Complaints

This profile includes complaints for Xulon Press's headquarters and its corporate-owned locations. To view all corporate locations, see Find Local Branches.

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  Xulon Press

  555 Winderley Pl Ste 225 Maitland, FL 32751-7143

  
• 

  Xulon Press

  10640 Main St Ste 204 Suite 204 Fairfax, VA 22030-3932

• 

  Xulon Press

  11350 Random Hills Rd Fairfax, VA 22030-6044

• 

  Xulon Press

  212 3rd Ave N Ste 290 Minneapolis, MN 55401-1441

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:08/08/2022

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Hi I paid this company 1800 plus 6 to 1000. I will accept 3500 to resolve the matter. I have been trying to contact someone for at least a month. Prior to that the person that was my project coordinator was unreachable and it was turned over several times no contact. So I was promised 50 free books. More recently I sent over another manuscript in April 2022 because it was lost by someone. I had previously submitted it November 2021.
  Then they told
  It was complete I went in and looked and the first Letter off each page was missing. They said they would do it again. I paid more for editorial
  Services. I spoke to Nina in May or June. I have been trying to contact her for almost two months. July She sends an email to approve my interior. It's the wrong manuscript. A coworker Marc spoke to me briefly. This past Friday I called the receptionist and she promised a supervisor would
  Call me
  Back. No call
  Back. Today 8/8/2022 I call no answer and I call again it says the number is disconnected. They can finish expeditiously with the correct manuscript and give me 100 free books Instead of 50. I am not happy I give my money and get ignored. I want it done correctly. I have emailed Jason, Nina, and Heather. No one has helped me. Finish with 100 free books or settle for 3500.
  
  
  People keep changing
  

  Business Response

  Date: 09/16/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2022/08/16) */
  Hi Ms. ********,
  
  Thank you so much for submitting your concerns and bringing your account to our attention. I am so sorry for the issues you have encountered. Rest assured, Nina is your assigned point of contact at this time and is happy to help you in whatever way she can. I had her give you a call yesterday at 11AM EST to help resolve these concerns ASAP. She did leave a voicemail for you as well.
  
  We are more than happy to rush through your changes and with the correct manuscript, we'll just want to confirm that we have the correct file of course before doing so. I'm happy to have our Author Experience Supervisor reach out to you as well so that we can learn how to better improve on the challenges you've faced and prevent them from occurring in the future. We'd also be happy to consider some additional compensation for your challenges as needed.
  
  We will attempt to connect with you again today via phone and email so we can get this resolved as quickly and efficiently as possible.
  
  Blessings,
  Xulon Press Management
  
  
  Consumer Response /* (3000, 7, 2022/08/19) */
  (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
  Hi, I do appreciate you responding quickly. I have spoken to Nina but I missed the supervisors call and tried to call her back. I have spoken to counsel and I would like 150 books for free and 1000.000 and for you all to finish the job correctly. If we can agree I will close this out as an acceptable resolution.
  
  
  Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2022/08/26) */
  Hi Ms. ********,
  
  Thank you again for reaching out. I have received your compensation request and unfortunately the most we are able to do is to add in an additional 100 free copies of your book, as discussed with Nina.
  
  Based on your current book specs (trim size, interior color, and page count) to have these books printed would cost you about $1,500 before taxes and shipping. Plus, you'll now be able to sell these books at your estimated retail price of $23.99 (also based on current book specs), which equals roughly $2,400 in cash that can go right into your pocket!
  
  This equates to roughly $3,900 in compensation and I'm sure will be a great help to you in your book launch. Of course, we are also happy to finish the job so that you're fully content with your published book.
  
  Blessings,
  Xulon Press Management
  
  
  Consumer Response /* (4200, 12, 2022/08/26) */
  (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
  Thank you for your response to be clear for all that has happened to include the manuscript sent in November of 2021 that was lost and then the type setter issue, the many agents I have been through, not being able to contact someone for months until I reached out to the payment person, the frustration and concern that this would never happen and being sent the wrong manuscript to approve, their is no compensation for that? I am disappointed. But you are willing to send an additional 100 copies which equate to 200 free copies? and you will finish the book?
  
  
  Business Response /* (4000, 14, 2022/09/02) */
  Hi Ms. ********,
  
  Thank you for your reply. We are absolutely happy to finish the book! In regard to compensation, we are offering 100 free books as the compensation for the challenges. You already have 50 free books on your account so this will total 150 free copies of your book was it is completed.
  
  If all of this sounds good, we will happily resume the work on your project asap. I believe Nina is just waiting for confirmation of the correct and final manuscript.
  
  Please let me know if we can provide any additional help or information.
  
