Xlibris Publishing review: royalties 31

My husband and I are going trough the same Thing . They NEAVER! Return phone call's. And if they do you can't understand 1 word of what they are saying. We are trying to get our money back and buy the books and sell them ourself. My husband wrote a book called " I AM" COME KNOW ME BETTER. We are fed up with these ###. we are getting our money back and sell the books ourself. and find annother publisher. They should de forced out of busness. a very angry first time writter.

The fact that is rarely mentioned about Xlibris, but one that I found on this website by Horror Writer, is that in most instances there are more so called "used" books selling than what the author has been paid royalties for. You need to first make sales before there can be a constant supply of used books on all the online book channels. These used books are being sold by large booksellers who often have a constant supply of multiple copies of each title, and the books are often listed as "New" or "Brand New" in the descriptions and sometimes they even state how the book takes 10 to 14 days to print, which is not applicable for a so called "used" book. As an Xlibris author who has had a discrepancy with the amount of books I knew I sold and the royalties I received, I have signed many of these books which I did not receive royalties for and they were indeed "brand new". When I complained to Xlibris I was told they might have been "used" and why I did not receive royalties. There is a lot of room for fraud here and I feel like a victim who cannot get answers. There is no way to obtain records for the amount of used books sold, though there are always used books listed with my titles and have been shortly after they were published, even though family and friends were the ones who purchased them in the beginning to keep in their libraries. I believe there is a used book scam, and possibly other scams, and this is why we are not receiving our royalties.

I checked out the FBI website, but I would need to know who the party or parties are involved in the used books scam, and if indeed there is one. I believe there is, but I need factual evidence and more information on how the used book market operates and what the laws are. For example, are there loopholes that enable book sellers to sell new books in the guise of used ones without giving authors their royalties? This used book situation affects all authors, not only self published ones, but no ones seems to be aware of this avenue of possible fraud. If anyone can shed light on this market, it would be wonderful. I am asking a lot of questions, but not receiving sufficient answers. However, I am on a mission to get to the bottom of this, and if I do, it will definitely be reported.

I don't recommend self publishing because your sales will be dependent upon the online bookstores where they sell used books next to the new books. Customers buy the used books since they are cheaper. Go with a regular publisher is my advice.

I had a suspicion that would be the case since it has been like that all along.
What did they do when you presented the bill of sale?
Did you see an attorney about this?
This is considered copyright infringement and you can make a claim about this on Amazon. There is now a batch number on the last page of the book which indicates when it was printed to help you figure this out. This is terrible and it is making me very stressed out.

It is sort of ironic. Maybe we should keep quiet then, but I do wish to warn people at the same time not to waste their money and compromise their dreams. I have a question for you though, did you register your book in question with the copyright office, since that's the only way you can sue? The copyright in self published books is not enough in court.

Yes visit http://www.copyright.gov for more information on copyright. You can do that if you wanted to, plus there is Create Space on Amazon which is free to self publish, but to really be successful it will be very difficult. If you can find a publisher, or literary agent, that would be best, since there is a lot of promotion and things to do that are exhausting and often fruitless on your own, good luck!

The publisher does that with both self publishing and traditional publishing. Visit Create Space on Amazon.

i would just like to comment on dmalander's comment. How can you be an author when you don't even know how to spell? your grammar sucks. I'm guessing that your book is horrible.

Bleep, Dmalander has clearly stated that it was her husband who has written the book and not she. So where's your proble?

One problem is you forgot the "m" in problem. Secondly, if Dmalander has stated it was her husband who wrote the book, then why did you insinuate the book would be affected by the grammar of her complaint? I agree with Horror Writer, he put you in your place. Bravo for Horror Writer for a job well done and for his knowledge of the correct use of grammar!

Dear Xlbris Author, Please read the posts patiently and check who has written what ? I was agreeing with Horror Writer and disagreeing with Bleep. In a nutshell both me and Horror writer were on the same page. Horror writer had replied to Bleep and "put HIM in place" rather than me. He was correcting Bleep's grammar and not mine. I did not insinuate that the book would be affected by the grammar, rather suggested that the husband should be grammatically right as opposed to Dmalander's who had written the post on her husband's behalf. So request you to go through the thread properly and avoid reckless comments. And yes, sorry for the typo in "problem". Anyways, we are deviating from the main topic.

I apologize, I received the comment on its own. No proble :-) minus the "m" for a little humor here. I'm glad we are on the same side and to all others, disregard my message regarding chandu24.

No issues sir... no question of apologies. In this hectic schedule we all are entitled to our oversights. As I said we are deviating from the main track.

I agree with all complaints my book is called "My Story His Glory ". It took six months for them to send any rolaties and then it was not correct.Its sad that they are not trust worthy.but they will be caught soon in the name of JESUS the word says if two or three agree it will be done God Bless all of you... EVANGLIST JANICE EASLEY

I almost went with this crooked POD and am glad I didn't. They hounded me for months until I told them to stop calling me. They kept telling me they had a special deal and I had to get in on it right now. It started off as a one-time special deal to celebrate their anniversary and it would never be available again (one half off one of their packages). Then a few weeks this deal came up again with a deadline of the day they called.

