MORE Complaints about Balboa Press!

BookLocker.com, a firm that competes with Balboa Press (and many others), is the parent company of this publication. Many authors who are unhappy with other publishers have submitted their manuscripts to BookLocker for consideration. However, BookLocker vets manuscripts for quality and salability, and rejects a large number of manuscripts per year. When we do, we must refer those authors to different P.O.D. publishers. We NEVER refer authors to Balboa Press!

You can read our last compilation of complaints about Balboa Press, along with info. on how they run their business, RIGHT HERE. Today, we’re just featuring complaints.

Balboa Press is a division of Hay House. Both firms are in partnership with Author Solutions, which has been the subject of two class-action lawsuits by their authors.

It’s been four years since we’ve checked up on Balboa Press. We decided to revisit them after we yet received another complaint about Balboa Press from an author just this week. Things are definitely NOT looking any better!

Here are complaints we’ve received about Balboa Press just since March of this year. We have not corrected typos in the complaints.

D.H. gave them “no stars,” and wrote, “My book was published in March 2021. I have not received any royalties AND my self-publishing company (Balboa Press) is not providing me any data AND my emails are not being returned.”

J.B. wrote, “I have had an appalling experience with Balboa Press and it goes back to February 2020” and “…they systematically handed me to one department after another and bled me by of some $14,000.”

N.R. wrote: “I went with Balboa and was promised the moon but got severely molested in my bank account but made a total of $4.69 USD.”

A.V. wrote: “I reached out to Balboa and have not heard back from the company. Also because the advertising was expensive, I refused to sign the form and requested a refund. To date, I have not received a response from the company.” and “Furthermore, I was supposed to receive copies of the book with the publishing package, I have not to date received the books. I feel scammed by Balboa Press. The Government needs to step-in, something is not right with Balboa Press.”

S.Z. wrote: “I am not happy with the amount of money spent and little received from Balboa in terms of marketing.”

Here are more complaints that have been posted online about Balboa Press since our last article:

TRUST PILOT

“More than half of their customer service reps are abroad and English is clearly not their first language – it’s unfortunate that a publishing company produces emails with basic grammar and punctuation mistakes! (2) I got a 1099 for royalties which they never actually paid me. To this day have not received $ but I had to pay taxes on it anyway!”
-TM

“Overpriced for the service given”
-BT

“Service is poor. I have seen no results for the expense I’ve paid out. Every time I hear from you it’s for more money.”
-CU

“I have 3 published books and I did my fourth with Balboa Press who is by far the worst investment ever. I have customers that aren’t getting books in the mail. I have called and emailed several times and no one gets back. Days later I receive a call asking for more money for an Amazon add that I already paid for. You’ll need to shut down your entire platform because you are THEE WORST COMPANY I’ve ever been referred to for anything.”
-AH

“I would not wish the pain & suffering I went through to even my most hated enemy.”
-JD

“I will never publish another book with this company. This company is only after authors money and that is it.”
– VJ

“the company is really only interested in sucking every last penny out of me that they can get. They are relentless.”
-BF

There are MANY MORE complaints posted on TrustPilot about Balboa Press as well.

COMPLAINTSBOARD.COM

On that website, Balboa Press has an average consumer rating of 1 stars from 10 reviews.

“Now I am receiving phone calls from their Marketing Department DAILY stating I need to be doing my own marketing. The first phone call I had lasted nearly 45 minutes and only towards the end did the penny drop and I realised that they were trying to get another $3000 out of me to design a website.”
-E A

“Total fraud like throwing out your money.”
-N. Ann

“After reviewing the balboa contract I declined. Still haven’t received my money back”
-K. Cloney

“Balboa are unprofessional, they over charge under deliver and are robbers. Totally disappointed. I want my money back”
-B

REVIEWS.BIRDSEYE.COM

“One star is for the quality of the printing by the vendor they use and then upcharge a ton for. Everything else, from customer service to quality, is horrible.”
-Tia M.

“I’ve been begging for them to pay me, and to pay me safely and electronically since spring 2019! It’s a world wide pandemic ! It’s all cashless now and will be for good in London, and I don’t have a USA bank account! All they do is tell me I need a USA account to be paid! They took all my savings after I got sucked into signing up and promised so much !than it was down hill from there”
Ashley S.

A “watchdog advisory” is still in effect against Balboa Press by The Alliance of Independent Authors. Watchdog Advisory – “Services which fail to align with our Code of Standards, have given rise to consistent complaints and, in some cases, have been subject to legal action.”

SelfPublishing.com gives Balboa Press 2 out of 5 stars.

