FriesenPress

Consumer Reviews and Complaints

1. 

   FriesenPress Reviews & Complaints

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   I paid around 3100.00 to FriesenPress in September 2012 to publish my first fiction Death of a Taxi Driver. They said they were going to publish the book by February 2013. Then paid and sent my manuscript. Then the following happened. 1. Sabotage: In the first week of December 2012, FriesenPress sent an edited PDF with around 140 additional mistakes that I didn’t make. The author account manager Ashley Patton called me few days after and told me to clean them up, it would cost me 1484.00, which was not correct. This is a crime FriesenPress committed. On the phone, Ashley Patton showed condescending behaviour and tone. 2. Disrespect: I got angry and I sent email being angry because Ashley Patton refused to give me the phone# of their Vice President to complain. Then Sean Ho called me, apologized to me few times, and FriesenPress cleaned up the files. 3. Non-compliance of the agreement that I signed with FriesenPress: FriesenPress was deliberately procrastinating for this one and that one. They didn’t comply the commitment that gave that the book would be published by February 2013. 4. In April 17, they sent the final ePoof file with more than 400 words per page trim size5.5×6.5 where as in the agreement it was around 315 words. They objected, then said, they can’t. I go angry, Sean Ho, the author account officer’s manager called me and terminated the agreement. They refunded only 300.00 which is not fare, because I paid extra 699.. for ebook enhancement and they did nothing about that. I met my physician yesterday, because I was thinking to take legal action against FriesenPress, but the doctor suggested as I have high blood pressure, this type of action will not be good for me. Please action on it from a human point of view at least, revoke their license for a time being if you could please and refund my money properly and compensation for delaying my publications. ****Most hurting is when Ashley Patton laughed at me for my accent. Because of that I wrote something about accent in my upcoming fiction.

   By Darron Machey

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     The same sort of thing happened to me, except only much worse, considering I was seriously concussed at the time, and they messaged that angle for me to pay for them to help me get what I told them wasn’t ready, but just research in several files. Before going to my Worker Compensation-paid intensive concussion therapy for five weeks, I signed the contract for about $17,000 CN as I sent the amalgamated files to them before heading out. The same sort of unbelievable events happened over and over again. It was a very unexpected and unwanted form of “concussion therapy.” And yes, they denied aspects of the contract I demanded to be fulfilled and scammed me out of more money to correct the errors they committed.

     By Janet A McDonald

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2. 

   FriesenPress Reviews & Complaints

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   I published my first addition of my book in the Friesen Press. There were some mistakes, and when I contacted the rep of this company, I asked to change these mistakes. The rep told me that it was possible, but I needed to pay about $300. I paid this sum and told to change the info on the cover and on the back. They changed only cover, and after that they refused to do anything else, and asked for more money. These people are horrible, and they want only your money. Stay away from them and share this info.

   By Jeanna Bushmaker

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3. 

