Xlibris Publishing

On November 28, 2016, Xlibris agreed to publish a book for me and accepted a payment of $949 via credit card. Before production could begin, they decided that the manuscript did not meet their guidelines and imposed unrealistic and unreasonable conditions for changing it. Their representative told me that all publishers would impose the same conditions. As the conditions were unacceptable to me, I checked with two other publishers and found that the conditions were in no way standard. One of the other companies, Outskirts Press, has since published my book without changes and without incident.

Xlibris has refunded only $549 of the $949 it charged me. It is retaining $400 as a "manuscript evaluation fee." Before I signed on with Outskirts, they provided a thoughtful manuscript evaluation for $35 and assured me that the issues flagged by Xlibris were not, in fact, valid issues. Though it's true that the Xlibris contract says that they can withhold $400 if the manuscript does not meet their guidlelines, I feel that it's unfair for them to withhold it in this case. The price they put this "service" is far in excess of the time they spent on it (an hour, at most), and the result was not, as they claimed it to be, consistent with the standards of the self-publishing industry.

Dear Sir, Madam,

As a writer, I paid Xlibris $ 1800 for a package that included editing (pid 622992). I did it because English is not my native language. Back in July 2014, I received a clear text from Xlibris that I approved. However, a few months later the book was printed with several grammar mistakes that were not part of the original clear text! It took me a while to realize that because it didn't come to my mind that any reputable editor would be so unprofessional. When I finally addressed the issue, the only response that I got from Xlibris representatives was that my concerns were “author preference” (?!) I took the issue to the DC Court, but the case was dropped because the contract that I signed with Xlibris specified that I had 180 days to take them to Indiana Court. No other jurisdiction nor an extension of time was acceptable. On July 2016, Xlibris finally sent me a revised clear text. My reply on July 24, 2016 was:

Dear Ms. Perkins:

The text that you sent presents the same grammar mistakes that we discussed before. For example:

On page 10: "In sum, usually in the study of prehistoric societies, there is no absolute proof." It should read instead: " In sum, usually in the study of prehistoric societies there is no absolute proof."

On page 15: "Therefore, the available evidence contradicts the claim that plants are the subject of the stone, especially being the Inga Stone, a major work which, without doubt, had a very important role within the ideology of the group that created it, the available evidence contradicts the claim that plants are the subject of the stone." The sentence should be: "Therefore, the available evidence contradicts the claim that plants are the subject of the stone, especially being the Inga Stone a major work which, without any doubt, had a very important role within the ideology of the group that created it."

Ms. Perkins reply on July 25th was:

Dear Roberto,

The list of mistakes that you listed today are not valid, these are what they call “author preference.”

So, according to Xlibris "editors", needlessly repeating words in the same sentence is good grammar (!)

In other words, the revised text that Xlibris sent me in July 2016 had the very SAME grammar mistakes presented in the printed edition! And when I mentioned that to Xlibris representatives, I was told again that it was a matter of “author preference”. I also contacted Better Business Bureau. Xlibris reply was that the court case had been dismissed and that they were willing to print a clear text. Neither the reason why it was “dismissed” nor that their “new“ clear text was filled up with grammar mistakes was mentioned in their reply.

In sum, the only way to solve this issue would be fair editing by Xlibris.

Cordially,

Roberto Salgado de Carvalho

I purchased an initial publishing package from Xlibris for my Children's book. After I had paid £5, 500 for publishing and marketing the Senior marketing Consultant contacted me to persuade me to sign up for a further marketing package. I told him in several emails (which I still have) that I could not afford any more. I copy his reply directly here:

Hi Roger,

We can place everything on hold until you are done with the correx. If it’s not really doable for you to do the marketing then we will reconstruct the marketing platform.

He assured me on the phone twice that signing up to this new contract would simply enable them to use the previous fees paid to cover this one if necessary.
I have just been informed by their finance department that the whole publishing package is on hold until I pay this new package.

