Balboa Press Reviews 

It all started out very good, I was really impressed with the people that worked with me. They seemed very helpful and knowledgeable.
When the paperback book was printed and I received a copy, I found it to be really cheap looking and the paper really flimsy. The illustrations seemed to be elongated across the page. This was not something I felt I could tell my friends and family to buy.
The hard copy of the book was better.
The price of the paperback, for the quality provided, was really high. Balboa sent me an email before I signed off on printing the book. They said I could pay more and have the book price reduced. I am so thankful I did not do that. It would have been a waste of my money.
I reached out several times to several different divisions of Balboa Press. Only one person returned an email and the comment shocked me.
She said it was in my contract that outside printers are possibly used. Not once was there any offer to talk on the phone, reconcile this, find out more information.
I waited almost 12 years to publish and always wanted to go with Balboa Press. This was very disappointing.
Thank you

Poor customer service, inexcusable delays, lack of interest in the services provided, the book or the author.
But they did charge my credit card right on time.

After paying approximately $15,000 to publish my books through Balboa Press, I found the overall quality of their services to be extremely poor.
The editing and production standards fell well below my expectations, and communication throughout the process was often frustrating.
The biggest issue arose after I terminated my publishing agreement. Balboa Press has confirmed in writing that they no longer hold any ownership, publishing or distribution rights to my books and that all copyright and publishing rights remain with me.
However, an edition published under the Balboa Press continue to appear on Amazon. These listings have caused Amazon to question my rights to publish my own books independently, resulting in unnecessary delays and considerable time spent proving ownership of my own work.
I have repeatedly asked Balboa Press to have these listings removed. Their response has consistently been that the matter is "out of their hands" because they have already notified their third-party distribution partners.
As the publisher that originally distributed these books, I expected Balboa Press to actively follow up with those third parties until the issue was resolved, rather than simply advising that nothing further could be done.
This experience has been stressful, time-consuming and has negatively impacted my publishing business.
Based on my experience, I cannot recommend Balboa Press.
Follow up - Just in Balboa Press poor style - their answer says "Amazon is associated with your ISBN, not an ISBN owned by Balboa Press" which is absolutely untrue. The hard-copy book in question says Balboa Press as plublisher!

untrustworthy and dishonest the phone number will never be connected it is a scamm publisher in all areas

Blatant scam. They are not publishers and will not pay you for your work. Avoid at all costs and block their number if you have already made contact. They will not leave you alone otherwise.

Title: Cautionary Advice for Aspiring Authors: Beware of Balboa Press

As a first-time author, I want to share my experience with Balboa Press to help others avoid the same pitfalls I encountered. My advice is simple: steer clear of this publishing service, as they seem more interested in your wallet than your writing.

From the moment I published my first book with them in 2023, I was bombarded with sales calls promoting various marketing ideas. Each of these offers seemed designed to drain my finances rather than genuinely support my work. After signing the contract, I received a call asking if I had another book ready for publication. The representative claimed to be very interested in my writing. However, when I inquired if they had actually read my book, their response was disheartening: they hadn’t read it at all! Instead, they relied on hearsay and a cursory glance at the preface.

One of the most disappointing aspects of my experience was the promotional video they created. To my dismay, the video bore little to no relation to my book's content. Even more troubling was the unexpected inclusion of elements pertaining to a specific religion, Islam, which had no connection to my narrative. This left me wondering if they were trying to push an agenda that had nothing to do with my work. The quality of the video was subpar and did not do justice to my book; it felt more like a disjointed attempt at promotion rather than a thoughtful representation of my writing.

My frustration didn’t stop there. Balboa Press sent promotional materials such as bookmarks and brochures not only late but over a year after my book's official publishing date. This lack of professionalism and attention to detail was disheartening.

For all aspiring authors out there, I urge you to think twice before engaging with Balboa Press. Protect your passion and your investment; choose a publisher who values your work and supports your journey as a writer.