  Blessings,
  Xulon Press Management
  
  
  Consumer Response /* (2000, 16, 2022/09/09) */
  (The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)
  Thanks again for the response. I accept the additional
  100 books bringing my total of free books to 150. I still
  wanted monetary compensation for the frustration and time spent calling and emailing, it's almost a year after I turned in the manuscript from 11/2021. I will resend it again this weekend and we can resume. Hopefully everything is resolved professionally and expeditiously this time. The book needs to be ready and printed by November.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:07/19/2022

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I am a pastor and new Christian author who partnered with Xulon because of their professed Christian values. Since the launch of my book on May 13, 22, I have had nothing but problems. The issue regarding this complaint concerns not receiving "all" the royalties I have earned for May and June from ****** and **********************. In June, I raised concerns about not receiving all of my May royalties from ****** and*****for "confirmed book sales" based on reports. These were sales from family and friends which should have been reflected in the June report. My representative Ms. Doris B*** said via email that there is a cutoff for***** and the royalties should appear on the July report and she had no way of knowing about ****** sales yet there is knowledge of wholesale. This is unconscionable. This is a poor business practice; someone knows. The July report reflects that I will only receive $59.51 and I am outraged! Not a single book sale is in this report, and I need this rectified. I want to get all the royalties that I have earned. Heaven only knows how I am being railroaded by the unknown sales from marketing efforts. Here are the confirmed book sales thus far: ****** -14 paperback books (7 May /7 June) and **************** - 5 (2 May/ 3 June) of which I should receive 45%. I need this matter resolved expeditiously. These are not sales that will spill into July or have anything to do with 3rd party purchases on wholesale, ebooks, or kindle. The July report of $59.51 is far below it. I am seriously concerned about the business ethics and practices of Xulon and being railroaded by Xulon as an author. Their practices need to be investigated. Wholesale purchases from third-party vendors have nothing to do with individual book sales from vendors online. Secondly, 3rd party wholesale book purchases are a concern, This report does not show you where the money is going. There is no cost for shipping or printing noted. I only received 1.69 per book for the 59 books. Why?
  

  Business Response

  Date: 08/30/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2022/08/01) */
  Hi******* ******!
  
  I am so very sorry to hear of your challenges with your royalties and sales reports and the confusion surrounding royalty return.
  
  I have reviewed your account and see that you have exchanged a couple of emails with your rep and our Author Experience Supervisor as well. I do feel they left a couple of your questions unanswered and have followed up with them on this. I have asked our Author Experience Supervisor to reach back out to you in hopes of explaining and further answering your specific questions.
  
  I assure you, we are on your side and want to do whatever we can to show you that.
  
  One resource I thought could be helpful for you in the meantime is something from our website that gives a breakdown of how each royalty return is calculated. Of course the retail price, wholesaler discount, and production cost will vary based on the book type, vendor, etc. but this should at least help explain how we get to our derived royalty return https://www.xulonpress.com/book-printing/royalty-rates/.
  
  Our team will be in touch soon to provide further clarification to your concerns.
  
  Blessings,
  Xulon Press Management
  
  
  Consumer Response /* (3000, 7, 2022/08/03) */
  (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
  
  First of all, the Xulon representative needs to respond in this portal and not my email, so the responses are documented. Issue One: I received a response that indicates the following: List Price: $31.49, Retailers Discount: -17.32 (55%) Print Cost: -13.25 Your royalty: 0.92 cents. However, the third-party royalty I received in June and July was $1.69 per book and not 92 cents. My concerns have nothing to do with what is happening in the future. I also need something in writing from the printer that indicates that the cost is going up. I simply do's believe or trust anything that Xulon says. In addition, the cost for printing and etc. is not indicated on the sales report at all for the authors. If the company is transparent and ethical the author would know of all the expenses on the report. I have included it so you can see what I am talking about. Issue Two: This print cost of $13.25 has never been provided on the report and even when I raised issues of concerns repeatedly. If this is a true cost, it would be on the reported and shared with me a couple of months ago. it was just created and fabricated. Issue Three: The 3rd party purchases at 55% of which I got only $1.69 per book does not address the royalties I should receive when someone goes online and purchases a book at full price. I received nothing from any book sales (****** and ****************), and I know and have confirmed several purchases from family and friends. Issue Four: Doris B***, who is my representative, indicated via email that there is a cutoff for sales on the report and I should see the royalties the next month. So, if I was not authorized for any royalties, this statement would not have been said. She also inquired as to when the purchases I mentioned were made. Again, if I had no entitlement why these statements? Doris also indicated that other authors are complaining about the very same things. Issue Five: I did not receive the sales report from the third-party vendors as promised by my representative in writing. Issue 6: Now I am told that my book price needs to increase to get at least $1.50 per book. What is the planned increase of my book?
  