Have you been scammed? My personal experience with Balboa …

“I got online and bought my own book. I left it two royalty statements later, and still nothing. OK, now I knew there was something dodgy going on. I emailed Balboa and let them know there was clearly a problem, to which they initially denied, before penguin up an investigation into the missing royalties. During this time I sent an email to my large database asking that if anyone had bought my book, could they send me their receipts. Receipts started rolling in. Right. Now I knew for sure, I was being duped.”

There are numerous other complaints about Balboa Press appearing online as well.

Authors, if you have a book to publish, please, Please, PLEASE do NOT spend thousands and thousands of dollars with a firm that seems far more concerned about emptying your wallet than they are about selling your book. And, please do your research! It took one Google search to very easily find the complaints above. Too many authors fail to do their homework, and end up sending money to firms like Balboa Press, despite the numerous complaints that are so easily found about them online.

Complaints about Balboa Press
Print on Demand Price Comparison – Compare the setup fees of 15 of the most popular publishers!
CONSIDERING SELF-PUBLISHING? – How Many Book Sales Needed to Recoup Your Investment through These 15 Firms?
BookBaby Complaints
CreateSpace Complaints
Lulu Complaints
And, MORE Complaints About Lulu Press!
More BookBaby Complaints
THIS PAGE includes links to complaints about Infinity Publishing, Trafford, Xlibris, CreateSpace, Lulu, iUniverse, Llumina Publishing, Dog Ear Publishing, Westbow Press, Outskirts Press, Xulon Press, and AuthorHouse
Complaints from Employees of CreateSpace, Xlibris, Author Solutions, Infinity Publishing, Lulu, and Outskirts Press
Complaints from Employees of CreateSpace and Lulu
Lots of Imprints and Lots of Complaints! Could You Unwittingly Crawl into Bed with Author Solutions?
MORE COMPLAINTS about AuthorHouse!
COMPLAINTS about Outskirts Press / OutskirtsPress.com
MORE COMPLAINTS about Fast Pencil / Infinity Publishing. And, now they have a website called Opyrus!
COMPLAINTS about Dreamspinner Press

Got questions about Print On Demand and Self-publishing? Ask Angela Hoy.

About The Author

Angela Hoy is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, the author of 19 books, and the co-owner of BookLocker.com (one of the original POD publishers that still gets books to market in less than a month), PubPreppers.com (print and ebook design for authors who truly want to self-publish), and Abuzz Press (the publishing co-op that charges no setup fees).

Angela has lived and traveled across the U.S. with her kids in an RV, settled in a river-side home in Bradenton, FL, and lived on a 52 ft Irwin sailboat. Angela now resides on a mountaintop in Northwest Georgia, where she plans to spend the rest of her days bird watching, gardening, hiking, and taking in all of the amazing sunrises.

WritersWeekly.com - the free marketing ezine for writers, which features new paying markets and freelance job listings every Wednesday.

BookLocker.com - According to attorney Mark Levine, author of The Fine Print, BookLocker is: "As close to perfection as you're going to find in the world of ebook and POD publishing. The ebook royalties are the highest I've ever seen, and the print royalties are better than average. BookLocker understands what new authors experience, and have put together a package that is the best in the business. You can't go wrong here. Plus, they're selective and won't publish any manuscript just because it's accompanied by a check. Also, the web site is well trafficked. If you can find a POD or epublisher with as much integrity and dedication to selling authors' books, but with lower POD publishing fees, please let me know."

Abuzz Press offers FAST and FREE book publication, but only accepts a small percentage of submissions, and only works with U.S. authors.

PubPreppers.com - "We Prep, You Publish!" Print and ebook design for authors who truly want to self-publish. Offers formatting and design services only, and then provides simple instructions for authors on where to sign up to have the print and ebook editions printed/listed/sold. Cut out the middle man. Keep 100% of what bookstores pay for your book!

Angela's POD Secrets Revealed Series can be found HERE.

Have a POD Book with another publisher? See if BookLocker can give you a better deal. (BookLocker offers "disgruntled author discounts" to those who want to move from other POD services.)

See BookLocker's publishing packages HERE.

ANGELA ON TWITTER https://twitter.com/AngelaHoy

BOOKLOCKER ON FACEBOOK - Provides links to free excerpts!
https://www.facebook.com/booklockerbooks

ANGELA ON FACEBOOK
https://www.facebook.com/angela.hoy.750

ANGELA ON LINKEDIN
https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelahoy/

Angela is the creator of the Original 24-Hour Short Story Contest!
https://24hourshortstorycontest.com/