Stay vigilant, and best of luck with your writing.

Worst company to work with. Worst customer service. They dont care about their clients. All they care about is getting your money. I had alot of problems through the process and trying to cancel as I cannot work this company at all. If I could give 0 out of 5 rating I would. Stay away from this company.

I will never ever suggest this company to anyone. The service is terrible I am waiting for a refund of my deposit it’s all a scam. Do not use it. I am about to get lawyers involved because they are all about making money.

Inspired me with unrealistic expectations of the services they would provide. Social media advertising yielded 4 book sales out of the many millions of people they would reach. Connecting with possible advertising was zero interest. Editing which was indicated as part of the package was an added extra. Website production was less than average and very disappointing.
Questionnaires I answered in detail to create content were skimmed over and resulted in poor advertising.
Lots of pressure selling promising sales that weren't delivered.
Very disappointed.

If you're serious about publishing a book, I strongly recommend looking elsewhere. My experience with this publisher was incredibly disappointing. They made a number of appealing promises upfront, but the contract included clauses that effectively overrode those commitments, leaving me feeling misled.
One of the most frustrating aspects was the lack of transparency after release. Authors are not provided with any sales data for the first six months, which means you have no visibility on how your book is performing during a critical period. For a publishing company, this lack of communication and accountability is hard to justify.
Overall, the process felt disorganised and poorly managed. Based on my experience, I cannot recommend this publisher to anyone looking for a professional and transparent partnership.

I disliked the fact that since having my book published they pass on royalty payments to a company called Content distributors who neve listen to payment problems. I live and work in the UK, never worked in the states. They send cheques made out in Us dollars which originally I had to pay my bank to cash. I have informed Content and sent two forms that they said they needed. nothing ever done. I pay tax in the UK and yet they are also taxing me in the US. You would think after my original contract is with Balboa they would sort this problem. they have had 5 years to do this, but No!!! I now have received a US tax assessment form...for want of a better name. I can no longer get a foreign cheque cashed or exchanged without losing a huge percentage. Balboa get your act together. I am taxed in US and declared in UK. all for tiny amounts of royalty payments. I can not recommend you at all because you just don't care!!!

I published my book through Balboa Press and want to share my experience so other authors can make an informed decision.
The initial publishing process was not straightforward for me. It took months to complete because of the high upfront costs, and I was surprised at how expensive the service was for what is essentially formatting, assigning an ISBN, and making the book available online.
As someone on a disability pension, this was a significant financial commitment for me. I poured a great deal of time and energy into writing my book. It was a labour of love that I worked on while recovering from cervical spine surgery, which made these costs even more difficult to justify in hindsight.
After publication, it became very clear that their model relies heavily on encouraging authors to spend more money. I was provided with multiple documents explaining that in order to succeed, I would need to invest further into marketing, direct sales, and purchasing my own book stock.
While I understand that self-publishing requires effort from the author, the way this was presented felt more like a sales process than genuine support. There are no guarantees of sales, and ultimately all responsibility falls on the author, despite the significant upfront investment already made.
I also requested a small number of author copies for personal use, and the pricing offered was extremely disappointing. After printing, shipping, and fees, the cost per book was very close to the retail price, meaning there is little to no meaningful author discount.
Overall, this experience made me realise that you are essentially paying a premium for services you could source elsewhere at a much lower cost, while still being expected to handle all marketing and sales yourself.
I would strongly recommend that new authors thoroughly research alternatives before committing, particularly platforms that offer more transparency, lower costs, and greater control.

Balboa Publishing a division of Hay House. Don't! Just don't. If you're like me you worked hard to pour everything into your book and now you want to publish it. They took my money in advance and called it subscription so it would be harder for me to get it back. Then they did nothing for six months. They didn't even give me an orientation. Since they had me captive they took full advantage of it by charging e $5,000 for editing 250 pages and would have charged me $12,500 for a voice actor and 11 hours of voice. If you've ever looked up prices you can tell that these are outrageous. But what go the was the utter lack of value they provided. No artistic creativity. No instruction of what they needed from me or what the process is. No communication with anyone where the wait was not 48 hours.

