Trafford Publishing
Reviews and Complaints

VDM and Tafford are the same rip off artist this company published 3 books for me and told me I dont make any royalities. Are there any laws that can help us to recover our royalties. They are all thieves.

in all fairness to them, my books now are almost finished. I am from Malaysia and so far so great. So far my assistant in production of books is helpful and on time. Hoping i wont experience any of these negative things. I am crossing my fingers all the time. But so far, so good. Nothing bad to say.. yet.. hopefully not ever

Thank you for posting this. i received a phone call from a very friendly staff member from Trafford, trying to convince me to buy their package. it sounds good but I am very skeptical so i did some looking up and found this page. Thanks for the info. Much appreciated!

Any complaints should be directed to the Indiana Attorney Generals Office web site and file a consumer complaint.

You are so stupid, first of all why would you say she scammed you if you did not provide your credit card to her of have published a book with Trafford in the first place? Second, a company like that will always follow DNC (Do Not Call) rule which is observed by big companies that operate with customer service or sales service through the phone so you could have just told her to stop calling and she could have stopped a long time ago, the reason why she kept calling you is because you don't tell her to stop calling instead you probably just say "I'm busy", I'm in a meeting" or what not, and why would you call your credit card "campony" if you have not given your credit card to them, who are you kidding and oh by the way what is wrong with being a Filipino you fat racist. Don't you know that big American companies used Filipinos as customer service because of the quality they can provide, ask HP, Dell, AT&T and sooooo much more. And what is this sentence "She is trying to convince me that she exists" What? of course she exist, she had been calling you hadn't she? and i google Trafford they are a bonafide company who really pleased me with there services which my book is earning sales and I'm getting royalty commission because of them. The reason why they don't use their real name is because of people like you who complain to much without proper basis, personally i think you an idiot. Why use real name if the company is real and besides if you want to file a case would you file against the sales people or would file against the company?

RACIST!

Hi my name is Shen Li and I am an author in Singapore. I've done my research about Trafford Publishing as well and I receive calls from different people every hour of every day. The system they are doing is getting stressful especially to authors like me who have professional jobs too. I am from Singapore and I managed to hire someone here to do an internal investigation about the company. Charisse Atkins real name is Charisse Alivio. I also receive a lot of calls from someone named Brex I forgot his surname. I changed my phone number because of this. If that helps, I can tell you more about Trafford. My email address is writershenli@gmail.com. I am also a member of an Author Circle.

I self published a book in Oct. 2010 with Trafford Publishers and after the book came out I used to was the book finder 4 u to calculate the sales but according to Trafford there was never any sales. I received $36. in royalties. According to Neilsen Surveys there was a considerable amount of books sold. If anyone wants to contact me go to hopeful13@outlook.com. I cancelled in Nov.2012 and even after cancelling they still phoned. One hand doesn't know what the other is doing. My book was called A DESPERATE JOURNEY by D.H.Clark

Thank-you for the warning I was contacted by them for the Nova 649 price and wanted me to sign up right away I told them I would need to my husband and he looked them up Please every one check out the people first I would not send then out a transcript until I received a confidentiality contract thanks for the heads does anyone know of a reputable publisher

Looks like you will not be getting your royalties. I have contacted few authors who had done some publishing work with Trafford and they had told me exactly same story like yourself. Beware of them. They are a bunch of scammers.

From experience, and as a publishing consultant, I can tell you there is almost NEVER a reason to go with a publish-on-demand or vanity publishing company. They either get your money up front with no way of knowing if there is any return on your investment, or they get your money in royalties with no evidence of a return on your investment. You even lose on your royalties by the time bookstores and Amazon like places pound their royalties and commissions out of you. The only people who benefit are the publishing companies and lawyers. Where there is a breach by the publisher, yes you can almost always get out of the contract by taking your complaint public and to the social networks. You are entitled to a financial accountability, the print ready file - unless you signed away your ownership rights, then you own nothing; and the distribution and listings should be yanked from all places claiming commissions and royalties under the name of the publisher.

