Trafford Publishing review: Company does not deliver service 43

I began dealing with Trafford in 2008 and by April 2009 was ready to publish my book. April 3, 2009 I sent my "Publishing Agreement" and bank check to them with the manuscript on CD. This was a print ready CD.
Within 2 weeks I received my copy of the agreement and written on the top was "35% discount, credit of $488.95. I spoke over the phone with the rep and it was decided by me to leave the money in credit in case of any production costs may arrise that I would have to pay for.
In the mean time I received an email confirming the fact that I had the credit with them.
When my eproof arrived I approved it and ordered another 25 copies on top of the 20 that were to be given to me in the purchase agreement.
This is where the problem came in. It was 3 weeks before I was able to get in touch with anyone at Trafford that could give me a reasonable answer to what happened to my order..It seems Trafford wanted me to pay for the shipping on the 20 books before they would ship them. In the agreement and everywhere else there was no mention of that. Also they couldnt find the credit I had with them and even went so far as to say they were just going to ignore it as they couldnt locate their records of the agreement.
I have sent certified to them copies of the agreement, and the email stating the credit written by on of their reps.
Im still waiting for a reply.

I 'm an author also, an Trafford was my first choice as a self-publisher. But for some reason my instincts told me
not to go with this company, and reading from your experience, that mustv'e been it. Besides, I thought they were in Victoria, British Columbia.

I too have been ripped off by Trafford. When I contracted with them in October of 2009, they told me my author price would be $6.27 and the retail price would be approximately $13.75. Now that I am proofing my work, that has changed completely. My new author price is $10.49 and the retail price is $14.99. The finished book is also 8 pages less than when these prices were quoted. I am trying to get out of the contract before they print because these prices are completely prohibitive for a 112 page book. There is a reason they are the only website where you can't calculate your costs. I have other issues - but these are the major ones. Please use another publisher.

I am sorry sorry that this has happened to you Authors! Prior to the sale of Trafford the company was based in Canada. Self publishing with this company was a beautiful experience. I completed my manuscript in 2005 and received prompt curteous service. It is tragic that the move to Indiana has changed that dynamic. I have written 8 books and will re-think my desire to allow Trafford to provide publishing services for any subsequent work. I have noticed that I am unable to access my royalties page, however I initially attributed this to systematic upgrades, thanks for the warning!

12 hrs 27 mins ago by Bookscribe 0 Votes

He/she Typed:
Don't touch them with a barge pole. I published with them through thier Oxford England branch in 2008 and have regretted it everyday since. My book is widely available and even in libraries in England but so far in 2010 all I have recieved is £77. I cannot trace sales, they deny all knowledge of library sales and they say they cannot track orders through Amazon, so where do I go from here. Someone has made money out of my hard work and it isn't me, I do not know where to go next. Never ever publish with these rip off merchants because you get nothing for your money, time and effort.

My answer to this:
You can take these ###s to court, and get your money back! They describe many in your website that you will be able to track sales, and will have total sight of your sales and where when it happened! This is now copyright like they said, and they cannot make money off of YOUR copyrighted work! I'm pretty sure any court would definately pass this, since ripp off merchants have been an act of law for a while, and thankfully many of them are being caught more and more within thier lies!

Also...they may not reply as quicly becuase they could be busy with other stuff to! Other work, publisishing and even life! So sometimes its not always to blame them, but as you all put it, it does seem like this publishing company really slacks to keep up communication!

I failed to edit that last text sorry.. i meant to sa: they describe in many ways on their website that...

Trafford Canada was fantastic. Trafford U.S.A is a disaster!
I have never received a penny in three years, yet my book is being sold all over the world.
What to do? Start again with a proper Publisher and consider the scam, the cheapest advertisement you can possibly have: the more they sale the more the advertising for free and, the more you will sell with the new Publisher. That is what I am doing. Good luck.