It was obvious to me this company was in the business to rip-off writers and keep adding more fees. They also said even if my book wasn't finished, I could submit it within a year after paying all fees upfront. They didn't answer my question when I asked what happens if the book isn't ready within that year. I figured I would lose the money.

I'm a first-time publisher and I've heard to stay away from all POD's. They're all crooks. I also don't trust sending in manuscripts to any publisher unless we copyright it ourselves first. I don't trust any of them. The last time I checked, online copyright fees were only $35 while Xlibris was charging in excess of $200. Why so high?

Their royalties for authors is also extremely low: 25% for the author, 25% for Xlibris, and 50% for their in-house printer. In essence, I see 75% going to them and, if I'm lucky, I would get 25%. From reading the complaints, it looks like they get 100% and I would get nothing.

I published my first two books with Xulon Press and then signed a second contract with them. Then that company grossly lied to me. That company still has the book description totally incorrect for one of my books. It was correct before publishing, and then was published incorrect. They promised the mistake would be corrected and it never has been. ALL listings are incorrect. So, I decided to try Xlibris for the next book. My book was published about eight months ago and they have never sent me any sales report. They state the report is within the author center, and that report is very vague!
As for PODs, actually they really are rip-off artists. However, so are the name brand publishers. Since most submitted manuscripts are not returned, if a writer does not copyright the submitted manuscript, the writer is at the mercy of ALL publishers for being copied.
As for copyright costs, they do vary. It depends on what is being copyrighted. Books are usually $165 with the U.S. Copyright Office. So, any charge over the $165 is a profit by the PODs.
As for myself and PODs, I am done with them. The last two books I published myself with me as the publisher. I done all the interior layout and cover design work, copyrighted them, and listed them on Amazon. SInce they have been listed on Amazon, dozens of others vendors have also picked up the books. Additionally, I used an excellent book printer in my home state for printing over 100 books for local area marketing. This new approach for me has saved me many hundreds of dollars!

I agree on all complaints listed. i have had some of the same problems with Xlibris and pretty much stop trying to promote my book. it seemed my book was going no where, despite known book sales. despite publishing a book with a very controversial and much needed topic. i only recieved very small royalty checks. I was told that my book had went to an E-book, format. I felt that surely it would bring in some money. All i've recieved so far in the past year, after that notice was a mere $1.86 or something like that ! It seemed, Xlibris Publishing, was only interested in one thing whenever they contacted me; and that was trying to make more money off of me, by promoting more gimicks and making more money off of me.

I just wanted to see if anything was ever done about the theft of your book royalties. I published with Xlibris Publishing Co. this year and my first quarterly report came in and it was $5.36 cents. I do see $5.36 in my account which is more than a lot people have received but when I look at the report a lot of the purchases my friends made, were not even listed on it. I also was told my book was only listed on amazon, but I have found it listed with 100's of vendors all over the united states and overseas. Unfortunately I did not see the complaints listed on Xlibris until someone posted it on Facebook and by then it was to late. My book was and is listed with more than just Amazon. They have been pushing me for a couple of months now to send in another book to publish with them, but so far they have seemed to be untruthful to me. I never questioned them for I am a new Author and I am not sure how this all works but it has felt wrong for some time now. Then the quarterly report came in today and I am left wondering why things don't add up. I also showed a used book sale offer on my Amazon page as well and I am also wondering how this can be. If there are any used books, they would have to be from the vendors who are selling my book and then it leaves me wondering how do they have access to my Amazon page to resale them, if that makes any sense at all. Confused and asking.

Xlibris is not only one "Self-publisher" what tricks authors. Many of them, different name, s but the same content This is the situation in current world. Frauders are more important than writers/poets.

Xlibris is not only one "Self-publisher" what tricks authors. Many of them, different names but the same content This is the situation in current world. Frauders are more important than writers/poets.

I am so disgusted with Xlibris. I published my first book with them two years ago and my second early this year. I had a Royalty Cheque for the measly sum of £39 when I know they owe me nearer £60. The cheque has been returned un-cashed by my Bank because of an inadequate signatory. I am now trying to get the money they owe me but I am just ignore or fobbed off. Can someone point me in the right direction please so I can recoup my money.

I have my book Ghosts of Windsor Pass on Amazon.com and B&N.com. I have also been notified by book was recommended to 200 people by Fifth Pillar books and found out my book listing was viewed by 133 people. I have a hard time believing that nobody among this group purchased it. I think Xlibris is c=scamming me like it is scamming no many others. If there s a class action lawsuit against them, how do I get involved? My book is in Ingram catalog, and on Goodreads and posted on Amazon's website. It is also on Facebook.

I also have my book Ghosts of Windsor Pass as an ebook. I know quite a few people have purchased it on ebook and have not received one penny for it.

I think by now something would have been done about xlibris corporation and sued by government for rights, infringements, etc and all the authors would be paid back there fees as well as xlibris closeing its doors to the authors of books and us authors would have a fair right to a well reputable publishing company do you?

I wrote a book "freefall pushing it to the edge" about my near death Skydiving accident from 7500 feet. My wife was 6 month pregnant at the time of my accident. I was on 20 American radio shows but no sales. why ?