   FriesenPress Reviews & Complaints

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   I signed a publishing agreement with Friesen Press on November 7th of 2017 for my children’s book Friends on the Spectrum. My intention for this book was to create a resource for parent’s, caregivers and educators to use to open the discussion around children and special needs individuals. I had never written or published professionally and I had done my research (or so I thought) between Friesen and TellTale. Friesen had the best “pitch” in my opinion at the time and the better bang for my buck so to speak. I felt at first upon speaking to Joshua Robinson that I had found a team that backed my vision and an individual who was committed to making it happen. Instead I was paired with a lack lustre, uncommitted and un reachable individual to guide me through the process. Even on the day of my official release I contacted him and received an “out of office” message. Prior to publishing he had told me that the bookstore link to sell was only for me to see as a template when it reality it was live the entire time and in that time he had listed my children’s book about special needs under terminal illness! That was quite a shock to my audience and myself and it took weeks to have that information corrected. I was bullied into the cost of my book because I wanted to make it affordable but you have to set it in USD and I thought the lower the price would make it more accessible but then they tack on per book shipping because they print in the states. So a book that cost $14 to purchase is also roughly $14 to ship from Friesen Press. My story is beautiful but I am not asking any parent to spend $30 on a single soft cover book. Amazon listing was a nightmare and after 3 tickets they resolved the issue for the influx of pricing by third party sellers. I have repeatedly inquired about terminating the contract which is stated in the contract but not clearly as to how that is carried out and they tell me I can purchase my print ready files instead for $699 plus taxes. I have already spent well over $3500 in attempt to make this an engaging, affordable and accessible passion project and I just deposited another $500 last month to see if I could fix their mistakes in the first product but now I know they are the problem. I have been passed around to numerous specialists who consistently upset me to stay with them because honestly I can’t afford to do the alternative. I have used GoFundMe, PayPal, I have a business partner and I sell what little I can because the cost to order books in bulk is ridiculous for personal sales. They want all of their profits through their website which is why the royalties are highest through those channels and the most expensive. I just want to have my intellectual properties returned to me so that I can create the book I envisioned for a community that deserves affordability and accessibility.

   By Vannesa Mccraven

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     Really surprised with FriesenPress

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     I was stunned reading your review. I am currently looking for publishing our own book and contacted FriesenPress. After reading these comments on this site, I was very surprised with their way of doing the business. I know most companies rip you off and they want their profits and shares. Their price is very high too but I just wanted to give it a try. I wanted to reach to those local sellers but with self-publishing, it is impossible to have your book on the shelves. What did you do in the end? Did you publish your book through FriesenPress?

     By Selma Ceylan

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4. 

   FriesenPress Reviews & Complaints

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   I signed up for Book and e-Book was told by sales staff that the Royalty on e-Book was 50%. Later told by Book Production Manager that the e-Book was 30%. There was no contract written to prove the e-Book”s Royalty. I canceled the e-Book still have not received the money for that cancellation it should have come via my email has not been done yet although I was told it would be done 3 weeks ago. First Manuscript was sent back to me as a PDF form for me to correct but there were more than the allowed corrections so it was going to cost another $300. to do the corrections I had the PDF converted to text only to find that they had used the GROTESQUE FONT. Plus there were so many errors created by this company that the editing overcharge would be $300. I had it edited by a local editor and the corrections were done eg of corrections created by this company were; 1 the roman numerals for 1 and 2 were changed from I and II to exclamation marks ! and !! 2 they added many periods to the end of sentences so that there were double periods which had to be corrected 3 In my opinion, they used a macro to insert all of these errors so that writers end up paying even more money to this company to fix errors that were never there to begin with. 4 after I returned the manuscript corrected by a editor that I trust here they then returned it to me in a PDF form of 6X9. 5 this meant that I had to go through the whole book again making sure there were no hard returns in this book This took another 40 hours which should never happened at all. After 4 months of this going on I finally took the finished manuscript that I was able to produce on my Serif Page Plus 5 program and submitted it to Trafford where it was published in 3 weeks Friesen Press still does not have the book done. I asked them at one point to put my book on hold so that I could go ahead with Trafford and get the book done. Since then I have asked them to resume publishing my book; but after 3 weeks I still have heard nothing from them. In my opinion, they publish only the books they wish to do such as cook books and children”s books and my type of book which is an expose they do not want to do. They do not have the honesty to tell me this as they want to keep the $1200. dollars that they charged me In my opinion, they are acting in a fraudulent manner and that this is their manner of dealing with writers. In my opinion, they want to keep the money from writers like myself and not do much to earn it. In my opinion, at this point I would not trust them to handle my book as I do not believe that I would ever get the Royalty on the amount of books that would be sold the way they have it set up to let the author know how many books are sold is dishonest as there is no way to verify their sales of the book . Just their say so. I would like to see this company audited as in my opinion, they need auditing in my opinion, they are having a great game using writers how ever they please and discouraging many writers from writing it is bad enough that they are charging double what Trafford wanted for their services; but do not deliver any service at all; at least in my case. Please see what you can do I would like to cancel my contract with them and I do believe that I should be able to get back at least half of the money that I gave them. One more thing, Book Production Manager kept telling me that if I didn”t go along with their program that she would cancel the contract and I would be out the $1200. approx. money that I had already given them for doing the book. In my opinion, it felt like extortion; not a business doing business. I would like at least half of my money back and I would like other writers to know how this company operates I have all of the emails to prove what I have been saying here.