For the unestablished, and sometimes to an established, author the world of publishing is intimidating, confusing and overwhelming. There are a multitude of different types of publishing houses and sources in which to use. Which is right for you? What happens when you go with a less than honorable vanity or print on demand publisher? What steps are involved in the writing, printing, publishing, distribution and marketing of a book? How does an author proceed safely with their dream? How does an author determine what is the best course of action for their book? As an author, writer and publishing consultant my goal is to help the author determine what their best course of action is and sometimes how to undo a bad choice and how to start over. www.janethorton.net

I had one book published by Trafford. I have not been able to contact them regarding my royalties that I know I have coming. I can find my book everywhere on the Web called. "Riding on Angels Wings." I would like to know why I have not received a statement from them in years. I feel like I have been ripped off. Years of dedication went into writing my book and it makes me sick that my work did not pay off. Trafford is NOT an honest company and a lawsuit should be filed against them for FRAUD. A huge waste of my money and my time; consequently, I have not written since. I use to love to write but due to this, I have lost interest and hope.

I do not know what to do, because I already published 2 books with Trafford and filled the forms (another word gave them information about my account) and now I see those comments, afraid for me is too late...

I'm A author and I have no Problem with Trafford Publisher I'm on my six books with them to get publish and all my books are selling on Amazon.com and other websites. And on the Kindle and Barnes and Noble they will order it for you.
And also it on The Nook as well. And ebook And lots of book store are selling my book as well!
Take a look on Amazon.com for Pami L. Wahl my books are all for children they are counting books.
But if you don't like don't stay with them. Go to Faith Publishing online.

DEAR FELLOW AUTHOR, BEAR IN MIND THE WORD 'BEWARE' BEFORE READING ON: You don't need to rely on Trafford to get a W-7 form, request it from the IRS direct, and ask for Explanatory Notes (a guide to fill the form). However, if you're in the UK, as I am, you will need to have the document and your passport certified by a United States Certifying Agent. A British Notary Public will not do. I paid a British Notary £60.00 and it was rejected by the IRS Department at the American Embassy, Grosvenor Square, because it needed to be done by an American, and filling the form is a lot more complicated than it looks. If you answer incorrectly, they'll throw it back at you. So I lost £60.00, the British Notary refused to refund me. Then I found a firm in Salford, UK, near Manchester, that handled ITIN applications and certifications. The Certifying Acceptance Agent certified the documents for me and I got the immense shock that the fee was £200.00. He eventually dropped it to £150.00. So far this had cost me £210.00. I sent my documents off, in the belief that, as an American Treasury-Approved-Certifying-Acceptance-Agent had certified my British Passport and my Form W-7, and thought that I was home free. Well, how wrong can one be? After some six weeks, the IRS acknowledged receipt of my documents (including the approved certified details of my passport - the page that your photograph and name and surname are on). Unfortunately, the certification wasn't good enough for them. They now wanted my actual Passport. I had to send that via FedEx, at a cost of a further £32.00. Total by this stage: £242.00 British Pounds. It took THIRTY years to write my 728-page book, and after two years of "alleged publication" in August 2010, it has yielded me a total of US$ 19.00 in 2011, and just £2.33 - their parting insult in recent days, since I finally decided to terminate my contract with these time-and-money-wasters (Trafford Publishing). So I wasted TWO YEARS waiting for royalties that never really came and £242.00 for exemption of US taxes, that they didn't even apply to my £2.33 royalty received just days ago in November 2012. In another complaint of mine in this forum, you can see why I terminated the agreement signed as far back as November 2007, when they had offices in Oxford, UK. I said BEWARE earlier: My recommendation to you is, unless you happen to be a lucky Trafford author, who receives royalties regularly (not that I believe that they actually pay royalties), don't bother wasting your money on any tax exemption. Just change your publisher, forget you ever pay to publish, and make sure you never employ people like them ever again! My US tax exemption, is, knowing my luck, only applicable to my now non-existent book and this exorbitant 'make-believe' "publisher". I just knew that I would never receive royalties in sufficient amounts to even cover the tax-exemption fees to the US Treasury that I paid through the nose for. I was certainly and absolutely right on this occasion. I now have a new, REAL, publisher who doesn't charge to publish and provides *free of charge*, many of the services that Trafford charge thousands of dollars for, attaching their own mark-up at your expense. DON'T WASTE ANY MORE OF YOUR MONEY, MY FRIEND! BUT DEAL DIRECT WITH THE IRS IF YOU HAVE TO. Joe A A Silmon-Monerri, Manchester, UK. Nov. 2012.

