, Trafford and asked what did "shortly" mean.

She replied back and I quote "It means this week, Glenda-you'll have it before the close of business on Friday. We appreciate your patience with our equipment delays. Thank you for writing. (Oh, and for the record, you wouldn't have liked Trafford. A) They have no distribution and B) They charge more - we get their ex-authors all the time. You made the right choice.)

I received my supposedly "new" book proof later that same evening. And get this, it was the same manuscript that I had initially submitted to them back in October 2006! Nothing had been changed, no edits had been done, it read word for word as it was originally submitted in Oct 2006. After expressing my anger to Kim with a few choice words, she replied back and apologized saying that she had overlooked that I'd paid for an In-Depth Edit, but she would complete the edits immediately and resend the proof. I had waited 48 days for something that Kim Blagg completed in one night.

After all the revisions were finally made, I signed off on the proof.
After all the stress, aggravation and frustration, I finally received my 10 free authors copies of my book a few days later. Immediately, I found additional editing errors, and contacted Kim. Her reply was "Oh well, you signed off on it, so it's yours."

It has been a long hard, tiring journey with PageFree Publishing and here I am today 14 months since the re-release of my book "I Need Therapy" and I have yet to receive one dime from PageFree in royalties.
Nor have I received any sales statements or royalty reports. When I contacted Kim Blagg severa months ago in reference to royalties due me, she replied that I had not earned enough in sales to receieve the prerequsite $25.00 which I know is untrue.
How many books must you sell in order to earn $25.00?
When I requested a sales report, she said that only the publisher was priviledged to that information.

I know that my book is selling, I have 8 active web pages and readers who report daily that they have purchased my book from various outlets.

I have given Kim Blagg and PageFree Publishing every opportunity to right their wrong doings to no avail.
It is my intent to warn authors, aspiring authors, and writers not to choose PageFree Publishing for their publishing needs.