Brace yourselves for an
insanely long post. I know the BBB is of no use whatsoever when it comes to fighting back against deadbeat publishers, but their RPI entry makes for fascinating reading:
http://www.bbb.org/new-york-city/Bu...al-in-new-york-ny-112219/complaints#breakdown
The company now has an 'F' rating thanks to the 28 complaints to which they didn't respond. Here are some of them.
9/16/2014
Complaint: I am an attorney licensed to practice law in the State of Florida. I am representing *** ***** **** of ********** *****. *** **** paid Raider Publishing INR 24,750 and signed a contract to publish his novel on December **, 2013. The book was promised to be published within six months. Their *** **** ******** has been promising to send the edited book for *** ****'s review. It was last promised on February *, 2014, where *** ******** promised the book shortly; however, that was the last communication he received from Raider. *** **** has still not received his edited book and his emails have not been responded to since February *, 2014. *** **** asked me if I could contact them to see what is happening. I tried calling on a few occasions to the number listed on their website and the number is no longer in service.
The consumer himself added: At this time, I have been contacted directly by Raider Publishing International regarding complaint ID ********, however my complaint has NOT been resolved because:
I still do not have the published book but at least they are responding to emails and saying that it will be published. I'm willing to wait a little longer for them. I'll keep you posted.
http://www.bbb.org/new-york-city/Bu...al-in-new-york-ny-112219/complaints#breakdown
I'm willing to wait a little longer for them. This is the sort of childlike, dewy-eyed trust that keeps scammers in business.
5/13/2014
My name is **** ******* and I signed the “Silver Contract” with Raider Publishing International on August **, 2010 for my book A Yankee in Menorca. The Silver Contract cost $1899 USD and I added the extra promotion option for an additional $399 USD. The Silver Contract stated (among other points) the following: • My book would be produced within 365 days of signing the contract. • I would receive 51% of the royalties. •
51% of the royalties? Really? This alone should tell potential customers that they're dealing with a publisher who doesn't understand publishing terminology.
I would receive 15 free copies. • I would receive quarterly reports. Unfortunately my book was not produced within 365 days of signing the agreement; it was not in fact produced until December 2011, which I was not pleased about, but decided it was something that I was willing to accept assuming everything else followed as planned. When my book was available for purchase, I specifically ordered 200 copies in advance (Cost: $2153.85 USD, Sales Rep.: ******** ******, Order No: 03**12-1, Date: March **, 2012) reason being I had organized a book presentation on the island where I live, which had received much publicity across the island. However, much to my disappointment I only received 50 copies of my book in time for the presentation and I sold all 50 of these copies within 10 minutes. After months of calls and emails I received a further 100 copies. During this time, Raider Publishing sent me an email notifying me of an eBook package (Cost: $250 USD, Sales Rep.: **** ********, Date May **, 2012). I paid for this because they guaranteed that it would be up within one month and many people were asking about my book that I had no copies of. I then placed and paid for a second order of 200 more copies (Cost: $2153.85 USD, Sales Rep.: ********* **********, Order No: ******-1, Date June **, 2012) that could be shipped with the remaining 50 copies I was owed. Years have now passed, and I still have not received the 250 copies that I paid for or the eBook option. Raider Publishing International sent me two quarterly statements, but have not paid me any royalties. I sent my requested bank details, but never received a transfer. When I received the second quarterly statement, I asked why the books that I had ordered and paid for during that time period were not reflected in the royalties of second quarterly statement. This is when all communication ceased on Raider Publishing International’s end and my numerous calls and emails have gone unanswered.
Raider offers a 25% discount on all their titles, but this author is surely mistaken in expecting royalties when she buys copies of her own book.
(the books that I order were sold to me but I do not believe they were printed, therefore I am asking for books printed and sold), verified by the ISBN. The different printing houses that Raider Publishing International uses have the number printed available but only to Raider Publishing International as they opened the account. What I am demanding of Raider Publishing International is extremely minimal considering the loss in sales over two years due to lack of copies. I have now to date took part in five book presentations with no copies to sell leaving me feeling rather humiliated and people feeling disappointed. I have no way to contact Raider Publishing as they do not answer or return phone calls or emails.
There seems to be some confusion about POD here - only books that have been ordered and paid for would be printed.
This author paid Raider
almost seven thousand dollars for a book with a typo in the first paragraph and a punctuation error on the back cover. It currently has an Amazon ranking of 3,205,527.
1/15/2014
I signed a contract with Raider Publishing in June of 2011 in which they received 850.00 dollars to publish my novel. It is a three year contract and I was promised free copies of my novel upon release, but have yet to have seen any copies of my book, even though i have sent them numerous emails about it. The first few emails I sent them they responded saying they were sorry and that they would get them out to me ASAP, but as of this date I have yet to have seen anything. Now when I send them emails regarding this I do not get any responses at all. I send them at least five emails a month with no response. Also I am supposed to have access to finding out if my book has made any money and how much and have it sent to me if it has. I have yet to get any responses at all from them regarding my money for my novel, nor where to go to find out how much it has made if any.