Trafford really screwed me over. I took my book off the market three years ago to further edit and revise it prior to any copies being sold. They put the book back on the market without my permission which I learned a bookstore in England is advertising my book, and they can sale 20 at a time for a discount of $31.00 each. Trafford told me they only print books upon requests and don't send books to bookstores. They've ignored my E-mails and won't bother responding to my complaints. I'm hiring an attorney and suing the hell out of that stinking, deceitful company. Those people need to be in prison and that corrupt company permanently closed.

No I got the information. We have to fill out paperwork and send it to a court in Indiana. After that they decide if we have a case and then we are off

It happened to me in March 2013. I was lucky, based on my guts feelings, I checked my credit card bill online saw an unauthorused transaction from Trafford about US$1000. I quickly called the credit card company and informed them about the unauthorised transaction. About 1 week ago, I got back the money. But during the 2 months of suspension status on the credit card, Trafoord representative has been calling as many as 20 times a day and sent lots and lots of email saying that they are trying to reach me and sell me attractive packages, which I managed to 'bounce' all their emails. While typing this, they are still calling. They got to be kidding. After the unauthorised transaction, they are still trying hard to sell me something.

I submitted my manuscript to Trafford Publishing, and they said it was OK, at first. Them they had a Author rep. dogged me for days until I finally caved in and paid the first installment of a $1000.00 package. Lo and behold, they said my manuscript was not publishable because of explicit details. Now comes the crooked part. I said, OK, give me back my money. They are now giving me the run around. What I'm upset about is the fact that I told the rep. from the outset that my book is about rape, and contains explosive matter. But guess what? Her MAIN purpose is to get her commission. To hell with me. I'll keep you guys posted.

I agree, they are a damn set of crooks; just after the authors money, and nothing else.

Do you bank over the internet at all? If so, perhaps you can pull up the transactions available. It may be worth registering for that very purpose or go to the bank and ask for a statement, even if you have to pay. You would have paid enough already I am sure of that. I will be checking my statements as usual online and am considering a dispute as although Trafford states that the payment is non- refundable, I did not get the promised product. If enough of us take action against these people they may get get the message eventually. Next time I will also be mindful of buyer beware. Good luck.

