"Customer service was quick to respond"

Customer service was quick to respond. When I needed to clarify something, I expressed it in writing and asked for confirmation. My order for books was handled quickly.

"Valuable learning experience."

My publishing services contact (Samantha Anderson) was outstanding! She was responsive to all of my needs and communicated well. My check in coordinator (Renzo Cameron) was also outstanding.

I was disappointed by the lack of availability and response from my publishing consultant and marketing consultant after they sold and up-sold services to me. I am new to publishing and believed they would provide more guidance.

Overall, I was satisfied with the process and the end product - my first published book!

"The services were timely"

The services were given in a timely fashion by competent, polite people. It was a pleasure working with them.

"Overall experience"

Overall, I would give my working experience with iUniverse three stars. The company is helpful when I call them, but falls short when it comes to answering emails and texts. They are very big on selling me more marketing tools for thousands of dollars when I have already paid thousands to get my book self-published. I really thought they would do more in marketing it. That is disappointing.

"Good but could be better"

While everything was done well, efficiently, and professionally, there are two things I did not like. The first being editing being charged separately. For any future and aspiring authors who may write a lot may be hesitant to publish with iUniverse due the the high cost of editing. If editing needs to be charged separately, at least have a fixed rate so authors who may write half a million words such as myself may not find themselves in a tough financial situation. The second issue is not being told that my card was charged for a payment installment for marketing of the book. I had stated that I couldn't pay one month and that I would be given a month relief to not pay, but the following month, I was charged with no sign that I would be charged. No call, no email, nothing. 1,500 dollars is a significant amount of money to not have anyone say anything to the person paying.

"Frustrated and disappointed"

Process was very frustrating. The sales people were great - very enthusiastic, encouraging, knowledgeable and professional. But, the company personnel who actually did the work were arrogant and under qualified. I paid for support in areas of my weakness, and what I received was poor quality work. I felt helpless throughout this process. When I pushed for answers, they stopped responding.
Recently, I requested a refund for an overpayment of almost a thousand dollars. Customer service keep sending me to the marketing manager who is not responsive.
The personnel that worked with me, all along the way, made getting my book published more difficult than it had to be. I felt like they worked against me rather than with me.
For example, the images that were created for me. When I gave feedback, it appeared that I communicated with a different person each time. For months I struggled, as my frustrations mounted, with what appeared to be resistance or lack of comprehension to my vision for the images. The team lead became argumentative. At that point, I accepted the rendering. Although, one in particular was not completed satisfactory. I just wanted to move the process along. This was the type problems that I experienced all along the way. I spent a lot more money to correct things in the book that the professionals were paid to help prevent. A very tough and expensive lesson for a first time author. This could have been a much better experience for all if quality was the driver instead of profits.
Date of experience: May 2022 - November 8, 2022. These dates are given because of the still not resolved overpayment, mentioned earlier.

"editing wasn’t what i expected"

I thought that there would be a person reading and editing my book. It was just a machine, I didn’t like that

"To many hidden fees"

I did like being surprised with all of the additional fees and the final exterior was not what was agreed upon.

"Excellent reliable service."

Excellent reliable service.

"Everything went great"

Everything went great! I universe did a wonderful job with my novel. I would definitely go through their publishing again and recommend them to others as well. Thanks again.