  
  Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2022/08/12) */
  Our deepest apologies,******* ******. We often provide updates and statuses here but work directly with our clients to resolve their specific issues as the BBB prefers we don't include much personal information in these posts and also phone conversations are usually needed in order to get full resolve on challenges like these. That said, we're happy to communicate here as it is your preference, I'm sure we can still achieve a positive resolution.
  
  In regard to your first issue, the breakdown you were provided of "List Price: $31.49, Retailers Discount: -17.32 (55%) Print Cost: -13.25 Your royalty: 0.92 cents." Is based off of current print prices/production costs from our printer. They released a production cost increase on July 18th, so when we use their calculator to produce an estimated royalty return, that is the calculation presented based off of current print/production prices.
  
  These prices fluctuate often as they're based on paper cost, supply and demand, etc. In the past, this was relatively stable with minor adjustments here and there but in the last two years, this has changed significantly. During 2020, papermills all around the world closed at rapid speeds and simultaneously, demand for products like paper towels, toilet paper, paper in general, skyrocketed. Our printing partner was faced with challenges they've never seen before, thankfully we work with one of the largest print on demand printers in the industry and our author's books availability wasn't impacted, but in many cases for smaller offset print shops, they simply couldn't get paper to even print books. I know that isn't a direct answer to your concern here, but I'm hopeful that by explaining that you'll understand the reasoning for your print cost fluctuating, thus impacting the retail price of your book.
  
  Our printer does not communicate with our clients in any way, nor do we allow our clients to communicate directly with our printer. The reason is not for hiding or withholding information, but rather for ensuring anonymity with our partner and our clients. I'm really sad to hear that you do not trust or believe anything our business, and if that is a true reflection of how you feel and is not repairable, I might recommend having your book printed and distributed elsewhere so that you can put some ease to these concerns. That would give you the opportunity to have full control and understanding of the printing and distribution process and we would be happy to provide you the Print Ready files with our ISBN and Logo removed so you can do that.
  
  In regard to your second issue, we don't include production costs on royalty and sales reports at this time. The reason for that is that it does constantly fluctuate. As I mentioned in the past, these were minor fluctuations and in recent years have increased to somewhat larger fluctuations. The production cost for a book where only a single book is printed would be higher than the production cost for a book order of 100 copies. This is not something we are capable of reporting for our authors at this time, though I'm happy to make the recommendation that this is something we consider down the road if it's possible to achieve. We also don't include the retailer wholesaler discount for this same reason. For some retailers, it's 40% and for others it's 55%. This is in frequent fluctuation. I assure you these costs were not simply fabricated. We are a publicly traded company that goes through routine audits. I truly believe there is just a misunderstanding between your expectations for what we would report and what we actually report. We share publicly on our website what we post to our royalty statements, which can be found on this page - https://www.xulonpress.com/book-printing/royalty-rates/. We report to our authors "how many copies are sold, when they sold, and what your net profit is". That said, I certainly think some additional verbiage about production costs and how they fluctuate could be useful here and I'll be sure to share that feedback with our team.
  
  In regard to your third issue, the 3rd party retailers are ****** and **************. They purchase the copies of your book and our relationship/partnership with them exists through our printer. To clarify, we are actually not in direct contract with them, but rather our printer is. Friends and family who purchased books from ****** or **************, are the customers of those retailers. I often use an example of a produce supplier/grocery store. When you go to the store to purchase broccoli, you are buying the broccoli from the grocery store. The grocery store purchased the broccoli from the supplier. You can't go to the grocery store and buy broccoli from the supplier directly. The grocery store buys the broccoli for a wholesale price, and then resells it for a profit. This is the same concept.
  
  One way that you can eliminate the mark up the 3rd party retailers are charging is to direct your customers to your book's listing on the Xulon Press Bookstore. This website allows you to sell your book without the 40-55% markup that 3rd party retailers charge, though the printing and shipping often takes a bit longer than by using ****** ***** for example. You will still pay a distribution fee, freight fee, and print fee but it works out to a lot less than the 3rd party retailer mark up because we don't take any profit from those books the same way ****** or ************** would. You sold 8 copies via the Xulon Press Bookstore Website in May, which are reflected on your Sales Report on June 14th. Your average return on those books, after Distribution Fee, Freight Fee, and Print Fee, was $17.23 per book.
  
