Archway Publishing Arvostelua 393

At the end of 2024, and the beginning of 2025, I paid Archway Publishing $11,202.20 for a marketing plan for my book, Good Night Vietnam, From An American Army Rebel With A Cause. The book was finally published on September 30, 2025. Subsequently, I refused all facets of the marketing plan that were offered. Now, despite my numerous emails and calls to individuals at Archway during the last two months, I still have not received a refund or a response from Archway.
I wish I had seen the awful reviews about Archway that I recently read. I should also have again published with Amazon KDP, which previously published two of my books. I only went with Archway because it was a Simon and Schuster Company.
As a Vietnam vet with PTSD and suicidal tendencies, this situation is exacerbating those tendencies.

They are terrible to work with and hard to respond when you have questions. Avoid at all cost, no pun intended.
They do zero work when it comes to marketing, unless you want to pay even more.

The book is "Life Within a Big Box," by Megan O'Hara, copyright 2020.

As a reader of a book published through Archway, I definitely wouldn't recommend writers use Archway. There are several obvious errors, such as spelling the same person's name differently. "Carley," and "Carlie," for example. Also, leaving out words in a sentence such as "I went to talk them," needs "to." Such errors are throughout the book.

After I had already signed the contract, I came across a negative review on trust pilot, then several more, all posted recently. Prior to those, they were all 4- and 5-star reviews. The most common comment was about communication. Needless to say, I was concerned and reached out to my contact for reassurance. That was three weeks ago. Now, I can add my review to the mix. I have been overwhelmingly happy with Archway. They have been supportive every step of the way and after just three weeks, my book has undergone final proof and is about to go off to the printers. The marketing plan they provided has been especially helpful and I'm now working diligently to follow it.

This should be a zero-star review. Alas, I'm only allowed to go as low as one star.

If you think you are signing a "work for hire" publishing contract with Archway Publishing, think again. What does that mean (what SHOULD that mean)? In a standard "work for hire" agreement, if you pay someone to create something for you, you (the hiring party) remain the legal author and retain 100% copyright ownership of that work. Unfortunately, this publishing company is shady about the way they use this term in their contract. Authors need to understand this before signing on to work with them—PLEASE!

In Archway Publishing contracts, the "work for hire" term is applied selectively, and this is where the confusion (the "trap" for indie authors) lies because it only applies to "Custom Illustrations." The contract goes on to create a separate category called "Our Work Product" and indicates that "Our Work Product" does not include the "Custom Illustrations." They further state that "We remain the sole and exclusive owner of all right, title and interest, including copyright, in and to Our Work Product and Our Property." The "Our Work Product" category includes the book design, book cover design, graphics, and other content that they create to put the book together.

Archway Publishing tells you that you can hire your own marketer to help you sell more books. Sounds great, right? But your marketer may need high res files in order to create posters and other marketing materials for you. Too bad, so sad! You probably can't have it! Archway reserves the right to only supply .PDF files (which may not be usable for jobs that require high res files), and you are "locked in" to them for fulfillment (printing and shipping the book), too. This is the problem my marketer is having with them. We now realize it is far too expensive to print/ship from the USA to Canada, but we're stuck using them, and they don't have a Canadian partner to help ease those costs. We'll never recoup all these publishing, printing, and shipping costs in book sales—not without severely overpricing the book. What a nightmare!

What does this mean for indie authors who use their services? It means that if you ever try to terminate this agreement and take your book to a different publisher/printer to save costs, Archway will retain all the working (InDesign/Illustrator) files, and you will only receive stripped PDF files that are useless to you. Oh, and by the way, they own the ISBN, too. You will have to completely redesign a new/different book and get your own ISBN for it. Although you retain copyright ownership of your original manuscript (the original words you wrote and had edited by them), you'll still have to start again from scratch by having those words formatted into a new book with a new ISBN. Ownership of the version Archway Publishing helped you with is forever split between you and them.