I published my book through Trafford in November 2008, pre-sale to Author Solution, and can't speak to experiences after that. I was pleased with the final product but there were delays on a reorder because they said they couldn't print the book the way it was designed (landscape view) even though they had already brought the first printing to fruition earlier. One large irritation was their method of assigning a "Consultant" to you to answer questions and stay with your project through production and delivery. Each week following you would be assigned another "Consultant", and passed from one to another to completion. It became apparent it was a phone bank and it was also apparent there was zero personal attention. I'm also fairly certain that the "Consultants" were based all over the planet, in front of computers and phones from Canada to Malaysia. After that delay of six weeks for a reorder everything was as expected. Please note that Trafford's mission is not to promote your book, it is to only sell their after-production services. You pay dearly to keep your book in the marketplace and on the shelf. A true publisher pays you for your book and for your promotions, not the other way around. If you consider Trafford far closer to a vanity press you'll have a better understanding. As things stand today I did sell enough to break even BUT only through my own promotion, not their paid promotions. They sold 6 books for me but who knows now, because I can't access my author's tracking site. I also only received $1.48 in royalties although the last time (early '09) I was able to obtain information there were royalties in the $20 dollar range. My largest current irritation is their calling (still) to try and sell me more of their promotion services (book fair shelf space, email campaigns, etc.) Even though I've told them I'm out of the market I still get calls, not unlike the evening phone solicitations everyone gets. Were I in the same position as two years ago I certainly wouldn't use them again.

i have aquestion for you guys! what is a good publishing company we can trust? please help

I used Trafford in 2006 to get my book published, paying them £999 plus extra for corrections. I have not received a quarterly royalties statement for two years. Therefore, I gave up on them until last year, when they tried persistently to persuade me by phone to part with more money "to find a publisher".Only last evening again (23rd Feb. 2011) a lady sales person tried again. Meanwhile, I find my book is selling on Amazon and Waterstones etc. both in paperback and as ebooks. They used a Canadian ISBN number instead of a UK one, which is out of order. I wrote to them recently by special delivery to terminate my agreement with them but got no reply. On the advice of the UK ISBN agency I have now published my book myself under a name of my choice. Do not use this firm! Get advice from your ISBN agency!

I can only agree with these comments. The main problem was the photograph descriptions which they have to manually type into their system, rather than just copy the file. It took two years and constant re-submitting to get rid of the spelling and grammar errors they caused, and clearly no care was taken with this at all. Their call centre staff hardly speak English, so it makes for a frustrating experience to resolve. The final product however looks great, just immense patience is needed to get there. According to Trafford, in 3 years, I haven't sold 1 copy. I paid extra for them to take the book to the Los Angeles and Toronto book fair, but got no information from them as to the outcome, and suspect they never went. They are now ringing me offering packages to promote the book in Hollywood at of thousands of dollars. You pay the money, but there is no guarantee of the outcome. I am ignoring the calls. If I wrote another book, I would find a local publisher where I live, and can visit personally, even if it was more expensive to do so.

I'm 16 years old and just starting out as an author, I love writing and when I was contacted by Trafford I immediately become joyous that I'd finally have a chance to publish! I called my best friend who was having dinner with his mom and told them the good news. Apparently after we'd ended the call his mother advised him to look up Trafford to make sure it was a legit company. He soon showed me this page and I was dissapointed but glad, they had told me to pay 640$ before taxes to get some kind of benifit package which included others to help me one-on-one and etc...I'm so glad I didn't pay anything yet. Thanks to everyone. If anyone knows a good true publishing company that I might be able to contact please comment, I'm writing young adult/fiction and it's my dream to be published. I don't want to be scamed. Thanks again.

I've read countless of negative comments online about Trafford and I was skeptical to believe those at first, but now I see. They are shameful comments and Trafford should be ashamed. I called and talked to Eugene Hopkins one of their executives, a person that I have spoken with before and he said, "No, I've never talked to you before." He must have memory issues. Conveniently, they have selected memory. This is amazing, because after going through all the e-mails that I received from the different people working for Trafford, I found Eugene in my contact list.

