BookSurge / On-Demand Publishing, LLC

I've just had a very bad experience with a printer. Out of the twenty promotion copies of my book I ordered, four had, in one place. double pages, and in another four, several pages were misplaced. That's a shocking 40% of the order screwed up!

Their policy was to replace the books, but I had already pulled it from the publisher, having had some problems before with other things. I have been trying to get a refund for only four books. That's all, because, family and friends, desperate to 'finally' get my book in their hands, will understand and forgive. However, you can't promote a book like that. You can't ORDER a book from a printer who makes shocking mistakes like that.

I've had absolutely no luck in getting a refund. I hate complaining like this, but the whole order cost me $400 Cdn, and it's a total loss. Bang goes my promotion schedule.

I could click several of those little faces above, because I feel ripped off, sad, disappointed, and above all, mad as hell. If you deal with this publisher/printer, make sure you check every book that arrives!

You might want to post your complaint at Writer'sWeekly as well.

Read more complaints about this firm at:
www.writersweekly.com/war...igitz.html

In the almost two years that I have been using Digitz, I would rate their service as excellent. I don't expect them to be perfect. On the rare occassion that I have received a book that I didn't feel was up to snuff, I simply returned the cover to them, and they promptly replaced the book, no questions asked.
I have ordered over 200 books from them, usually in batches of 10 to 20. I have also availed myself of their worldwide distribution.
You didn't say whether you returned the cover to them, which is their policy. I was told by a printer friend of mine that this is a common practice among printers to prevent people from distributing the print material, and then asking for it to be replaced.

Julian Gabriel Colado is the CEO of Booksurge, a disbarred bank-frauding lawyer from Houston, so of course he has had a good experience. The business is a scam and so are their other companies, imprint books and great unpublished. Just run Booksurge in a better business bureau query and you'll see that they have an unsatisfactory record.

Hi

I read on Pier's Anthony's website that "Booksurge appears to be gone." Any rumors about this? The website looks fine and my publisher (who uses Booksurge for its print copies) has said nada.

Scoop?

Thanks!

Darragha
www.darraghafoster.com

HI Darragh,

I can assure you that BookSurge is alive in well.
In fact, we have collaborated with leaders Centraal BoekHuis and NBD/Biblion, the Netherlands Library Association, and opened a facility in the Netherlands. Earlier this year we also opened a facility in Grantham, UK, Our facility in Sevilla, Spain in partnership with Publidisa, SA, the leading POD printer and distributor serving Spain and the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal), is also now operational. Publidisa will soon be expanding even further into Mexico, opening a new facility in March 2004.

Stephanie Robinson
BookSurge/Global Book Publisher

Excellent. Thanks!

Darragha

I have been reading all of these responses because I saw a job listing for Booksurge online. Some of these comments listed on this board and WritersWeekly's website (don't forget they're owned by Booksurge's competitor) were very disturbing so I decided to look them up on the Better Business Bureau. Surprisingly the Better Business Bureau gave them a good review.
I haven't interviewed with Booksurge yet, but I still plan to. I will bring up the issues I've read here when I am interviewed, but I am very disappointed in this mudslinging that is going on here. I'll be even more surprised if this comment makes it to the message board without be edited or accused of something falsely. I encourage everyone and remind you to always research the most reliable sources available to you.

This sounds like a case for your local department of consumer affairs. Check for the one your county is in, and for the one that county of the printer is in, if the two are in different counties.

Submit all evidence of the complaint (copies, not originals)

Booksurge ...

A company that's selling <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1591096367/ref=nosim/madhousemanor" target="_new">(for example)</a> a 322 page paperback science fiction novel by a previously unpublished author for $29.98 may not have the general reading public as its main audience.

Anyone have an news about this company????

does no one have any info on these guys?

I can't find anything about them.

I did an extensive search using a research computer at the college I teach creative writing at here in Calif. and NOTHING! That dosen't mean they don't exist, but this search is comprehensive and better than a typical AOL search (it goes into business registery, etc.). Not much help, but I hope you can find the results you're looking for. P.S. what kind of info on these people do you want? Contact info? Good/Bad report?

Global Book Publisher, Great Unpublished and BookSurge are all the same company. They changed thier name last year due to bad press while using the name Great Unpublished. They kept their storefront in SC and operate a few businesses out of there while sharing office space with other folks.

It is another vanity press that prints on demand. They partner up with Xerox and others to provide a book withing 48 hours of order placed.

They charge you $700 and up for first time set up charge and then a fee for the book printing itself.

None of this is bad if you know going in that the best application for this type of publishing is if you want to assemble a book and distribute it or sell it to your friends, family, club or churchmembers to name a few applications.

Read up on the extensive writings here about POD's and Vanities.

Personally I would save my money but just understand what you are getting into.

$700 set up fee! Thats a lot of money! You can buy quark express for the same cost and a manual and learn to lay it out yourself! after that you own the program and the skys the limit! you can do the layout for as many books as you want to and in the long run save tons of money. plus you have alot more control of what YOUR book will be like! DIY!

If you think that $700 set-up fee is bad, check out the <A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1591095239/ref=nosim/madhousemanor" target="_new">cover prices</A> on some of their books.

holy cannoli

thanks for the info, I found similar stuff.

:grin

Ok...ok...I don't want to start an argument, but for MY sake, and my sake only:

My publisher, a real, honest-to-goodness royalty paying small press uses Booksurge for its tradebacks. Yes, I have received a royalty check, and should get another in June.

So far, my experience with Booksurge (a/k/a Global Book Publisher/Peddler) has been fine.

I wonder who paid my 700.00 set up fee. It sure wasn't me!(was it my publisher?).

The books I received "gratis" are lovely creatures, well-bound and without flaw. The price online is 16.99 + s/h. That's a bit high. Barnes & Noble is going to sell my book for 13.95 at my booksigning.

So far -- and believe me you -- I've not had trouble with GBP. If I do: this place will be the first to know!

Darragha
www.darraghafoster.com

[James D. Macdonald]

Booksurge has a poor reputation and incredibly high prices. Check out The Steadfast for example. (Yeah, American Biblioverken is Booksurge under yet another of their names.)

[PVish]

An online friend of mine in Egypt emailed me to ask if I knew anything about an affiliate of Amazon called Booksurge. I think I heard some negative comments about Booksurge when it was owned by someone else.

Does anyone have any recent info, either pro or con? Anyone have any direct experience with them? Does Booksurge do books with color pictures or does it just do text?

[James D. Macdonald]

Booksurge was a vanity POD before Amazon bought them -- they're still a vanity POD. Same problems as every other vanity POD.

In the same way, Xlibris was a vanity POD before Bertelsmann bought 'em. They didn't change afterward. They're still a vanity POD.

Do they do color interiors? Darned if I know, but if your friend is willing to pay the fee, I'm sure they can arrange something.

[Elwyn]

Amazon bought BookSurge, for what reason I really don't know. Now, if you make BookSurge your POD, Amazon will give you a special deal. It's called the Buy X and get Y deal.

"The BXGY program allows you to pair your book with a top-selling book (or other related item) on Amazon.com to offer shoppers added value for purchasing both items simultaneously."

I don't know all the details yet - and have no idea what the BookSurge book would sell for.

If one would go with another POD, would Amazon treat them fairly? It seems Amazon is flexing their muscle here. Now it's the war of the POD's? What say ya'll?

[LV Dutton]

Yup sounds like the war is on. I swear these groups just do this to see if anyone will sign with them Sad isnt it?