I've been asking for my refund, because these people (Xlibris) have not been able to do the service I paid for in three payments. I left a voice mail to the guy (Greg Griffin) to call me back, so I can get my refund hasn't called back. I also did not give these people permission to start on the design of my book . I told my submission representative (David Martell) to contact me when he received the hard copies of my illustrations, but a person named Gretchen Beal sent me an email stating that she and her design team had finish the designs for my book, but they used the pdf files of my illustrations to put it on my book with, I gave them specific instructions and they don't follow my instructions. When Gretchen sent me the design of my book it had a cover page I never told them to use and they pasted my instructions as part of the manuscript. I think they made these mistakes, so that I would have to pay for their own failures. I just want my refund, and discontinue working with these people, can anyone help?

I ordered a book from Xlibris, the Print-On-Demand online bookstore/publishing house, five weeks ago. It was the only website to order a book that a beloved author had self-published. Previously, I had ordered a book from another "POD" bookstore, and the book arrived promptly and in good condition. With Xlibris, however, I was told that the hardcover book I had ordered would arrive in 2-3 weeks. I was forced to just sit and wait for it to arrive; no tracking was provided, only an order confirmation number. Three weeks went by, and no book. Then four weeks... and now five. A week ago, I emailed their customer service department, asking if they knew where my package was, and if they could give me a tracking number, so I would at least know if I should expect the package in the mail or give it up as lost by the postal service. I've started to develop a crazed optimism; every day when the mail arrives, I think "It might come today, there were just shipping delays!" I now know that this is just a pipe dream. I was scammed. Not long after I placed my order, my credit card was charged. And now I am $22.00 plus tax out of pocket, with no book to show for it. I caution all book-buyers out there: don't go ANYWHERE NEAR Xlibris! You'll be sorry if you do!

The company has all the signs of a toxic work environment so that explains why the employees cant focus to do their job well:

Signs of a toxic workplace:
Widespread anger and frustration
Workplace bully is admired
Scapegoats are always blamed
Dysfunctional relationships
Dysfunctional meetings
Obvious hypocrisy
Overly restrictive systems
Incompetent or powerless HR manager