So this author gave Salviani $850 two and a half years ago and got absolutely nothing in return.
9/15/2013
I signed a contract with Raider publishing to publish my book. The contract says it should be completed in 365 days. 365 days have passed and each time I e-mail I am told my manuscript is with the editors. I get this same response each time I e-mail them and it is clear by searching the internet that they do this to everyone and keep the money. I request a full refund as even when they publish peoples books people complain that they never see the royalties.
I suspect that this is because hardly anyone except the author, the author's friends and the author's family buy Raider books. Also,
are there any real editors at Raider?
8/27/2013
Raider Publications published my book titled Albagnano the Mirror a few years ago. In August 2012, I received their last communication to me by email regarding my book sales and promotional report for the July-Sept 2011 quarter. That was the last I have heard from them. I have, since that date, August 2012, written emails to Raider and tried to contact them by phone to receive news of subsequent sales and promotional reports of my book without any answer whatsoever. I need some information on the sales of my book status with Raider Publishing, which is why I am writing to you...
This book was published in August 2011 and currently has an Amazon ranking of 8,263,768. Whatever the author paid for 'promotion' was obviously a waste of money.
8/18/2013
I contracted with Raider International, **** ********, to publish my manuscript. the contract was signed on December **, 2012 and payment of $2, 298 was made. As I had signed before the end of the year, I was promissed publication by April of 2013. I finally contacted them in the middle of April as I had not heard from them since I sent threm some additional material in February. Two day after I contacted them I received an edited manuscript which contained numerous errors and was missing some material.
It sounds almost like PublishAmerica, Salviani's
alma mater.
In addition the cover design submitted by them had nothing to do with what had been agreed upon. In addition they failed to consult with a computer graphic designer we had agreed on.
Yes, Adam learned his lessons well!
i lodged a complaint with them via email and did not get a response from them. In fact, I sent them 27 emails and left phone messages 17 times. When I emailed them requesting my money back they finally responded by offering me additional services.
Oh, I'll bet they did.
7/14/2013
I paid over £2500 to have my novel published and now cannot get hold of anyone at the company and they are ignoring my emails and phone calls. I also sent them along with my manuscript two completed screenplays...I contacted them under a different name annd they are still operating trying to sell me the same service of taking money to publish my novel. I have the email and can prove it.
I sympathize with this writer's predicament but why did he or she think that any publisher would be interested in the screenplays of unproduced films?
7/1/2013
I have a contract with Raider Publishing to publish my poetry book. After the book cover design in February I have not heard from them despite sending several emails to request information. I have spent £300, which for me is alot of money and I either expect my contact to be honoured and completed with my book in my hands or my money back in my bank account. I have warned them that I will be filing a complaint.
I doubt if this threat had Salviani quaking in his boots.
4/14/2013
Raider Publishing has published my autobiography and it became available on ** Oct for sale on *********** IRL/UK/USA/CAN. SILVER LINING BY ******* ****** I live in NZ and it is not available here, and I don't know why. Raider are refusing to communicate with me. I was dealing, on ocassion, ** **** ********, or otherwise *********. I have the GOLD PACKAGE CONTRACT which is more expensive but would include receiving 25 free copies ( I have not seen my book in hard copy yet) I have just paid full price to order a copy on line. 500 press releases sent to Local/National Media. 61% of royalties Quarterly royalty payment and sales report. (due end Feb 2013) World wide availability Distribution to their network of 25.000 retailers. 5yrs of distribution TV/RADIO Advertising Campaign Book submitted for shelf space consideration Book broadcasted in podcast from on itunes. interview/feature in the Raider Literary mag Book signing arrangements.
Most of those 500 press releases probably ended up in the nearest waste paper basket (or were deleted as spam if they were sent as e-mail), authors receive
100% of their royalties, sticking a book on a bookstore website is not distribution and books don't get onto bookstore shelves because the publisher submits a copy for consideration. Oh, and the only people likely to listen to Raider podcasts and read the Raider magazine are other Raider authors. In most cases these people are your only market, just as PA authors used to buy one another's books. It's as if the inhabitants of a small village tried to make money by doing each other's laundry.
I have e-mailed Raider advising them I would be contacting you if I did not hear from them within ten business days. That expired on ** Feb with nothing but silence as a reply. I could have had the book printed myself but it was the exposure and advertising (not to mention 61% royalties) that attacted me to Raider.
The exposure and advertising offered by Raider are worthless. And no, please don't mention the
61% royalties or I may scream.
Surely we can turn this into a win-win situation for us both.
