Balboa Press Reviews 

As a first-time author, I found comfort in knowing Balboa Press was a solid company focused on self publishing. I found their sales people very helpful in knowing the process and services and answering my many questions. I chose a medium level publishing package and 9 months later was able to upgrade to a higher level a the same discount rate. I appreciated that flexibility. After I wrote my manuscript and uploaded it for the layout process, all of my questions were answered but there was not a lot of hand-holding. The rep seemed very busy did his job well, however. I found Balboa beat all their committed timelines significantly, which was a real plus to keep things moving and get my book on the market. One miss that surprised me was not getting officially notified when my book was made live on Balboa Press (or Amazon or B&N). I found out as I was working with a Balboa person to order my author book copies and I asked what his perspective was and he indicated "it's probably live right now"...and it was. Two days previously. I recognize Balboa cannot control when those other online booksellers go live, but I did not know when Balboa went live either, which would have cued me to look for the others. Given the importance of that date, I felt flat-footed. I am now in the early marketing phase of my book using Balboa...no review to provide as of yet. Overall, I have been very satisfied with Balboa Press.

Quick response to communications and the books that I ordered arrived in my country before the estimated delivery time.

Prices are too high. I felt that they haven't really done anything, other than making the format of the book. I haven't received my business cards even though it was in the package. I've sent a mail about it and haven't gotten an answer.
Before this they were quite quick with answering mails though but apparantly when the book is online, they don't answer.
For the price I paid I'd expect they would review the book, get at least some marketing and more distribution. I'm disappointed.

Well your company has held onto 15k of my money for over two years.... and used excuses that are not valid

Hi, thank you for this moment. For helping me write my very first book. Very much appreciated. Thank you once again for your help at Balboa Press. Great job!

Every phase of getting the book published was handled with fast, friendly, efficient and professional service. I would recommend Balboa Press to anyone.

For the most part, my experience was good. There was timely flow of communication and very kind and respectful support. I am most disappointed in the final editing process. I needed more help discerning the final edits and am not pleased with the final product of my book because of that. I either didn’t know how to communicate that I needed more help or guidance or was becoming overwhelmed at each task. I also got confused when other entities like marketing and book printing called. They were great people, but I don’t think I truly understood that if I bought the biggest package, that there would be significant (for me) additional expenses involved. All in all, there was great kindness but the end of the writing/editing process was overwhelming and I felt confused when marketing called about purchasing other packages. The staff are all extremely respectful and kind. With that said, if I were to self publish again, I would strongly consider Balboa.

Balboa Press was so helpful in assisting me at all stages, to get my work published. I found the staff, each one, to be helpful, kind and infinitely patient. Upon completion of the work, I received a wonderful email from them, encouraging me. I now feel I can claim to be a real "author". Thanks to Balboa for making my dream a reality.

The Balboa team has been simply amazing for all the attention to detail, customer service, editorial review, graphic art design, and support. I have had the privilege to author four books published by Balboa and each subsequent publication seemed to be better than the previous ones. Thank you, Balboa Press, for your total service package. I was very pleased with the experience.

For the most part my experience was good, but at times difficulty in reaching people who I was meant to be dealing with was a bit frustrating.

I have had competent handlers

Balboa assigns representatives that stay with you throughout the writing and publishing process from start to finish. I love this about Balboa. They do what they say they’re going to do. The author needs stamina and must be well motivated to work through all the details of getting the manuscript completed and uploaded.
I was not as please with the final aspects of design, especially. I felt that close attention was not given to some things, so I had to make requests, which were granted. Royalty percentage is low. Be aware. Overall, I’m happy with balboa services because they have expertise in so many areas.

AWFUL experience. I am the author of Tuned In to Being. This company lacks integrity under the guise of love and light to simply financially benefit. My experience was a 16k scam and manipulation from their senior publishing consultant Brian Adamson. Do not trust this company with your hard work and pure energy.

The final product is great and even though there was a lot relative to getting permissions on quotes and images it was worth it. The only issue is communication from the contact person Lucas to the editting dept. was slow and many times inaccurate. It took almost two years to finally get this book done.

I was extremely pleased with every facet of the process of my book publishing experience with Balboa Press. From the first contact with my sales rep to receiving the printed books, I was guided by knowledgeable helpers at each step of the way. The entire process took a little over six weeks. It would have been much faster if I hadn't taken extra time to re-edit my manuscript. I was extremely pleased with the design of my book and the extra touches that made the printed version look very professional. I would recommend Balboa Press to anyone who is thinking of self-publishing. They are reasonably priced as well as helpful and efficient. They do make their money with their marketing services, so I would suggest that you weigh the cost vs. benefits.

I paid for a expensive marketing plan and I cannot get Kean Wilson to respond at all. He's the second marketing person assigned to me, no idea what happened to the first one but she didn't respond either. I call and email and nothing. They are very eager to sell their service but lack greatly in work product outlet and customer services. I won't use them again.

I worked with Balboa Press on my cookbook "For the Love of Shabbos" (Favorite Shabbat recipes from my home to yours.) Everyone I interacted with at Balboa was kind, courteous, and professional. They helped me bring my legacy project to life. Thank you!!

I do not recommend. The quality of the printed book is poor. I was also hoping for a better experience with the support.

I am really disappointed.

Balboa press is very good in the sales process, but very bad in customer experience. Here are some examples based on my experience using Balboa`s services.

A good salesperson would tell a potential client if Balboa’s services are really suitable for an author that writes and promotes her book in Spanish and that does live in America (I live in Colombia). A good publishing partner, in my case would have contemplated that doing all the publishing process in America is too costly and would have advise me not to continue with the sales process. Instead, I felt like I was just a “sale”.

Another thing that I experienced was that the support from Balboa throughout the process was not timely. I wrote a lot of mails practically begging for someone to answer my emails, taking into account that they rarely answered within the 48 hours which is the establish customer promise for replies.

They promised that I would publish and have all the marketing materials ready in a period of 3-4 months, and it took longer. The publishing was ready by the 4th month and all the marketing support material was ready two months later. It was a really slow process based on ineffective back and forth communications.

The cover design of my book was the art that I sent as reference for Balboa to use as a basis to design. They didn’t do any improvements on my design and sent me 99% of my original design.

I bought the services mainly because I thought that the press release made in America to Spanish speaking people would signify an important boost for my sales due to Balboa`s 500 media outlets. I’m not really sure that a press release written in English to promote a book written in Spanish is the most effective way to promote it. To date the results are dismal- 124 media outlets that opened the mailing, 0 have contacted me.

Regarding the reporting of sales status, to this date, close to a month post launch, I have not received any report on how many books have been sold.

My natural market is Colombia. As you know, many readers prefer to read a physical copy. Since my readers are mainly Colombian, this shipping cost from the US represents to them more than 50% of the cost of the book, making it not very attractive to purchase. Another reason why I should have been advised not to purchase Balboa’s services.

Conclusion, as I said I think that these services were not really suitable for an author like me, I would have expected from Balboa more care and understanding in advising me regarding the purchasing of the services.

Based on this terrible experience I request a full refund of what I paid

Balboa is timely, supportive and authoritative when working with authors. My experience with three books has been consistently of high quality and professional