1. Widespread anger and frustration
Are co-workers frequently in a foul mood? Are anger and frustration widespread? Do disenchanted employees outnumber enthusiastic ones? These are clear signs that your company’s atmosphere is toxic.
In this situation, nothing realistic is being done to improve morale. Any efforts to make your company a better place to work seem superficial, even ironic (like having the workplace bully head up the committee to improve morale).
Turnover is usually high in a toxic workplace, with the most talented people quitting. This can be turned to your benefit: by focusing on developing friendships with your co-workers, you will soon know many people at other companies--an excellent way to find your next job. In this surreal situation, it’s better to focus on keeping up with ex-employees rather than worrying about the executives who think they control your future.
2. Workplace bully is admired
Is the company culture to admire the winners, regardless of their tactics? Is the bully widely respected, despite his inappropriate behavior, as an aggressive, competitive leader? When a bully loses control of his temper or intentionally embarrasses a subordinate, do others justify his actions as strong management, or even dismiss them as irrelevant?
These are more signs of a toxic workplace.
3. Scapegoats are found to take the blame
Does blaming others seem like a blood sport in your company?
In a toxic workplace, a bully “explains” a mistake by castigating someone else. He thus dodges any responsibility for his actions (although he may acknowledge he used poor judgment in hiring the scapegoat).
A bully’s habit of blaming others can cause serious, persistent problems. By not acknowledging his role in causing mistakes, he finds no answers that can prevent mistakes in the future. And by blaming the innocent, he causes valuable employees to quit. This, in turn, overburdens the remaining personnel, resulting in more failures.
Over time, high turnover allows the bully to blame a whole new set of scapegoats. Just listen for him to judge an entire class or generation of workers, comparing them to his superior intelligence or work ethic. “What’s wrong with young people these days?” he may lament, ignoring the fact that other supervisors don’t seem to have problems with their subordinates.
Scapegoats may continue to be blamed long after they’ve left the company. He can use two or three ex-employees to explain a whole host of problems, since they are no longer around to explain how the bully was actually at fault.
If most of your co-workers believe that the bully’s scapegoats are responsible for failures in his department, your workplace is probably toxic.
4. Dysfunctional processes
In a toxic company, processes tend to be dysfunctional, particularly if a workplace bully helps create them.
In this situation, company procedures don’t make sense, making it difficult to get things done. Management reviews are an unnecessary burden, with many reports that don’t have any meaning. For any given task, the established process appears illogical. You hear “That’s the way we’ve always done it” rather than “There’s always room for improvement.”
Vague objectives and arbitrary deadlines
There are no clear objectives, so it can be tough to determine what’s important and what isn’t. At times, you find yourself buried with work that appears to be completely unnecessary. It is never clear how and why things are done around the company.
Your boss routinely makes decisions that impact you without seeking your input. Deadlines are never established based on logical scheduling of larger goals, but instead appear arbitrary. No matter how often his subordinates complain, your boss never extends unrealistic deadlines, adding to the general frustration.
Meaningless solutions from ineffective management
In order to create the impression that personnel issues are being addressed, upper management sets up a committee to investigate specific problems and suggest solutions. But the results are based on the premise that the employees aren’t very sophisticated and can be easily appeased. Input from employees is discounted or ignored and clueless managers rely on their own misapprehensions. Because the process is dysfunctional, the results are meaningless.
Let’s say, for example, that a committee is formed to investigate low morale and declining productivity. But since the workplace is toxic, the committee won’t have the authority to investigate the bully. Even worse, a bully may be on the committee. Or the committee must first report to a high level executive who is one of the bullies (“Well, our surprising conclusion is that you are the cause of declining morale.” No, I can’t see that happening either.)
Since they must ignore the impact of bullying on morale, they instead turn to “creative” ideas. Perhaps they find some popular solution to “make employees feel better about themselves.” This could include a patronizing “Extra Special Person” award, meaningless interdepartmental competitions or irrelevant offsite training seminars (“As soon as everyone learns proper time-management techniques, ” they tell one another, “productivity and morale will go way up. We’ll even give them free planning notebooks.”)
Unintended consequence: worsening morale
In the end, these solutions tend to be counterproductive. Not only do they fail to deal with the bully, but the premise--employees don’t realize the real problem--is fatally flawed. By pushing a meaningless, ineffective solution to morale, employees feel they are being treated like children, or as second-class citizens. Morale deteriorates even further, and high employee turnover is often the result.
On the other hand, after most employees leave and are replaced with fresh faces, morale will be good once again. That is until bullying again takes its toll and a new dysfunctional committee is appointed and again ignores the real cause of the problem (one symptom of a company run by a bully).
5. Dysfunctional relationships
How do employees relate to one another at your company? In a toxic workplace, everyone seems to struggle with relationships. Misunderstandings are common, leading to frustration, anger and inefficiency. Gossip and criticism are the norm, and cliques lead to favoritism and feuding.
