Balboa Press Reviews 

Efficient, professional and gives you what you want. This is my 3rd order and I’m happy. 😃

Virginia, Brandon, and Jose each and all went out of their way to assist this old woman who thinks she's got something to share with the world, or at least with some in the world of simple spirituality.

Horrible company. Overcharging and lack of customer service

Exciting to have my books in print. Thank you to everyone who helped along the journey. I wish each of you a truly lovely life on every level.
Best wishes,
Ann Marie

I gave Balboa Press the cover, and they messed it up. The person I was dealing with misunderstood what a “cover page” was.
I gave Balboa Press the manuscript and they put a bunch of spaces in between a lot of words. I had to proofread it all over again and find their mistakes. Which took hours.
I gave Balboa the book the first week of January. now it’s the last week of February and they still don’t have my website up or my marketing complete.
The distributing error February 7 Balboa put it on Amazon but didn’t release it to them, by accident. Or it could’ve been the fact that they gave them the wrong “about the book” & the wrong “about the author”, and had to re-release it.
So the first 10 days worth of orders people were told their Book wasn’t coming until August. Then people were unable to order at all. This was unknown to me and I was still marketing the book. It was a very embarrassing situation for me.
Then yesterday, February 20, Some people that fell through the cracks had their Amazon orders fixed.
But some people are still showing their books don’t arrive for seven more months.
And I single-handedly discovered all the errors and made the emails and phone calls to have them fixed. It was a 45 day daily nightmare. The senior publishing consultant completely abandoned me during that & the only one who could get things done was the operations manager. Even though I was the victim and paid a lot of money for their service, their people have been rude & even treated me as if I am the problem. I’ve never seen a company so negligent.
Now that I have discovered the Operations Manager I hope my customers books will be shipped to them from Amazon next month instead of in seven months. But some people say when they view, the money they Paid, on Amazon it still says August delivery.
I should’ve self published. It would’ve been so much easier than dealing with the stress of this awful publishing company.

I was pleased most of the time. However, there was a period of a month or so when my queries were not answered. Mike, my agent, had left and no one picked me up and my emails were ignored.

I'm constantly hounded to invest more money for promoting my book when I've already spent more than I originally intended.
Also I asked one of your employees what the wholesale price was for a bookstore to purchase directly from Balboa Press. her answer was that booksellers pay the retail price.

Clear and prompt and friendly, professional, plus quality printing, especially the cover. My favorite combination.

Expedience, concern for partnering with the author to produce a quality product

From just about the very beginning the whole process was a nightmare. From being bombarded with phone calls trying to upsell me (although I purchased the right plan for me initially), to not understanding I was working 12 hours a day before I could work on this, to getting 'urgent' phone messages when there is no urgency, to bombarding me with up to six phone calls within a three hour period so I stopped taking their calls, to switching their phone number to try and contact me another way, to being spoken over by Allan continuously, to not being listened to, to being totally ignored when I told them I didn't want any more upselling (and then I didn't receive any news about my book)....truly the worst service I could have asked for. Managers wouldn't contact me so I then went to Hay House to voice my opinions. They communicated with Balboa Press then got back to me saying since my book had now been signed off, then everything was ok. No, it wasn't. Poor service, inability to empathise with this author, demanding consultants who obviously get paid when they 'sign off' their part of the process. It would have been different if the managers would have listened to my concerns. I do not trust them and will not use them again. I am already in consultation with another publisher.

Pushy and salesy.

Unfortunately, my experience with Balboa Press was one where I felt inferior as an experienced Writer and Author.

Carl, was pushy and salesly. He continued to give me timelines and continued calling for an answer. When I decided that they were not the publishers for our book, he told me it was 'not a loss to them'.

What a disgraceful way to treat someone.

We are not numbers, we are people.

Shame on Hayhouse for allowing this to happen under their name and brand.

Everything from start to finish was a disaster.

Excellent experience!

Exciting and encouraging!

It was a very pleasant experience- it is my first publication, and the level of cooperation and assistance is superb! Staff very prompt and so positive I am encouraged to start writing my next book!

Thus far, using this company has been a major disappointment. I wish I had read more reviews and trusted my instinct when I was told I was getting a one day special on my package. At every step and interaction, instead of what was supposed to come with my package, I got another salesperson trying to upsell me. Worst of all, they barely do, or don't do the things that are supposed to be included. The so-called marketing proposal is nothing more than a template. The so-called press release looks like an AI driven write-up. The fact that I actually got the book is only because I had to push and push to get each piece done. Above all, the communication is a disgrace. Plenty of emails from "team members" that may not even exist! Most ironic of all is that they're constantly sending out surveys on customer satisfaction - what a joke. Save your money and go elsewhere!

I will add to this review that the day I published this, they put in this reply. They have done nothing to rectify the situation. In fact, I called and wrote to several more departments. No response. I will be reporting them to the Federal Trade Commission, Attorney General of Indiana and literally anyone else who may have an interest in their "fraudulent business." Let me be clear. This is not a business. This so called company is little more than a bunch of salespeople and people with less experience publishing than first graders with a coloring book.

Great finished book Great people to work with

Why do I need to be coached as what to say
I said what I said meant what I said.

I had a wonderful experience with Balboa. The whole process was simple and fluid. Each assistant was super helpful, friendly, and responsive to any questions I had.

I really appreciated the extra help with marketing ideas.

From other reviews I was worried about hard selling on extra add ons, but that wasn't my experience at all. I had a great call with a marketing director who offered awesome ideas + a great marketing package that I will do later. So they will try to sell you on extra marketing but they respected my decision and I felt no pressure.

Also for first time authors... My book had been revised several times and edited before I started the process with Balboa. They didn't make suggestions on any edits - so you need to feel very confident about your manuscript.

My publishers were friendly, helpful, understanding, and the process went smoothly. I felt very appreciated and they were kind to me. Balboa Press is pretty easy and simple and I am thankful for my team. Thank you for this opportunity and overall I am very happy with my decision to go through them. Namaste!!! Kat

This company is beyond a joke. They take your money and want nothing to do with you ever again. Save yourself and go elsewhere.

Balboa Press and their associated companies fell short in many respects. A long time to reply to requests for information and to follow up and implement what was agreed. Books arrived weeks after they should have been shipped. Changes to book internal and external finalised months after changes submitted and only with several rounds of follow up. Spelling mistakes found due to low English skills of those working for the firm. Constant calls from high pressure sales people to keep selling marketing packages costing thousands of dollars with questionable impact given how many books are on sale around the world. The company appears to be taking advantage of people’s dreams particularly those of older customers writing their life stories.