WestbowPress, A Bigger Nightmare Than The Twilight Zone
I started pursuing options for publishing a book that I was writing 5 years ago. Then I stumbled across WestbowPress. Seeing that it was corresponding with Thomas Nelson & Zondervan, I thought it was worth moving forward with. I had a consult where I was taken through the publishing packages and their details. Once I made the commitment to sign up, I thought I was closer to finally being published. I was getting calls very often. I fortunately signed up when they put the 40% discount, so I signed up for proclaim package. I had numerous conversations with Jana Philips about the package, and what was included, down to the smallest detail. It took me a year to pay for it all, so my book had been sitting around. It began to raise concerns when the only time I would receive calls from them was when they were looking for a payment. Finally, after a year, I went into the editing phase. The editing team reached out to me and we talked. At first, it felt like my manuscript was going in the right direction, then that's when the hidden fossil was found. I was told that the editing for my book would be $2,000 - $3,000. It didn't sit right with me. I asked him if it was necessary to buy their editing services, he gave possible other options, but said their service was professional and that's what my book needed, or it likely wouldn't do well. After the high-pressure upsell, I asked about marketing, which he said I would also need, beyond the marketing that was an addition to my proclaim package. That's about $2,000 more dollars. I trusted the process, so I bought the editing service. What a terrible mistake that was! Once I received my manuscript back, my words packed their bags and left. It was absolutely horrible! I went through my entire manuscript, and there wasn't one chapter where I wasn't fixing something. My entire manuscript was botched! Missing sentences, broken sentences, incomplete sentences, missing words, misspelled words. It took me about a week to fix everything. I wasn't able to finish the payments on it because I wasn't planning from the beginning to buy editing services. And why should I finish payments on something that I had to redo myself. I paid them to clean up their mess they made of my book. They took my money, and I got nothing! Some professional editing service… Here I am, a year later, and my book has still been sitting around. I've addressed the editing to them, and nothing was done. I finally gave up because I don't want my book just sitting around anymore when I can just publish my book myself. That is the best option for anyone looking to publish your book. Go buy your own ISBN, design your cover yourself, or hire someone, use A.I for editing, and learn how to market your book yourself. You'll save thousands of dollars! Westbow is just after your money. Watch how fast they call you when you ask for a consult, or are looking for money, then watch how they communicate and resolve things when there are issues, or you're looking for a refund. After all of this, I decided to withdraw my book. With their pricing, it would've never gotten published. All they're interested in is funneling you through more upsells, and services which costs thousands of dollars. I contacted them for a refund, hoping that, being outside the window for a refund, they would've offered compassion due to the indescribably horrible service I was given on the editing. Did they? No. All I received was an automated email from Amanda Shoaf, with an attachment of the author agreement. Instead of doing a Christian thing after pocketing your money on poor services that they do for your book, they'll put the author agreement in your face. I called billing again after a couple of days with the same story. All I got was, “I'll send an email.” I got the same email verbatim, just as before. So they send automated emails out instead of personally contacting you to address the problem. I cannot, in good conscience recommend this publishing company to anyone! This is what 2 Peter 2:3 warns about; that false believers will make merchandise of you. I'm not saying that everyone who works there is a false believer. But I find it difficult to believe this is labeled a Christian publishing company, but has no morals for how they're robbing God's people. They won't make an exception for you. They don't care about you. They will give you a mess of a service that you pay for, and will not offer any kind of compensation or remedy. This company is fleecing the flock, making merchandise of God's people. They treat you like you're donating charity money when it comes to refunds. What do you say, WestbowPress? Do you think God is pleased with you taking people's money (money some don't have, that make sacrifices to get their book published)?