Noticeably absent in a toxic workplace are clear and straightforward conversations. You rarely see a quick resolution of relationship issues, and bad feelings may linger for months, or even years.
6. Dysfunctional meetings
Do meetings at your company feel like a waste of time? Are they dominated by dull monologues and meaningless reports? Do they provide workplace bullies a forum to rant, rave and manipulate? Are reasonable people intimidated into silence?
If so, you are experiencing the living hell of dysfunctional meetings.
Topics are meaningless
In a toxic workplace, those who dominate meetings seem to prefer to discuss vague platitudes instead of underlying problems. They focus on theory rather than dealing with reality. By ignoring the real problems facing the company, they fail to accomplish anything of substance. The main impact of meetings is the loss of productive time from your day. Your dominant thought as you leave tends to be “There’s an hour of my life I’ll never get back.”
Bully is allowed to dominate meetings
A workplace bully tends to dominate meetings through his aggressive conversational style, including giving monologues, arguing, criticizing, interrupting and raising his voice. He uses generalizations, innuendo and presuppositions without being challenged. He stifles open discussions and prevents any progress, except to further his own agenda. He may even use a meeting to embarrass, ridicule and humiliate his opponents.
In a toxic workplace, any complaints about the bully’s domination of meetings will likely fall upon deaf ears. In fact, his aggressive tactics are more likely to be admired by upper management.
7. Obvious hypocrisy in the company
A toxic workplace nearly always includes widespread hypocrisy. Executives are unlikely to acknowledge the serious problems plaguing their company, instead promoting the fiction of a healthy work environment run by enlightened management. Bullies are euphemistically described as highly competitive individuals who are becoming strong leaders.
Management fads
Executives in a toxic company often overcompensate by adopting faddish management approaches, as if propaganda is an effective tool to overcome reality. The result may be aggressively promoted company values that don’t seem to match day-to-day events.
For example, clear communication is preached in elaborate seminars while poor communication continues to be the norm. Valuing and respecting others is publicized in the company mission statement, or on framed motivational posters in the break room, but undermining and belittling others seems pervasive. Everyone is told to make company goals their first priority and adopt a spirit of teamwork, but internal competition dominates. Worst of all, the most consistent violators of company values are the most highly rewarded.
Bully as preacher
A workplace bully can be quite outspoken in preaching company values, pressuring others to modify their behavior even as he consistently violates those values. Rather than being punished for his violations, the bully is rewarded for his outward image of leadership. In the rare event he is reprimanded for breaking company values, it is ineffective and ultimately meaningless. In this manner, upper management’s hypocritical attempts to improve the work environment are exploited by a clever bully, leading to further deterioration of morale.
Clueless or evil management
Even when the hypocrisy seems obvious to everyone, upper management seems unaware of the contradictions between what is said and what is done. Maybe they want you to guess whether they are hopelessly unaware or utterly lacking in integrity.
8. Overly restrictive systems for controlling people
A workplace bully usually thrives by controlling others. He prefers a workplace with dehumanizing systems, offering him more opportunities to tightly control their behavior.
Companies fall into this mode of operation by designing and implementing overly detailed operational systems. These include overly detailed policies, procedures and job descriptions and performance evaluations.
Toxic vs. enlightened workplace
In a toxic workplace, employees are criticized and punished for failing to meet established criteria, regardless of whether the item makes any sense. Common sense is not considered as a meaningful factor.
In a more enlightened environment, the emphasis is on training employees to achieve excellence, and on providing them with appropriate techniques and tools. In effect, the systems are subordinated to the employees. In a toxic workplace, it is the other way around: the employees are subordinated to the systems, based on the premise that people can’t be trusted to think for themselves, and they can’t learn to do their job skillfully and reliably.
Bully as a superior being
A bully also feels justified in creating and implementing highly detailed systems due to his advanced intellect and superior judgment. The systems allow him to control the actions of others, thus overcoming their inferiority and incompetence.
In accordance with his character, a bully uses the operational system as an excuse to badger his subordinates and control his peers. Ultimately, this becomes another weapon in his arsenal of intimidation, adding to his power in the company.
Initiative-killers
Once operational systems are in place, employees are criticized for taking any initiative, such as modifying the approach or eliminating unnecessary tasks. It doesn’t seem to matter that these changes would make the company operate more efficiently--if the bully doesn’t originate the idea, it isn’t even considered.
Arguments for totalitarian controls
When challenged by more enlightened executives, a bully adamantly defends this approach. He explains that operational systems are absolutely necessary to maintain discipline, productivity and quality control. He complains that without these systems, employees would not be held accountable for their actions. He may launch into a long-winded description of a former employer that used these systems, or refers to sophisticated management studies, offering quotes and statistics to prove his point.
During his monologue, he conveniently omits the fact that his approach goes far beyond common-sense management concepts, such as thorough work plans and checklists, and into the realm of totalitarian control, with harsh penalties for trivial non-compliance. By converting intelligent methods into dogmatic approaches, he ###izes the purpose of management systems.