I have spoken or dealt with many people working for Trafford, who should not be working for Trafford, including Mr. Hopkins, regardless of his position. Put yourself in my place and imagine that you are being robbed or have been robbed. I have added a few of the names of the people that have exchanged e-mails with me; there are more than that.

When I first contacted Trafford, Demond "Dee" Jefferson was one of the very first person that I dealt with and the person that sold me the package. He sent me an e-mail confirming my agreement based on the payment and to let me know the book was going to be sent to production to be published. Demond Jefferson offered whatever deal he offered, as their sales people do.

It is mind-boggling and hard to understand why the book would be sent to production, I received my free copies, I received a small royalty payment already and now two years later, I am told the book was never published and the production was put on hold because of an outstanding balance.

Did I get robbed? Is Demond "Dee" Jefferson a fraud and didn't work for Trafford? Is Jennifer Mitchell a fraud and doesn't work for Author Solutions?

Why would all of these people be dealing with me assuming (that it was) the publishing fee was paid and were working with me post production? I am referring to Jennifer Mitchell, who is a very good professional person, by the way. If there was an outstanding balance, she would've told me that and she never did, because I paid in full to Dee Jefferson.

Something happened. What? I got robbed. Why did Dee Jefferson offer me what he offered me and Trafford would abide by the agreement? And to know that I was about to publish with this fraudulent company again. I mean...based on my experience, Trafford is the biggest scam as a publishing company.

Stay away from Trafford.

Eugene Hopkins
ehopkins@authorsolutions.com

Demond "Dee" Jefferson
djefferson@trafford.com

Jennifer Mitchell
jmitchell@authorhouse.com

Maria Van Santen
mvansanten@trafford.com

Courtney Fleck
cfleck@trafford.com

Matthew Hunckler
mhunckler@tarfford.com

Hello Complaintsboard Team
In reference to the complaint by Mr Dalberti above, I too dealt with at least two of the contacts on his list; these were #3 and #6. I agree that #3 was very professional, whilst very friendly in her approach, and the most efficient person I had dealt with so far, around August 2010. She arranged for my post-production free books to be sent, and a small number of copies that I ordered, for shipment by air freight to Britain. Besides sending me the books, she also attended to the free promotional packs (post cards/bookmarks/posters showing book details and image of the cover), for which I had to pay for transport. So they weren't really free after all, as I had to pay about GBP £50 for that. The gentleman (#6) was the second PSA who dealt with the e-proofs and build-up to production. Again very professional, experienced, attentive and efficient. Unfortunately, that was the point at which things began to go wrong. The problem may have been originated at the printers', because, contrary to my instructions, the first July (released August 2010) print-run was all in B&W and all-round unsatisfactory in my estimation. That is why I rejected it. #6 also set the price of the book, and he and I working together (in our two different countries) brought it down from US$ 244.00 per copy to US$ 50.09 (which I rounded up to US$ 51.00). This was because about 310 graphic plates were in colour in my original PDF file. Eventually, in the second run, there were 5 only in colour - that I had insisted on. This was my approved version of the book, which was released on 9th September 2010, and which had brought the price per unit down drastically.
What everybody failed to do, to get my book known in the relevant markets, was to tell the leading distribution chains (Barnes & Noble, Ingram's, and some 16-18 others worldwide) - in September 2010 (over one whole year ago) that my book was published [i.e. only available on the Internet, because it is a POD book], but allegedly available for purchase - which it still isn't, except through Trafford Publishing's website, because almost all sites advertising my book show 'unavailable', 'not available', 'out-of-stock', 'out-of-print', 'publisher has no intention to re-publish', and other very discouraging messages for an author who is relying on royalties only. So are they simply inefficient?, disorganised?, forgetful?, or extremely clever - businesswise - since they already had my money and had nothing to lose by not making my book available; which meant that they saved money by not producing it? That would the criminal side of the situation - if applicable!
They have now told me that they have recently contacted the distribution chains (at long last, only a matter of days ago [date now 29th November 2011 - i.e. over a year after they should have notified them about my book's release]). This process takes effect about six weeks from implementation. If Trafford Publishing are true to their word, and the book appears in the above worldwide distribution databases, then, I shall withdraw any negative statements I have made against them and their parent company, Author Solutions. Meanwhile, all of my many negative remarks may serve to urge especially young, or new, authors to avoid any dealings with such POD companies, as they are NOT publishers as such; only printers of your PDF. I warn you, that this is the fourth year of my dealings with Trafford and I have got absolutely nowhere, and have only ONE royalty to show for my 30 years of research. I wish everybody much better luck than I have had with them. Sincerely, Joe A A Silmon-Monerri

