Bookpal

A reliable Australian publishing company – Everything is done efficiently and effectively in Australia and not through some overseas call centre. Furthermore, royalty payments from overseas and within Australia are timely.

Before publishing okay - after publishing appalling – I published a book with Bookpal in 2011. Their initial, pre-publishing performance was satisfactory - not great, however okay. You do have to stay right on top of them for editing (I ended up doing it myself) an page layout- (which I also ended up doing myself) However since publishing service is nearly non-existent. As for getting royalty payments, well that is a story. The book we published sell quite well within its target audience mainly by word of mouth and mainly outside of Australia. Payments amounts were okay when the A$ was high, now I the A$ has lowered they have started to pay US$ as A$ equivalent. This is very dishonest. The explanations, when it comes, are rambling nonsense. As for getting payment - well the book is doing well so our royalty payment is above the threshold of automatic payment, so I have to contact them and request payment - that takes a long time coming. A very dishonest company I find. Don't bother to work with them.

September 6th 2016 Update: Bookpal - now trading as iStar Publishing - do not use them

Bookpal Australia P/L went into receivership in February 2016, owing it's authors thousands of dollars. They are now trading as iStar publishing, with the same bad business model, and are still charging a lot of money and not providing what they say they say they will offer. Deal with [name removed] and [name removed] at your own risk - they did not inform people that Bookpal was in receivership and were still extracting money after the receivership date - against all the rules of receivership.

Not good service – I contracted Bookpal to publish my novel, and they were very helpful at first. But once I paid my money, they were very slow to do each stage in the process. They did do what they promised, but slowly. Each review of the book brought more problems that needed fixing with yet another review. I assume this is because some of the programs they must use (to keep their costs down) are automated. Whole chapters would be italicised. Headings became body text. The proof reader, who was very pleasant and complimentary about my book, missed dozens of errors. What made the experience worse was that I could never be put through to the person handling my book. They would, every time, need to call me back. Sometimes they didn't. In the end, as my launch date approached and they told me the book would not be ready in time, I demanded and received a partial refund, which I appreciated. I took the book elsewhere and printed it myself. My distributor, a man of many years' experience in the industry, was clear that print-on-demand companies of this sort were not the best way of publishing. He put me onto a printer, and handled the e-book himself, and this was done withing two weeks, and in time for the launches. The book has become relatively successful. Let me say to other authors: there are no shortcuts to a good story here. Find your own distributor, designer and proof-reader. My experience was not good with Bookpal, although I am sure they do not intend it to be a bad experience. Indeed the horror stories I have heard from other companies are much worse. They don't charge much. Just don't expect much.

Slow. Inefficient. Proof-reading poor. Communication bad.

Very Positive Experience! – I had written books before trying Bookpal, but I have never been as pleased as I was with this company. Bookpal took my work seriously, unlike the other companies I had tried in the past. They gave me feedback, edited, and published my book. In my previous experiences the process was tedious and overwhelming. With Bookpal, while sometimes calls were returned a bit late, they were always returned. I've had no issues with royalty payments either...I've always been paid. Took my work very seriously Calls returned late

Bookpal Publishing Experience – After much research and evaluation I chose Bookpal to publish my second book. I was actually quite pleased with my decision. After using another local company (which I won't name) for my first book. I was quite happy with Bookpal's service which was superior. The good thing about Bookpal is that I was always talking to the same customer service rep who knew the status of my book. They were always patient in explaining things to me especially when I had a problem or two understanding what was required of me. They really bent over backwards to help me when I had some issues with my press release which they revised twice until I was happy with it.

I was also quite impressed with the welcome letter and the congratulations package that they sent to me. It wasn't expected but it was a nice gesture.

You also get the feeling that the company really wants to help you to succeed, they seem to keep innovating and creating new services which are quite useful for me.

I certainly plan to use Bookpal for my next book. Flexible, quick to respond, excellent customer service, innovative company, value for money Some parts of their website for customers can be improved, I'm told they are launching a new system soon though!