In this toxic situation, only mindless task-oriented workers are rewarded. And if they learn to be completely submissive to the bully, they are praised as model employees.
9. Incompetent or powerless human resource manager
In a toxic workplace, human resource (“HR”) managers are either unable or unwilling to deal with rampant workplace bullying.
Signs of an incompetent or powerless (with respect to bullying) HR manager include an inability to respond effectively to bullying incidents, refusal to treat complaints as valid and significant, or criticizing the complainer without understanding the situation. The HR manager would rather not confront the bully, so instead asks you to change your behavior to accommodate the bully.
Failure to recognize or address the problem
An incompetent HR manager treats the problem as caused equally by bully and complainer, with no recognition of the bully’s intentionally destructive behavior. In an attempt to rationalize an unpleasant situation, the HR manager dismisses overly aggressive behavior as "mood swings, ” or labels bullying as an “ordinary personality conflict.” It is up to you to resolve the situation.
And if bullying is acknowledged, there is no follow-up on requests for a bully to modify his behavior--perhaps because the primary goal is to pacify the complainer, not change the bully.
HR manipulated by a skilled bully
How can these highly trained professionals fail to deal with workplace bullying?
In some cases, inexperienced HR managers lack familiarity with bullying and its negative impact on employees and productivity. An HR manager may misinterpret the situation, failing to properly research and evaluate the circumstances. Or he may be misled by a bully’s guile.
Let’s say a target complains about a series of bullying incidents. A skilled bully can convince a naive HR manager that his bullying behaviors were fully justified by circumstances, or by the failings of the complainer. In the end, the target of bullying gets blamed, either as the instigator or as a whiner.
After two or three incidents, the HR manager will perceive the target as a chronic complainer. After that, all future bullying of that target, even when obvious and severe, is likely to be ignored. In this manner, an HR manager can contribute to the toxicity of a workplace.
HR intimidated by an entrenched bully
An HR manager may honor a bully’s leadership in the company. If a bully is clearly respected by upper management, confronting him carries huge risks. It makes more sense to side with the bully, blaming the target.
For example, let's say a bully convinces the company’s president that his department will deliver an enormous increase in profits, but it requires a “tough management” approach. If the president is commmitted to the bully, the HR manager will probably avoid interfering.
When the HR manager believes his own job would be at risk if he makes an enemy of a powerful bully, you probably won’t see any meaningful action to address the underlying problem.
Signs that management encourages bullying
In a toxic workplace, upper management has unknowingly displayed attitudes and imposed policies that have created an environment favorable to bullies and hostile to everyone else.
Management encourages bullying:
Remote from employees
Bully is part of management “club”
Seems to deal with bully
Bullying is rewarded
Effort to appease a workplace bully
1. Remote from employees
In smaller companies, workplace bullies often thrive when the owner isn’t involved in day-to-day operations. His remoteness from employees gives free reign to a bully.
In larger companies, a rigid hierarchy may create a similar degree of remoteness, particularly when the hierarchy restricts communication in an upward direction. Even if executives brag about an open-door policy, they are probably unreceptive to complaints about bullying. And if you corner them about the problem, they may label you as a troublemaker.
Isolated, uncaring and short-sighted
In a toxic workplace, top executives may have been isolated for so long that they stopped caring about their employees’ well-being. These executives fail to see the big picture. It isn’t rational to ignore the morale of people upon whom the company’s profitability depends.
Even a purely selfish executive, upon careful consideration, would recognize the significant long-term benefits of dealing with the issue of bullying. He would understand the positive impacts of improving morale, including decreased turnover and increased productivity. The potential for increased profits alone should motivate him to action.
Then it would become a priority to treat rank-and-file employees with respect. The rational executive would eagerly listen to their complaints, perform a full investigation and ultimately get rid of the workplace bullies.
2. Workplace bully is part of a management “club”
Does a workplace bully seem to have unwavering support from your company’s top executives? Then perhaps they consider him a member of their management “club.”
Many top executives rise to their position by bullying others. When they see others using the same tactics, they are impressed. They welcome the bully as one of their own kind. They admire his many “qualities, ” such as shrewdly exploiting employees to generate more income for executive bonuses.
Once a bully becomes part of this management group, it takes a near disaster to weaken his power. If anyone threatens the bully, they close ranks. If you complain about the bullying, they treat you as the problem. You may be called “disruptive” or a “troublemaker.” If you continue to fight back, they allow the bully to discredit you. Ultimately, they find a reason to fire you, rather than let you educate others as to the toxic nature of the company.
If it is any consolation, workplace bullies eventually turn on each other in their endless quest for more power and money.
3. False appearance of dealing with a workplace bully
When low morale becomes an issue, upper management addresses the symptoms rather than the underlying problem (the behavior of a workplace bully). Their objective is to satisfy employees that they are dealing with morale issues, but without causing the bully to leave the company (and thus reduce their future bonuses).