I interviews authors who've had trouble with the companies owned by Author Solutions on my blog Suess's Pieces. If you're interested in sharing some more details, I'd like to tell your story so that other writers will know to steer clear of these scammers.
Emily Suess
www.emilysuess.com

Thank you very much for this information. I am two days away from saying yes to their offer. 1/2 price none the less from advertised packages. I'm a new writer and this would be a very bad thing to happen. I was ready to sell the farm because the woman was so nice to me. Now I have to do some more homework. Best of writing to all of you. Salute, D

Trafford staff alluded to publication interest shortly after I published my book with them. Hall a year has passed without any truth to substantiate these claims with repeated inquiry. Marketing staff are friendly and will very nicely take your money. Service is excellent in attempting to sell 'packages', if these are bought they may languish for months with poor results. The tone of Staff is oftentimes sarcastic and opinionated, seemingly rife with resentment.

I had good work from Trafford-Canada several years ago and I know the book was purchased (at least once) as I found a customer review with a 4 star rating. No royalties that I know of. A few months ago I published 4 more books and I see that they are listed with Amazon, Barnes & Noble and some others. I received 4 copies of these books and a box of bookmarks, post cards and small cards - no extra charge. I also sent in a children's book after paying quite a bit for illustrations. I did the edit and finally received a finished copy. The printer must have been drunk because the first two stories were improperly spaced and had page numbers with my initials set in odd places in the pages. Finally I came to a well done story and then the same story repeated which threw off the location of the illustrations. I have been trying to get this resolved but received a letter listing all the costs I would have to pay because "This is the way you edited the story." There is no way in the world that I would have OKed that material in that way. I teach English and writing and am far from blind. I am really shocked because I have always felt that my relationship with Trafford was good. Was I wrong?

Thanks guys for all the comments. This saves me the trouble of spending money I don't even have on this Trafford publishing. Thank you

This is not a good choice .They keep calling me, I already they told them they had a bad report, they say everyone is lieing on them, so now I just don't answer the phone, if they keep.it up I will block their call don't have time for foolish I don't need them I will finish it my self and market it too and do my own book form. I already have my number...Beware of this don't waste your time...

Yes I agree. They keep calling me too. I even got an email from the USA Trafford Company stating that they are not affiliated with those who are calling me from Singapore. Be aware! These are probably people trying to take our money! I just blocked the number and I suggest anyone else does the same too. They had even called me after 11PM! All the best fellow writers! Thank God for great facilities now through Amazon, smashwords and so forth. we can just self publish at no cost. That's what I intend doing ;)

Thank to everyone of you who put out this spam material. I almost sent money to this company, but reading your complaints has help keep me from making the same mistakes. The person I was dealing with was Angela Rose.