This is NOT entirely a "work for hire" contract. Far from it! Buyer beware! Make sure you have a lawyer look through publishing contracts with you before you ever sign one with anyone. There are all kinds of tricky ways a publishing/printing company can trap you. (The same goes for graphic designers. Be aware of that. Ask lots of questions before you hire anyone to help you create your book. Make sure all your contracts are truly "work for hire" contracts before paying thousands of dollars.)

Traditional publishers who are paying all the costs to produce and distribute your book for you are the only ones who should be retaining any portion of the copyright ownership of your book—but only the parts of the work that they actually intend to sell (for example, only the paperback rights or the ebook rights). When a company like Archway Publishing makes the author pay thousands of dollars for publishing, printing, and shipping, and then also takes "the sole and exclusive ownership of all right, title and interest, including copyright" of that work away from the author, let me tell you that is beyond underhanded. That should be illegal!

P.S. I saw your reply too late to respond. Trustpilot says: "You can’t submit additional information to Archway Publishing because the deadline has passed." However, I can edit this enough to tell you our "specific concerns" are already indicated quite clearly here. Your "contract transparency" is not a substitute for fair terms. Taking copyright ownership from authors who are 100% self-funded is predatory, regardless of how clearly it is stated in the contract.

Get ready to pour excessive amounts of your hard earned hard to come by dollars into the vast dark abyss never to be seen or heard from again in exchange for very little or nothing in return. My question here is why there are no government mandates regulating code of ethics for these ruthless, unscrupulous vermon
to have to adhere to or do they just have free reign to pilfer & extort funds from trusting & unassuming contractees with impunity. They need to change their name from Archway publishing to Archway plundering....

They have been terrible to work with. They sell you a package up front, auto bill you, then don't provide the services contracted for. I have had to constantly chase down my so called consultant for months who never returns calls/emails. They pretend to be part of Simon and Schuster but it is one big scam. Stay away from these shysters! I am considering legal action now for fraud and misrepresentation against both Archway Publishing and Simon and Schuster. Terrible experience with this scam company. They need to be investigated for fraud and shut down ASAP. I've lost thousands of dollars to this publishing scam.

The worst company that I have ever worked with.
As you go through the company - each person gets worse. This was a nightmare - they refunded me back $1,000 and thought that was ok.
My manuscript had so many errors after I received back from them and I had to pay for the edit. If I had more changes - there would be an additional fee to edit their mess.
All I can say is stay clear of this nightmare of a company - horrible!!!!

Why is someone misrepresenting my novel at Archway publishing I cannot seem to get a appointment to the location

My book " The Generation and Governing of Nested Arrays and 3-Dimensional Arrays" was published 12/19. Last I checked it was 6 books in 6 years.
I went to bookfinder.com. There 181 different bookstores all over the world selling my book. Some (translated into foreign languages) are selling for over $1400 US Dollars. But only 6 have been sold
I tried calling them but the receptionist wanted a phone number I haven't used in over 5 years & refused to give me any info on possible book sales.
Sad thing, I have Volume 2 done but too poor to publish until sales of Vol 1 are in.
So Archway, think of all the money you are losing by not publishing Vol 2 & then cheating me on my sales for that.

I am surprised that a company alleging to be aligned with Simon & Schuster lacks such professionalism. My book published in March, and I am still waiting for my website to be developed. Regardless of how many emails I send, it does not get done. Similarly, it took them ~3 months to publish the eBook because no one on the archway team did their homework and checked that the eBook was completed. I've sent them a detailed demand letter to get a refund (~$3900) for their breach of the Authors Agreement and they simply deflect and say the refund window is closed. They also deflect my request to take advantage of the Arbitration clause in their Agreement to reach some resolution! They hinge their success on the name of a massive publishing house, but they do not deliver quality services or guidance for the cost. Please do not give them your money.