Further to my post of 19th September, 2012, the crunch finally came! Even after registering my book myself with Nielsen Book Data, and eventually seeing it advertised as 'obtainable' through the leading bookstores in the UK (Waterstones, Foyles and Blackwell's), as I saw that nothing was happening after waiting for about three months since I registered the book with Nielsen, I made enquiries. I registered the book in May this year. It took about 6 weeks to get into the databases of the above companies. After a little while, I checked to see if it had reached the shelves. No such luck! So I asked if there had been any orders transacted. Nothing. Blackwell's were the first to offer to help me to test the waters. They placed one order after another through their system, which links with Nielsen, in order for them to request a book from Trafford. That is how Blackwell's system operates. By About September this year, Foyles were the first to delete their advertisement for my book from their catalogue - that showed it as 'available' up to that time. I smelled a rat! They must have had similar experiences to Blackwell's and had probably given up the ghost. Both of Blackwell's attempts proved that there was 'nothing at the other end of the line'. Trafford were not even responding. The Education & Science Buyer at Blackwell's, who had been a fantastic help throughout my problems and was the man who urged me to register my book with Nielsen Book Data - in view of Trafford's failure to do so in Summer 2010 - now told me to find out from Trafford, why the book couldn't be ordered. The reply rocked me to my foundations, after I had told them for many weeks that I had registered the book with Nielsen and it was finally being listed in the catalogues of the above booksellers, they finally admitted: "We're no longer in contact with Nielsen Book Data!" They obviously hadn't been in touch with them since probably April 2009, when the move occurred. This, of course, explains everything! If you have a clockwork toy that doesn't work, because when you open it up and you find no works inside, then you realise it is never going to work - is it? I was utterly amazed, and almost instantly, I announced that I was terminating the Agreement I signed in Oxford, UK, in 2007, about two years before their ominous move to Bloomington, Indiana, and total disaster! Since I cancelled my contract, they suddenly opened up a facility on Barnes & Noble's site - where there is a 5-star review for my book - for allowing potential readers to "look-inside-book". Remember, that this is now a book that doesn't exist, because I've cancelled the contract with them. I wouldn't mind betting that they will be trying to sell it now that I've told them to destroy all copies of my PDF manuscript and graphics. Whatever they do, I can be sure not to get a damned cent of them in royalties. They have still only paid me ONE royalty that they said dated to 2010. That arrived some time in 2011. They are unbelievable, and somehow, they can just get away with it!
So I wasted half of my adult life - over three decades - to put my book together for publishing and spent about a thousand pounds in each of those years in research, travel, hundreds of interviews at home and abroad, photography, photocopying, permissions, including Royal permissions, etc., etc., apart from £6, 000 to publish and buy copies from them, and my book has actually never been available to buy in TWO whole years since it was "published" by these drones of the publishing industry. Now at the age of 75, I am having to search the world for a REAL PUBLISHER, WHO ACTUALLY PUBLISHES YOUR BOOK. These clowns have kept my book under the carpet for the last two years! They had already had my money; they had nothing to lose. So, by not having to produce my book, they save money on paper, book covers, normal production costs, man-hours, etc., etc., !
I have now found a traditional publisher, and I think that my luck is finally going to change for the better. Anything is better than five more years of total failure! You have seen what has happened to me; please learn from my mistakes. Don't trust these people!
Read the small print of your agreement. It's a real eye-opener! Good luck to all budding authors out there; however, a word of warning! Some of you really are in need of improving on your English; that is a very important factor towards your potential success, and in people taking notice of what you have to say in your work. Bad spelling can lose you work as an author. Have a look at how you've written your text; is it good English? Did you write 'there' when you meant 'their'?; 'your' when you meant 'you're', or 'would of' when you should have written 'would have'? Writing is never the same as speaking, e-mailing or texting. It is, of necessity, much more precise. There are some good Grammar books and dictionaries that will help you; make use of them. Real, traditional publishers will not take a second look at your work if every other word is mis-spelt or grammatically incorrect. Imagine the time that an editor would have to spend to correct 200 or so mistakes out of every page of your manuscript! How soon will they give up on you? I have just spotted one of my own typos in the last text I wrote. See if you can spot it! I am 75, I have an excuse, but most of you are very young. Don't trust the 'spell-checker'; it may not fine-tune differentiations such as 'their' and 'there'! Goodbye. Joe A A S-M