The only winner here is Adam Salviani.
I wish to receive what was promised me. I paid half the money up front and the other half was due when the book went to print.
Your book didn't "go to print" - Raider is a POD operation.
No one asked me for the other half and quite frankly I don't know if there is anyone running Raider Publishing or not, anymore. I have left voice mails and e-mails and they were very diligent for the first 6mths or so and then things started to slide. Where do I go from here?
You start writing a new book, which you will send to publishers AFTER doing your homework into how real publishing works.
I would like a phone call explaining what the problem in communication with me is. What advertising have they done for Silver Lining? Why is it not available in NZ? Where are my 25 free copies? I'd like the first quartly sales report/royalty cheque. Interview for the Literary Mag etc. What else is possible?
This book currently has an Amazon ranking of 4,746,481. Dear author, you could probably have done a better job by publishing your book through CreateSpace and saving yourself a lot of money and heartache.
4/5/2013
Sir/Madam, I am an Indian, 20 yr old writer who wanted my debut novel to be published by a good publishing agency. After searching for publishers and approaching a few publishers including Raider Publishing International, one evening, I got an email from Raider Publishing International confirming that they would like to publish my work.
I'm willing to bet that your search was conducted entirely on the internet and that most, if not all, of the publishers you approached were vanity presses.
They sent me the contract form and specified that they would publish the book if and only if I give them the funds required for publishing based on the package of publishing method I choose. So, I chose their Bronze package of publishing and sent them Rs.45000 (Indian currency) through bank transfer of the funds. They confirmed the receipt of the funds and the manuscript. I signed their contract on *** April 2012 and sent them the funds before **** April 2012. The publishing agency owner- ******* ******** used to communicate with me through emails and he even assigned a personal assistant named ******* ******** who would assist me through the whole publishing process. But after that, they completely ignored my mails asking for updates about what is going on with the publication process... I even sent them a mail asking them to at least respond to my email or I would complain to the authorities. Still there was no reply from them. I have to answer to my parents whose money I had used to send the Raider Publishing International as funds for publishing my book. But no one is responding. The contract stated they would publish my book and get it to the stores within an year of signing the contract.
Get it to the stores? A POD book? Only if you went to the stores yourself and begged managers to put a copy - one you'd paid for yourself - on the shelf for a trial period.
They said they would send me the proofread manuscript, cover design, book design, etc before publishing it. The stipulated one year will be over in a month and still there is no news from the publishers and no response for any emails or phone calls. I want Raider Publishing International to publish my book within the stipulated time, as agreed and signed in the contract...I want them to respond to my emails and calls, update me regularly with the details of progress of publication process and complete publishing my book and get the products to the stores within three months.
This isn't going to happen.
I want them to give my royalties of 51% upon publishing and subsequent marketing as said in the contract without any fault.
*SCREAMS*
3/30/2013
I signed a contract on june *** of 2012 with raiders publishing stipulating that they would publish my book titled The Little fFount withn 6 to 8 months. The contract also stated that I would be rovided with 5 copies of the book. The 8 months have come and gone. I have tried to contact them several times via phone and email to inquire as to the status of the progress but have received no response.
If the book in question is
The Little Fount by Mr A R Teixeira, published by CreateSpace in October 2013, I hope that Raider reverted the author's rights before he went the self-publishing route. It currently has an Amazon ranking of 5,368,021, which compares favourably with those of Raider books that supposedly had the benefit of promotion and marketing.
3/23/2013
I took out a contract with Raider Publishing in 2010, they stated that they were going to advertise my work in local newspapers, magazines and follow up promotional events which I arranged but never had any support from them. I emailed many times with regards to Waterstones wanting to buy in my work but no response. I set up a false email posing as a new client wanting to purchase a publication package and within the day of submitting I heard from ** ********, so it goes to show he is only interested when its a financial gain to his company. When I told him it was me and I didn't hear from him for over 6 months to the year, he threatened legal action against me and told me not to contact me again...I have had some communication with RPI but as usual through a false name and email. I am trying to contact **** ******** and say that I want to have my book The Field Trip canceled but I have heard nothing from him. The only way to hear from him is through a false email.
This is an odd one. A Raider book entitled
The Field Trip was published in August 2011 - was the author unaware of this? The book currently has an Amazon ranking of 5,633,002 and apparently suffers from poor editing. There's no Look Inside feature but one of the reviews has this to say:
The action was non-stop and entertaining. However, it is very apparent that this was written by someone British as the dialogue was full of British slang...which I found amusing for the most part. I must point out, however, that it really could have used one more trip through an editor, but the story is engaging enough to make up for it.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1616673087/?tag=absowrit-20
As is so often the case, I’m torn between offering these authors a stiff drink/comforting mug of cocoa and hitting them repeatedly with a lightly padded clue stick.