   By Marchelle Malinsky

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5. 

   Scam Artists

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   Friesen Press does not advertise on their website–or anywhere else, for that matter–that they do not vet for quality, and that they will publish any book. Any book at all, no matter how badly written or downright incomprehensible. The editing services that Friesen Press offers are intended to rake in profits for the company: even if a book becomes WORSE after the author attempts to hastily apply the edits within the timeframe afforded by Friesen, the author will be fed positive, trite encouragements and led further down the garden path into publishing the manuscript, whether or not it is terrible.

   By Trixie

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6. 

   FriesenPress warning

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   After reading one raving review after another online about FriesenPress I realized quickly that those reviews are as fake as a three-dollar bill. After my experience of 3 months, checking online reviews, I found a host
   of complaints that were totally believable and wish I had read those before putting my money down. Stay away, is right. This company preys on authors who are not certain if their book is good enough for the big publishing companies. “We can do a great book for you” is a promise that someone else has to keep. The big publishing companies run like a well-oiled machine. You submit your manuscript, and the biggies take it over, and whip it into shape. Top services for editing, they choose the cover, title, price, how much you get and how much they keep. The success of your book is in the biggies best interest. FriesenPress is not really a publishing company. They are a broker for publishing services. Do not buy one of their packages $6K/$10K/$14K. Instead you can buy an Evaluation Edit for hundred$ and see how you feel. Next, you can buy a cover. If they can’t do a cover properly, they can’t do a book. For packages, your manuscript goes on an assembly line, monitored by a ‘Publishing Consultant’ or is it ‘Specialist’. Tasks are farmed out to who knows who at who knows where, and returned without vetting quality of work, no cohesion. Communication through their ‘Forms Process’ is disgraceful. If you complain, your Rep will want to call you to discuss ‘realistic expectations’, which is the language of fraudsters. When I mentioned to Rep #3 about the complains online, she said she didn’t know anything about that and so she could not comment. Red Flag. A company that does not care about Customer Service is not a good company, as their reputation should be built on service. The root cause at FriesenPress could be that it is run my Millennial Trash. Sorry to say this, but reality bites. Millennials love the money, but hate the work. They are lazy and not very bright. The trouble with businesses like FriesenPress, is anyone can promise you anything, but the reality kicks in only after you make a payment. Also, if you check their contract, it says that once they start on one of your Packages’, that is start Editing or start on your Cover, none of your Package money can be refunded. Giant red flag for you right there. Be warned, don’t trust, and proceed with caution. When you have to fight to get what you paid for, that is a sign of the times. This is what I notice happened to Customer Service very soon after Y2K and soon after the Better Business Bureau closed up shop, probably because they couldn’t keep up with what companies are doing to their Customers, repeatedly. Just my two cents, and hope it helps you.

   By Freddie Saxon

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7. 

   File Your Complaint with BBB

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   You can also file your complaints with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) here:

   www.bbb.org/ca/mb/altona/profile/publishing-consultant/friesenpress-inc-0057-71412

   See: Customer Complaints | File a Complaint

   CT

   By CThanorda

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8. 

   Unprofessional, unethical, and I'm pretty sure illegal

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   They published my stepmom’s book after her death, and allowed the executer to add a chapter, without any input from the beneficiaries. When called out on it, they didn’t take any responsibility, saying we should take it up with the executer.
   They also clearly never read any of it, because it was a mess.

   By Anonymous

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