RE: 'Author From Europe' - latest complaint about Trafford/Author Solutions (19 Sept. 2012). Have you registered your own book with Nielsen Book Data? You need to do that to make it generally 'available for purchase' to all booksellers worldwide, as that makes your book officially 'AVAILABLE'. It has to be on that database, in order for your book to 'EXIST'!; otherwise, it doesn't! (see my comment above [signed Joe S-M, in Britain]). In their websites, Nielsen give the 'humble author' the facility of entering his/her own book details. You need to state in the 'Distributor' box: 'Trafford Publishing', being POD printers only, it is only they who can provide the book as photocopied from your PDF file - which you have entrusted to them. Nielsen then pass orders direct to 'Trafford Publishing'. They are then officially obliged to "PRINT-ON-DEMAND"; that is the only thing they do, or have undertaken to do by Contract with us - the authors! Even then, if potential readers want your book, for some strange reason, Trafford will not necessarily print it. In this case, they are acting in contravention of Internaional Law. However, when your book is registered with Nielsen Book Data, several websites that were advertising your book as 'out-of-print', 'out-of-stock', 'unavailable', 'publisher does not intend to republish', and all other such phrases that can shock an author into an early heart-attack, when they have paid dearly for 'print-on-demand', these sites suddenly show that your book IS AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE, but this is probably still ONLINE ONLY. Yet, this is better than seeing that it is UNAVAILABLE, etc., as above. This is because now, your book stands a chance to be ordered in reasonable quantites by reputable booksellers, such as in Britain, where mine now - after two years of waiting - Waterstones, Blackwell's, Foyles, etc., have my book listed on their systems. OK, it is not on their shelves yet; it is still only orderable online for the present time; but if there is a reasonable build-up of orders, then my book stands a real chance of eventually filtering into the mainstream. None of this is thanks to Trafford Publishing, or their parent company, who have just sat on my book and have not even informed Nielsen, which, in their publicity material, they promise to do. In answer to my most recent enquiry about why only four copies of my book have been sold over TWO years since "published" in late 2010 (around this time of the year, August/September), their reply is: We used reasonable efforts to assist you in promoting your book consistent with the promotional services purchased. However, we cannot guarantee sales of any of your Work. We have no control over the purchasing decisions of the consumers'. Nobody tells the author who has just purchased their book-publishing package, that there are all these extras that you are obliged to pay in order "not to be able to guarantee any sales". If we pay such extra amounts - that will not necessarily work! - we are really being foolish to ourselves. In that statement, they are absolutely right! There is NO GUARANTEE; so DON'T THROW YOUR MONEY AWAY! If your work is really worthwhile, it will be noticed somewhere, by someone who appreciates its value and potential, even if your POD "publisher" doesn't. Trafford and companies within the same Author Solutions Group rarely look at your book. They just want your money up front; the rest is up to you, friend! As to 'royalties'. I am still waiting for payment of the other THREE royalties accrued since September 2010. I have had ONE paid so far, in 2011; that's how quick they are at paying royalties. These have to reach US$25.00 before they can release the payments. My book is priced at US $51.00 (£35.00 in the UK); even subject to US taxes, as it is temporarily at 30% per book, then the amount now due to me, after taxes, is approximately $42.00. That exceeds $25.00, by my reckoning; the problem is getting them to part with the money. Nevertheless, they have already paid the US Treasury, via the Internal Revenue Service. The 3 tax returns received by me this year - the royalty money for which I (the author) have not yet received - are said to date to 2011. At $21.01, each, less 30% = 3 x approx. $14.00 = US $42.00. Why can't they send the money. I only found out about these three royalties when the 3 tax returns arrived early in 2012. They just seem to have some phobia about paying out!; it only works the other way for them. Another response to my recent enquiry reads: 'The royalty statements are compiled and cross-examined by multiple parties to ensure an accurate record of royalty payments, , , [What royalty payments? - I have had one out of four in 2 years!] ... Both our printer and distributor employ independent auditing firms to verify the book sales data. A globally recognized accounting firm conducts yearly audits of our finances to ensure accuracy ...' The unfortunate result of such "efficiency" is that they still don't pay out royalties when due from many months before! So who are they trying to kid? Blackwell's, in the UK, one of the leading booksellers for 'reference'/'textbook' type material, are the first to take an interesting in my 728 pp book and have ordered a small number of copies for their shelves. It is now up to Trafford to do their part! Will they print this small trial order, or won't they? - that is the question. I'm betting that they won't, because it costs them money to print books. Wasn't that what we paid them to do? Good luck, dear colleagues! Joe S-M, in the UK. See http://www.thesecretlifeoftheearlstmaur.co.uk

Thank you docdream.uk for also sharing your experience and advice about Trafford Publishing. Since Trafford was bought by Author House Solutions, I didn't have any report on book sales from year 2008 to year 2012 (but on my personal promotions and personal sales I do sell books EVERY year but they said I have no sales from any retailers or from them). Another buyer in France ordered in Amazon for my book but they say it was out of print when in fact my contract with them is it is print-on-demand book so it will not be out of stock. There has been no sales report from Amazon nor other retailers at Trafford. Every time a new Trafford marketing assistant or author's account assistant calls me, all they demand is to buy their services in promoting my book (but I have already self-promoted myself in youtube, dailymotion, FB, blogs and other social networks). What is so fishy too is that they said from year 2008 until year 2012, Sept. there has been no sales at all!