However, it is counterproductive for executives to attempt to raise morale without reigning in the bully, such as by announcing that “valuing our employees is a top priority” and distributing a new mission statement. When employees are aware of rampant bullying, they quickly spot hypocrisy. Instead of improved morale, the company ends up with increasingly cynical employees.
Understating the problem
At the same time, executives discount the severity of a bully’s behavior. They call his overly aggressive or manipulative behaviors a “minor problem, ” or say “he lacks maturity, but will grow into the job.” Even when they acknowledge his destructive behaviors towards others, they rationalize that “over time he will develop his interpersonal skills.”
Furthermore, executives acknowledge only one or two incidents of bullying behavior and ignore the overall destructive pattern. Or they mislabel behaviors with euphemisms: manipulation is called persuasion, backstabbing is called posturing, gossiping is called bonding.
The only true sin
Even in a highly toxic workplace, there is one exception to this support of bullying: in the rare case that a power-hungry bully acts aggressively towards a top executive, he will be dealt with quickly and permanently.
4. Bullying is rewarded
Does a workplace bully in your company have the unwavering support of upper management? Does management allow mistreatment of employees because it results in greater profits?
Greed can be a very strong motivator. People with lots of money usually want more, often with a single-minded focus (maybe that’s how they became wealthy in the first place). When a company treats profits as sacred, ethics and values usually suffer. In this environment, bullying behavior is tolerated--or even praised--if it appears likely to lead to higher profits. Even worse, the bully is rewarded for his harsh methods as long as he produces short-term financial gains.
Bullies exploit management’s greed
A skilled bully can adroitly take advantage of this situation. As long as he continues to expand business, with the expectation of increased profits for the company, he feels free to engage in highly aggressive and manipulative behaviors. He knows that upper management is focused on the bottom line, causing them to overlook employee complaints or other morale issues. In effect, there are no restraints on the bully’s aggressive behaviors.
But even though a bully can increase profits in the short term, over several years low morale and high turnover usually produce the opposite result. Sophisticated executives will recognize this, though they may be temporarily blinded by a bully’s promises. In a sense, they allow themselves to become victims--at least temporarily--of a master manipulator. And if they allow the bully to run their company into the ground, they may become permanent victims.
Cooking the books
A bully’s manipulation may extend to financial reporting as well. For example, he inflates his department’s revenues through excessive billings, though he knows most of his billings will never be collected. He receives a large year-end bonus as a result. By the time his clients discover the over-billing and refuse to pay their invoices, the bully has gained enough power in the company to survive the sudden drop in his department’s billings.
Or if the bully is particularly clever, he discredits the non-paying clients, then starts playing the same game with other clients. By maintaining artificially high “revenue” for two or three years, a skilled bully can suck out substantial compensation. He may cripple the company as a result, particularly if his increased billings trigger increased hiring and capital outlays. The bully buys a new house, a new car and then moves on to a new job, claiming tremendous success at the company he nearly bankrupted (“And I increased billings by fifty percent in three years”).
Greed is punished
Ultimately, company executives and owners suffer from their decision to allow a bully to have his way. Insolvency, bankruptcy, partnership disintegration and lawsuits are common in the wake of a bully's exploitation. All because of short-sighted pursuit of easy profits at the expense of their employee’s well-being.
Just once, wouldn’t you like to hear an executive acknowledge that he doesn’t really care how his employees are treated, as long as they make him wealthy? At least you could admire his honesty.
5. Effort to appease a workplace bully
Greedy owners and executives who are afraid of losing a profit-generating bully may try to appease him. For example, they increase his compensation and allocate him additional company resources, or even terminate one of his peers. With weak or naive executives, the bully may even manipulate and exploit the situation until he gains control of the company.
As in politics, appeasement is a dangerous approach to dealing with a bully. Even a strong, profitable company can fail after several years of having its values and integrity gutted by a skilled bully.
A toxic work environment usually begins at the top, either through negligence or lack of character and integrity, usually stemming from a naive discounting of the importance of how employees are treated.
Workplace bullying is invisible
Are you surprised that no one can see widespread bullying but you? In this distorted reality, all common sense seems displaced by the almost magical power of a charismatic workplace bully.
When you point out his subtle manipulations, no one takes you seriously. When you report his mistreatment of you, people assume you misunderstood the situation. Even worse, they accuse you of doing something that justified his outburst (“You should be more careful not to trigger him”). When your co-workers have become unwitting accomplices to his devious tactics, you know you are in a toxic workplace.
A skilled workplace bully can adapt to the company culture in a way that makes his destructive behaviors virtually undetectable to bystanders. Perhaps over time he will bully enough people to widely expose his true character, but it is more likely that he will cause the termination of anyone who speaks up, leaving only a trail of disgruntled ex-employees.
If you are in a toxic workplace, don’t fool yourself into thinking you can accomplish much by fighting the bully. You will probably be better off just acknowledging that the people in charge have limited mental capacity and go find a healthier, happier place to work.