  In regard to your fourth issue, I'm not sure I fully understand the question so please forgive me if my response doesn't answer your concern. We process royalties from the month prior by the 20th of the following month (though it usually posts around the 15th). So for example, if ****** purchased 30 books in the month of March, those books would show up on your Sales/Distribution Report on or after April 20th. At that point, if your total royalty balance meets the $25 threshold, then a check or direct deposit would be issued before the end of April. One thing that is worth noting here is just because the 3rd party vendor purchased X number of copies, doesn't mean they sold X number of copies in the same period. For example, just because 3rd party vendors purchased 59 copies of your book in May, doesn't mean they sold all 59 copies that month. They likely ordered X amount to suit their immediate orders and X amount to have on hand for additional orders. Again, I use the grocery store reference here. The grocery store doesn't notify the vendor every time someone buys a bunch of broccoli, they simply buy the amount they think they'll need based on their perceived demand. You were paid $272.05 in June and $59.51 in July. Those were derived from 3rd party retailer sales, Direct consumer sales from the Xulon Press bookstore, and eBook sales from ****** & **************. Please let me know if I answered this question or if I missed the mark/misunderstood, I'm happy to revisit as needed.
  
  In regard to issue 5, I have attached your Lifetime Print Report from the printer to this response. This does include both free copies that we printed and shipped to you along with 3rd party vendor orders and author orders if you placed any directly with our book sales representative.
  
  In regard to issue 6, we are currently doing research on our price ranges and production costs to determine how we need to shift our retail prices. We will be communicating with all of our authors impacted by this via mass-communication from our marketing department once we've finalized the price revision. You are welcome to wait until we do that repricing of our titles or if you'd like to proceed with a price adjustment now, we can do that. You're welcome to set a price point of your liking in the event you'd prefer to take on a higher royalty return or a lesser royalty return. I would just note that you have a Custom Retail Price so you'd be removed from any future bulk Retail Price Increase. Your royalty could still fluctuate though if we see another production cost increase from our printer.
  
  I really hope this information is helpful to you and eases your concerns. I'd like to reiterate that our intention is always to serve our authors to the utmost of our abilities and I apologize that some of these details weren't made more clear to you prior or during your publishing journey.
  
  Blessings,
  Xulon Press Management
  
  
  Consumer Response /* (4200, 11, 2022/08/17) */
  (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
  Xulon's proposed resolutions are not acceptable because my concerns are still unaddressed. 1. On August 3, 2022, Xulon (Elizabeth Marrero) responded to a message I sent on July 20th to Doris B*** regarding pending royalty concerns. It took awhile before I received a response. I am sure this was because I filed a complaint with BBB. However, Xulon indicates in this BBB response that print cost went up on 07/18/22, yet I was not informed until July 28 via email which was after filing my BBB complaint. When I was informed via email, the date of July 18th was never provided. The royalties received in July were populated in the Author's Center on July 15, 2022, which was before July 18, 2022. See attachment. Thus, I earned $1.69 per book from the 3rd party vendor and not 92 cents for the recent royalty check. By this difference alone, I am due an additional $20.77. I cannot believe you, Xulon would penalize me for a change that took place after a legitimate earning/rate that you posted. There is no place to attach a copy of Xulon's Excel sheet to this response. However, it is located in Xulon's Author's Center and it is the same as the prior spreadsheet that I attached with my prior response. Xulon, you need to review it. Note the date of July 15 and note the rate of 1.69. 2. Secondly, there was nothing provided to me as an author that supports this increase in July. I have asked for that and I have not received it. I want to see the notification from the printer of the increase. Verbally informing me well after the fact is of concern. If the authors are respected and everything with Xulon was honest and transparent, I would have been informed of the increase before it happened and most assuredly within the same month that it occur. Xulon has provided no proof of the increase in printing price from the vendor. This is an unethical practice and unbelievable. 3. Likewise, I want to see something in "writing" from Xulon and the printer to support the change in royalty funds, increase in printing cost and what the itemized production costs were for May -July. 4. Xulon's response of leaving these sections blank on the sales report because of fluctuation is absurd, lacks transparency, is unfair to the author, and raises suspicion of fraud and unethical behavior. As an author, I have a right to know what all of the costs are upfront. By not providing the cost you can tell me or anybody anything at any time since there is no documentation to support otherwise. I need some official documentation to resolve this concern. 5. Xulon indicates that they do not have a contract with ****** and **************** but have one with the printer who has one with the aforementioned vendors. Since I have raised the issues of concern about not receiving royalty from physical book sales, Xulon should be notifying the printer of my concern so that they may forward my concerns and documentation to the vendors. This matter is still not resolved and very significant source of dissatisfaction. Xulon you receive money from both vendors regarding, 3rd party book purchases and eBook- kindle sales monthly which are populated on the sales report. If you supported me or any other author, you would contact the vendors regarding my concern and at least submit the documentation regarding purchases to them. You continue to demonstrate your lack of concern for my issues. 6. The report of book purchases you provided as an Excel sheet is not useful and surely you are aware of that. It is simply a running list of books and dates. It does not specify vendors at all. Again, if you respected me as a human being and an author and care just a little, you would have supplied a useful report to illuminate this aspect as a concern. I am requesting a useful report.