I could not agree more with docdream.uk . I'm in the UK too. I "joined" and signed my contract up-front with the company in Britain in late 2007. I have had the very same experiences. Paid thousands of US $$$, had ONE royalty paid to me since the book was "published into total obscurity" in 2010 [it is now mid-2012] despite appearing on numerous websites worldwide, including all Amazon's, under a slightly different title, yet it's my book with the same ISBN, and my name. It is described as 'unavailable', 'out-of-print', out-of-stock', 'publishers have no plans to re-publish', etc., etc. I have informed the Internal Revenue Service, to whom they occasionally send royalty-tax-returns, that I have received only ONE royalty. That is why I know that my book is being sold, when they're telling me that it isn't selling. I'm British, have never been to America and wanted to publish in Britain; but Trafford Publishing moved to Indiana in April 2009, and this makes me liable for US taxes at 30% of each royalty . Since then, I have had no control over my book or their operations. I have recently had to pay the IRS for the privilege of being a foreigner "published" in America, who is requesting an ITIN, done using Form W-7. This document and one's Passport has to be notarised by an American-only Notary Public or even higher, a Certifying Acceptance Agent. In order to claim exemption under a Tax Treaty between the two countries, I have had to pay the equivalent of US $ 300.00 to a COA, just in the hope that Trafford Publishing are going to be more honest with my royalties, when Nielsen Book Data shortly publish the registration details about my book on their websites. Trafford should have done that when my book was released in mid-late 2010. Nielsen is the crucial link between bookstores, libraries, universities, colleges, etc. Trafford tell you about informing Nielsen, but they don't actually do it, even if you're convinced they were as good as their word. If your book doesn't appear in Nielsen's databases, forget it! It is never going to be known anywhere, except on Trafford's well concealed website. A very clued-up British bookstore assistant told me that it is obvious that Trafford failed to inform Nielsen in 2010. So, why make books "UNAVAILABLE" when you are supposed to be "PRINT-ON-DEMAND"? It all seems very, very fishy! Best wishes, Joe S-M, in Britain. 11th June 2012.

Oh yeah they are doing the same [censored] to me but worse. They have made my book I Into a ebook, text book and other books. They have made countless contracts with God knows who. I called Amazon to try and get information and they told me they can't discuss anything with the contract because I'm not on the contract. I told them I am the owner and they said they didn't care and that was it. Then when I sent Trafford a bunch of hate mail they stopped print. Then I got a call from Amazon and they say we are cancelling your account and you can never sell again. And I said I don't care it's not my account anyway I don't get paid. Then they said something very interesting. They said they cancelled a bunch of orders too. I called Trafford and said. Oh you said it never sells. Well Amazon said they cancelled orders. So now I know your full of [censored]. Then they wouldn't talk to me at all

Information

Yup exactly what they are doing to me

I also published with Trafford and have had nothing but trouble since day one, now when anyone goes to their website you cannot find my book anywhere, when I emailed to complain I got a snippy email back saying I was wrong, I am really sorry I used this company and would like to find out how to go about removing my book altogether from them.

I agree with you! I found my book on 26, 000 sites. For the last 14 months Trafford was behind on their posting of statements. Then the news came, zero sales for that year and a half! I was aware of disappearing sales back in 2009 so I made it a point to buy a book once a month through local book stores and on-line distributors. Along with friends that saved their receipts. So I have proof! I tried contacting royalty hunters but they say they won't touch it for under a million! Like you, I would see 15 new 5 used on Amazon. So being a good company that they are they informed me that, in order for a customer to sell a new or used book, they must have purchased it first, not speculation sales. Trafford states in their guide lines, when ever a book is printed you earn a royalty! Not when ever the book sells but when it is printed. So all the books of yours you see for sale where printed first. Time for a class action lawsuit!

What happened to your manuscript? Did they return your money? What is Ana's position in the company is she a Publishing Consultant or from Customer Service?

Yes they don't care about your book. They don't even read it. They just take the money and if it sells they steal it. Tell you you haven't sold any copies and keep the money. They make contracts in your name and do whatever they can to make as much money as they can from it. They are really criminals. They've been telling me that I haven't sold one book. Meanwhile it's been selling for 20 yrs all over the world. It's been made into a text book. That doesn't sound like a book that never sells. So anyway I'm putting together a bunch of people who have been robbed like us and we are gonna sue the [censored] out of them. I've only been doing this for a couple hours and I already have people. There's a lot of people really pissed off at them. So with a bunch of people our case will be unstoppable and we can split the lawyer fees. So let me know please and I will get started

It took two years and constant re-submitting to get rid of the grammar and spelling errors caused by Trafford, before my book was ready.