source: http://www.kickbully.com/toxic.html

Back in December of 2011, I had finally committed myself to releasing my first and only book thus far. At the time, and even with the assistance of my publishing consultant, they took me for roughly $1000 USD, for production, printing, etc., and thankfully NO substantial advertising dollars. Obviously, I was naïve and trustworthy enough to work with this company, regardless of the money spent, and even the savings offered. I will most likely NEVER work with this company again, given all of the frustration and hardships that I've gone through, emotional and mental difficulties for the most part. Their extreme lack of communication since then has been increasingly evident and very unprofessional in my view. They may still promote where my book sells online; but, that's really ALL that they do for me nowadays. I want NOTHING more to do with these "corporate deviants", which is really ALL that they are, in my honest opinion. I should've conducted better research before proceeding with this project, and I also should've gone with a CANADIAN-based (self) publishing company. I warn all of you to be ever so careful, especially as class action lawsuits also exist!

Their editing and grammar is poor because Philippians work for them. They steal your work, especially through the computer. When I submitted work, they were too busy trying to exclude portions of my writing that it took almost a year. Then, I requested my manuscripts back. When the young lady who received it, sent it back to me, a top supervisor, operating under the CEO at Author Solutions, pulled it back or withdrew my own work I had sent to them as if I had not sent it. It was good that I kept a copy. She also pulled back my copies that I had forwarded to my other emails for safety. That is called Internet fraud.The employees will not allow you to speak with board members to report your concerns. If I hear, see, or am told of any stories, readings, books, movies that have anything to do with my manuscripts, I will own both companies when I finish with them.

My name is Smith Pettis author of the book, Poetic Soul Vol 2: A voice From The Other America. I had self published a book called Poetic Soul in 2002 in Lansing Michigan which did well on a local level considering that it was just a 20 page booklet of about 20 poems. I decided that I wanted to do a more comprehensive book of more than just poetry, but also a biography of my once troubled life as a drug addict for over 40 years as well as the damage that it had brought about through out the years in my life. I also wanted to make social commentaries through out the eras that I have lived. I first learned of Xlibris through research that I did in regards to publishers that allowed you to print on demand by various packages that you could choose from. They started from the very basic packages to more sophisticated ones which offered more services as you went up in price. I started off with the most basic package called the advantage which cost $299.. Once I paid that package, I began to talk with a representative of Xlibris named Ren who began to encourage me to go up in packages to give myself a better chance of getting my work out there to be seen by a larger audience as well as to take advantage of better service that the higher packages offered. I began to pay on the premium package that cost $2, 999 over a 3 year period. The book was finally published in April 2011 but not without it's problems. The worst problem was the amount of typo's that I couldn't get them to correct, because most of the people I talked to couldn't speak proper English very well, plus I kept getting different editors that I could not get to understand what I wanted in the way of the way I wanted the book formatted. I had made it clear for them to not edit my poetry yet they did and butchered the verses. At this point, I was so frustrated that I told them I would do my own editing even though I had paid for them to do it. I finally asked them to do a general work spell check on the narratives which they did not do so that changed the whole dynamics of what the book was supposed to be about, The agreement for payment of royalties is for each quarter which is every 4 months, after a who year and the investment of over $3000, according to Xlibris, all I have sold is one book! Even though reliable people telling me that they have recently purchased copies, some even posted pictures with book in hand! Then to add insult to injury, they call me with these offers to try to solicit more money. In conclusion, I would like to say the Xlibris has proven to be a great disappointment even though on the surface it appears to be a highly professional. Their staff initially seem to be highly competent, but in reality, they are just interns and no one seem to know what the last person did. Their only true objective is to make as much money as they can without much, if anything of their won resources. They have been ripping off the royalties of the unsuspecting such as myself and should be brought to judgement for their unsavory practices as supposed publisher that rips off peoples life work. It is time ti bring these scam artist to justice! I for one am willing to do whatever it takes to see this happen. I want to recoup my investment as well as whatever royalties that they've withheld.