I would not recommend publishing your book through Balboa Press.

My experience with them has now lasted nearly a year and has cost over $10,000. If I knew then what I know now, I would not have made the same decision.

Communication has been one of the biggest challenges. It is very difficult to reach anyone by phone, and most communication happens through email with long delays between responses. When issues arise, you are often directed from one person or department to another, which makes resolving problems slow and frustrating.

I also paid an additional fee for custom cover design. Unfortunately, the design work I received was far below what I expected for a professional publishing service. The revision process was difficult, and I often felt that my concerns about the design quality were dismissed rather than addressed constructively.

During the editing process—which I paid $1,500 for—their editors introduced a typo into the manuscript. Unfortunately, I did not catch the error during the final proof review. I had assumed that after paying for professional editing, errors introduced during editing would be corrected if discovered later.

When I contacted them to fix the mistake after the book had already been printed and promoted, I was told that I would need to pay $350 to correct the error, even though it was introduced during their editing process.

Over the course of this year, I have submitted multiple requests to customer service through email and the contact forms on their website asking for assistance with various issues. Unfortunately, the support has been minimal and slow.

Publishing a book is an important milestone for many authors. Based on my experience, I would encourage anyone considering working with this company to do extensive research and fully understand the process before making the investment.

Bad experience. They took thousands from me. About $3k aud plus and they print your book. But then no sales. They offer you a service that you can actually do yourself. It's quite a scam really.

Balboa Press had been hounding me for years after my first inquiry.
They eventually offered a very heavily discounted price to publish my book. This was a bait.
Unfortunately I engaged with them. They are misleading and deceptive in there behaviour is my experiance.
I stopped the engagement / first payment on the first day. They do not disclose other cost necessary to successfully publish. Its a trap IMO.
I have had to write a letter of demand and the engage my Lawyer just to get refunded for my initial payment.
I strongly recommend ``not`` to do any business with Balboa Press.

Balboa’s marketing service is of very poor quality. I submitted my materials three months ago, and even after chasing them with numerous emails, they were still asking for my documents. All the marketing services were delayed, and communication was extremely poor. Then they produced and released horrible images for a social media campaign without consulting me first. All the money I invested feels completely wasted.

Run as fast as you can. I spent money on a quick publishing and did not sign up for marketing so now i am out of the money i paid for the orginal promise package and no book at all..

Balboa Publishing a division of Hay House. Don't! Just don't. If you're like me you worked hard to pour everything into your book and now you want to publish it. They took my money in advance and called it subscription so it would be harder for me to get it back. Then they did nothing for six months. They didn't even give me an orientation. Since they had me captive they took full advantage of it by charging e $5,000 for editing 250 pages and would have charged me $12,500 for a voice actor and 11 hours of voice. If you've ever looked up prices you can tell that these are outrageous. But what go the was the utter lack of value they provided. No artistic creativity. No instruction of what they needed from me or what the process is. No communication with anyone where the wait was not 48 hours.

Don't waste your time here. And if Hay House is associated with Balboa I would view them with a suspicious eye. I told hay House of my issues and they stood by Balboa. I've gotten $4,000 out of $15,000 so far by working with my CC company. I'm not letting them get away with taking advantage of me. And they likely take advantage of all their clients as I note a preponderance of negative reviews.

I chose Balboa after looking at many Self Publishing options. I started working with Balboa 14 months ago when I published my first book. Since then we have published 4 books together, and are working on a few more!
The guidance I receive from the Publishing Agents help me produce beautiful books that I am so proud of!
Another positive is the price. Self publishing can be pricey, and I found Balboa to be a great value! I have recommended them to others who are on the path to publishing as they are not only great at what they do, they are flexible and kind.