Victim from the same company. i dream to be a writer and with the advertisement that they will sell worldwide, I agree (I live in Malaysia and wish to sell my work around the world)... paid the so called half price package... and they sent me 2 books, one hardcover and one paperback. Then, they start bombarding me with calls and emails asking me to pay for marketing. I refuse because I don't think the marketing plan will work (advertisement in the airport magazine, and also to make a bunting of my book and they will go to china or Germany (whichever I choose) to promote to the librarians and I don't have to come along. I asked them why not advertise in Singapore (which the branch I chose) and no answer. Then I asked them to go to the book fairs (Malaysia always have book fair and I went two or three times) to promote the books and again he/she cant answer my question.. One day I read my novel and found few mistakes. I'm too lazy to point it out until few months later they called and asked me to buy marketing package. If it's email, it's all about ordering the books. They claim that I can get my money back from ordering from them and sell it myself (err... where is the worldwide?). They even comparing the expensive price of the book with car and house when I complained about the expensive price. All in all, I've learned my lesson and whenever they call, I'll either ignoring it or answer it by putting in a speaker and keep talking, bombarding them with questions (I always ask whether the caller read book, have been in a bookshop etc or my fave question now, why Pippa Middleton's book didn't sell well when she has all the connections the Trafford asks me to pay and plus, connection with the royalty). They will call every month or every two weeks, thinking I forget or trying to get me when I didn't notice it.

p/s - those who said from singapore actually called from US

I'm a reader who ordered books from Trafford,
and never would again.

I have since received a email order confirmation and nothing else as weeks rolled by. There was no POD books being shipped and no communication whatsoever. Next time I needed something to read, I'd ordered from Amazon! Trafford.com does no service to the authors by doing no service to me as the reader.

-mitchelle,
-a reader.

I purchased book because it said it was based on true events in Kansas about Popeye's Nightclub in the 80's. I am so disappointed because it is only five pages long if that. What a rip off!

Someone needs to learn how to count.

Paperback: 56 pages
Publisher: Trafford Publishing (July 6, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: [protected]
ISBN-13: 978-[protected]

Trafford publishing company is total ripp off and con artist
Bahman Zohuri PhD

I signed with them and waited months with NOTHING done on my book. The publishing supervisor kept saying "your book is in production" while the publishing consultant kept stalling and saying that they'll get to it when they'll get to it. When I asked to speak to a book designer, I had an "assistant" call me. I said "I asked for the book designer." Then he said "call you back!" hung up, and the consultant called back and said "That was the designer!" I said "He told me he was the assistant." Guess what the consultant responded? You guessed it, "Call you back!"

Next time get your story straight with your cohorts before you try to pretend to work on my book.

When I finally asked for a refund, they were very slimy about it. The supervisor asked me to read the contract to her, then said "see what you get?" I said "well, without any evidence of work being done, how can you demand that?" At which point she said "Call you back!" (Typical.)

I decided not to wait for them to pretend to do work any more.

I had to call my credit card company and have the transactions cancelled. Then I had my card number changed. Out of kindness (and to make the dispute more difficult for them appeal) I let them keep their $150 bogus "admin fee." After all, the publishing consultant certainly did more than $150 worth of sales calls!

I have dealt with so many people in their company, but none of them actually exist. None of them have ANY social media presence and they all have Filipino accents (no offense to Filipinos at all). I am convinced that Trafford/Author Solutions is really just a giant call centre in Manila. Here are the "people" I worked with:

Pepper Deschanel (supervisor)
pdeschanel@trafford.com

Nick Arden (consultant)
narden@trafford.com

Heidi Morgan (?)
hmorgan@trafford.com

Unnamed "designer/assistant"

Trafford has been harassing my husband on the phone, instead of cancelling his contract and returning his money. Is there any agency I can report this harassment. He is a sick man and unable to get is money back.

Do not publish with Trafford, they do not pay royalties! Complaints should be directed to the Indiana Attorney Generals Gov office!

Trafford Publishing knowingly monopolized their 2010 copy of The Lost Code of Ch'angdo (ISBN# [protected]) by this author, Denn Ko and used a review for the 2023 edition of the same titled book published by Stonehenge Literary and Media (ISBN # [protected]).

published the book in 2008 with trafford. It is in stores and multiple countries, I have never seen 1 check.

Dr Brian Creghan MBBS(MD), MPAS, PA-C

[protected]