My name is abdelilah belhaouari. I'm native of morocco and currently live in toulouse, france. Last october, 2011xlibris co. Published my book : "a migrant from morocco" isbn: [protected]. Early last february, i asked the company about my book and i got two answers: "updating of sales is under way" and the second answer: "no copies sold". Two weeks later, i asked again using virulent words and the answer (Mr roger olsen) "we apologize...The soonest time possible" we'd have everything done. Two months later, the same contradictory answers and the same lies. They are even able to invent "fake" names to make me think they are many.in fact they are not as many as they pretend they are and their lies are too blatant to be genuine. Now the only solution left for me to claim my rights is to go on a hunger strike. Could please help me? Thank you...The indiana police knows about my story

Go to [redacted] and look up the complaints about royalties, ineptitude, exorbitant costs. Read the New York Times article from 2009 in which Kevin Weiss admits the average sale per author is 150 books and that's all.

" Like the old saying goes Pay your money take your chances." I published my first book with Xlibirs and I will say it was no "walk in the park". I will tell any potential author Edit your manuscript and have the book ready to go when submitting it to any publishing house no matter if they tell you submit it partially done.

I got the publishing package on sale good deal I thought. PLEASE be advised If you can get an IBN number for free and submit your work to the Copy right office for $35.OO vs the 100.00 Xlibirs Charges. Don't be in a Rush to get the book out. Yes the book can take up to six months to publish when they tell you that information.

However, if you have corrections they will get you by trying to charge you extra for every correction in Production. In my case, WRONG. I complained so much but I paid for. Nothing for production corrections and I made additions to my book and I corrected my book myself. Please be advised the published is not there to help you but only MAKE MONEY for the company. If feel its not only XLIBRIS but any company.

The Book overall is Pretty in my opinion but some would say it could have been better in regards to the cover.

In comparison to some other companies well the six free books and marketing material was a deal breaker. An optional service I got was the Google search and the Amazon Book being opening. With Anything in regards to publishing your book let the Buyer beware.

Quite simply, Xlibris is a fraudulent, dishonest and incompetent, disaster zone. Xlibris is nothing more than a quick-buck scam printer, posing as a "print-on-demand publisher", and it has one of the highest complaints percentages for a small business of it's type - with numerous civil legal proceedings for fraud and libel - including one major one that is currently in the Indiana courts and when the judgement is made public in Spring 2011, will likely make the Rebecca Brandewyne/Authorhouse saga look like a walk in the park. (Word is they're going to need to remortgage a few houses to cover the damages on this latest libel case) Xlibris was started in the late 1990s in a parents' basement, and was previously run out of a garage/home office in Philadelphia, but in the last year moved to the Author Solutions call-center with partner frauds, AuthorHouse (which has a long legal history - just Google "Authorhouse Scam" to find out) and Searchforpublishers.com - the quintessential Author trap. As of December 2010, Xlibris owes huge back taxes to the IRS and is currently carrying huge liabilities that Mr Princeton CEO Kevin Weiss has strategized to rescue with disturbingly dubious "publish 2 for 1" / "publish for a buck" coupon deals which any writer, however good or bad, should stay well clear. Their book production is apparently as dog[censored] as their customer service. Piers Anthony, one of the website's English owners who still fronts the scam, is a failed British "published author" and part time con-man who lives in Florida, and has a few skeletons of his own - including a 20-year old criminal record in the UK for serious sexual misconduct, fraud and theft. Yes, Random House does still own a percentage - but let's be clear folks, Random House has a sleeping stake much the same way that Microsoft partially owns the adult services site, Ingenio/Niteflirt and don't they keep that very quiet. RH makes VERY CLEAR that Xlibris books have nothing to do with RH. The Xlibris website contains inept, vague material which is more confusing than helpful, and makes wild inconsistent boasts about how the company has "600 staff" on one page, yet, on another page mysteriously has "300 employees". The company actually has 3 full time employees, (including Mr Ivy League Kevin Weiss), and at any one time up to 10 part time workers, most of whom are part-time college students who know virtually nothing about publishing except high school english and how to make a greasy $10/hour. The problems with printing at Xlibris are as long as Authorhouse's scam history, they are a disgusting company and I'm sorry they ever crossed paths with my work.