Such a discouraging and heartbreaking process. Terrible communication, tons of editing mistakes, missed deadlines to the tune of almost a year, really shoddy printing (I could have gone to Staples and printed it myself with better results), rude and dismissive employees, and worst of all - when they finally finished the book and told us it was "live" on the website, the link to purchase did not work. We reached out 2x/day for 5 days and heard nothing. We had already sent marketing emails and had a release party. Still waiting for the book to be available for purchase. Stay away.

I was so full of optimism when I stumble upon this publishing company. I was impressed that it was part of Simon and Schuster. I was immediately sold and gave them my $8,000.
Then I sent them my manuscript. It sat on my agent's desk for over a month. When I complained that my agent was delinquent and difficult to communicate with, I received pushback that it was my fault not my agents.
So I tried to work with the agent again. Again horrible communication. Lack of enthusiasm.
I demanded my $8,000 back and received every penny.
Would I work with them again? Probably not. The customer service is horrible. The agents are reluctant. Communication is horrendous.
Apologies from the company do not make up for the soul crushing experience of not having your manuscript published.
I'm now looking for a literary agent.
Unfortunately this heartbreaking experience has put me back.

My book “ In Search of Rain, From Motel Qu to Pittsburgh” was just released. I am so excited. Thanks for the Archway Publishing who helped me to bring my book to the real life. You did a great job! Now, it’s marketing time that I am following up seriously and I'm going to make this book globally!

Archway's refund policy states they will refund 50% of the cost of their publishing package if an author terminates the contract after submission of the ms. but before they begin working on it. I discovered after submitting my ms. that Kirkus won't provide a review to a book published by Archway (I'd already paid for the review)-- 2 people at Archway told me 2 different things about this so I terminated. They charged me the full amount and never replied when I asked for a refund. Horrible service, unethical. I'm still fighting to get $1300 back.

I sent a pristine manuscript with no typos. They made a typo in the table of contents. Repeat: They, the editor/publisher, added an error. They would not fix the error unless I paid. It's an unethical money grab. Do not work with them.

I contacted Simon and Schuster, not being important I was dumped with Archway. I edited and edited, only to have the final version altered, cutting it by 34 pages. The book is poetry, but lines are crammed at the bottom of each page, then comes a page with 4 lines on it. This is not what I paid for or sent them. They decided to alter it to THEIR liking. I notified them to NOT send out any more copies, I am too embarrassed to have people see this 'pamphlet' I intended to be a book. Also, as someone else indicated, I have asked them to withdraw me from the Authors Corner or whatever it's called. I have never gone, yet get charged every month. RACKETT!

Your (Author Learning Ctr) has been charging me $9.99
a month for a year for a service I did not authorize! I was doing my year end taxes recently and discovered this fee. I consider this action sneaky and boarding on a scam. I was forced to have Visa put a stop to this fee today.

Archway publishing is a terrible company. Moreover, I consider them as thieves and crooks. I wanted to publish my first book with them and contacted for that without researching any reviews about them. I know, I made a big mistake. They immediately offered to me their so called package with discount and started to send me emails and calling me everyday, even though I live far away from USA and calls are expensive. Finally they managed to take from me 575$ and I never heard from them since. Communication is extremely poor when it comes to provide any services. I demanded my money back several times but still didn’t receive any cent. Be aware of them and stay away from Archway as much as you can!

OK, so let's start with the process. The process is standardized, and you know where you are within it at all times, this is good and bad. The good side is that you know what to expect, the bad news is that Archway is extremely cumbersome when trying to make change. For every change they charge you money - almost nickel and diming you along the way. I found the publishing team to be nice, but did not offer any value to my book. The marketing team is a disaster, and they offered me absolutely no value whatsoever. I should have used my own team, and I could save money, while getting a better result. As part of your package you pay for reviews, from people who are either incompetent or did not read your book. My guess is that these reviewers are non-English speakers who attempt to write a cogent review but cannot. Overall, I will not use them again.