WestBow Press Reviews 

Sales and marketing teams were thorough and responsive. Production designers took unauthorized liberties that compromised our design. Slow response time from this team.

I signed up for the full book package, $20,000 worth. Then I was told that I would need to spend another $10,000 to get the “real marketing” since the marketing i paid for wasnt going to sell any books.

I cancelled my contract before printing and should have recieved 50% of my costs back, but i am now two months after requesting my refund. I have recieved 4 calls from the publisher, but they hang up if i answer and leave a message if I dont pick up, but give me no way to contact them.

If you are wondering why they only accept money through PayPal, this should have been my first red flag. A common standard for scammers so they dont get blocked by banks and credit cards for fraud.

Yes, they will produce a sub-par book for you for an enormous amount of money, but please do not think they are a Christian company, I realized in the editing process that they knew nothing about the Bible, rather, they are a company who is taking advantage of Christians and thier goodwill.

I spoke with a woman named Karen Stansberry, she was incredibly rude, seemed like she was upset I wasn't immediately sold within moments. Perhaps it's a commission she's after, because the focus was on me choosing a package. She tried to flaunt her "15 years od experience" at me tried to make it seem like using their company was the only option, no one else would give me the time of day, and anything else I might decide to do would be "unrealistic". Then she acted like I was trying to be cheap and said I should go self publish on amazon. The issue is not money at all. She did exactly what she was accusing me of, wanting a reward with no effort. We spoke on the phone around 3:45pm California time on May 19th. If someone working in management for WestBow would listen to our call, I think you'd find it enlightening. Perhaps she was having a bad day, but it was a terrible encounter I had with you guys and an absolutely awful first impression. I've never written a review about anything ever, but after the awful phone call, I had to get in touch somehow with management. I hope you see this. Thank you for your time. I hope you really are good people.

They are in my eyes fraudsters, money lovers with their Christian profile they are forcing out money, I was forced out 1048 dollars and after spotting fake Christian behavior I cancelled, I was not acknowledged about anything without contractual agreement , means it all between us was void, they refunded only 224, still waiting for some fulfilled promise to be paid further 524 dollars. Instead of receiving it, I have received a mail arguing with some conditions in a contract which I have never received (in order to be defrauded). I reported them to be filed as fraudsters on the federal government site, what can it help? It can help other to learn from my feedback as well not to trust even Christians in these end times. The warning is in the Bible and I learned a lesson by losing my savings gained by hard work, lifting heavy packages at work, exhausted and scammed by fake declarations and pretending to be Christian . If you are a real Christian and you would like to avoid scammers getting out from you on the grounds to want to share an important message in your book, rather turn your head to God and stay humble, do not want to publish and to be extorted for your love and respect of God, stay rather humble and quiet and you can avoid scammers to prosper on God’s word. Silent abusers. Why would they explain something, if they can benefit from being silent in communication in order to keep your by hard work earned money.

I sent a complete manuscript to their review editor. He thought my book had real potential and stated that I would have complete and final literary and artistic control of the publishing process. Then the lies began. Their editorial team objected to the use of the word "butted" in the text. My story used animal characters, sheep and goats, that engaged in conflicts butting each other with their horns. Westbow editors insisted that I personally remove the 27;times that I used the word! I had already paid them close to $2,000 and I told them to do it. Then other commonly used word objections began because they were "unwholesome" I complained to the review editor and he ended up leaving the company! That's when I gave up on Westbow $400 lighter in my wallet. Don't touch these people with a 10 foot pole.

You are hopeful since they claim to be a Christian organization. Unfortunately, my experience was not good. The person assigned to me never helped me navigate their process. I had 2 books and spent nearly $5k. After books were ready and my copies sent to me, my family and friends found errors throughout. You expect them to read your book like a true publisher and give you honest feedback. But they do not. They just take your cash. You can go directly to KDP and do it yourself for free. Only you need to format in Word and edit yourself. Free to publish. But you won't be out thousands of dollars and treated like a fool. I have sold zero books even though they "sent" them to companies that should have purchased. My reviews have been good, and my contacts are straight up honest. So not sure where to go from here.

My impression of the agent (salesman) was that he was totally bored with me. It is only about money, $1500 bare minimum. Total scam. The big pitch was they were associated with a big Christian publishing company. Frankly, spending that kind of money for self-publishing is vanity in my opinion.
I had an appointment by phone. If I had been aware of the cost of their packages before I wouldn't have wasted my time or theirs.

I just paid 833 on February 13 and after reading all the reviews I divided to cancel the subscription and they are not canceling it I keep begging them I also asked for a refund and they keep sending me to voicemail saying the only person that does refunds AMANDA is busy or on the phone this is really redundant seeing as they are useing Christian’s to get paid they all will end up in hell and bankrupt Amanda called me and said they would process the refund but still hasn’t happened I asked the to cancel the subscription and that still hadn’t happened now I’m going to have to close my bank account because they are going to take more money when it has only been 3 days since I ordered I asked the same day if I could just cancel and they made me wait for today to still do nothing this is sickening now they are harassing me calling me talking about my review saying if I cancel my card I won’t be able to receive the refund but I don’t want the subscription at all nor do I want them calling me! I just want me money refunded and the subscription cancelled.

When I decided to publish my book, I chose Westbow because they are a Christian publisher connected to Zondervan. My husband, who is a pastor, had faith that they would be trustworthy. My experience has been frustrating and I have encountered many delays. It has been almost 9 months and my book is stuck in production. The people assigned to my project have been pleasant enough to work with and have responded to emails. I had been assured I would have my book by Christmas but with 3 days to go, I have lost hope.

This company is a headache -I am now paying another publisher to edit the manuscript that Westbow had for 10 months. The editing/formatting was not of good quality. After 10 months of Westbow having my manuscript I finally felt that maybe it was best to go somewhere else. I paid thousands of dollars to Westbow Press and when I asked for a refund, I was denied. Westbow Press did not honor their agreement, did not provide services, was difficult to work with - I would advise not to use this company.

I have spent 3 months trying to get feedback and tech help. I was told that they have no tech department. I have low computer skills and mentioned that when they happpily took my money. Now, I NEED a refund and have had my bank dispute 3 charges of over $800. Now, I cannot get them to call me. For a Christian company, I am deeply disheartened.

The two complaints I have about getting my book through the publishing stage is that I was told I had to change some very common and innocent words because they might be offensive (which was ridiculous) and I had to pay to get the price of both hard cover and paperback reduced enough to make them affordable for most people. I was willing to put those problems behind me because when the book came out it was beautiful. Since publishing, however, I feel that I've been pushed off a cliff and left floating in space. Communication has been almost impossible. I had to fight for weeks to get accurate and helpful categories and keywords on Amazon and, after 18 months, I still don't have a website. These have been major obstacles that no decent publisher, especially one that calls itself "Christian," would allow to happen. I have concluded that WestBow doesn't want their authors to succeed unless they can sell them a whole lot of marketing products that they say will bring success. If the author doesn't cooperate, they are simply ghosted. I certainly have been.

THIS IS AN UPDATE TO WESTBOW'S RESPONSE TO MY POST: I did ask for minor changes three or four times before being ready to approve the website. The problem is that it would always take weeks or months of me sending frustrated emails to whoever my contact was (I've had several) to finally get back a response. My last request was for the correction of a grammar mistake that the Westbow Team made on the header of each page. I sent a request for “with a deceitful online scams” to be changed to "with a deceitful online scam" on SEPTEMBER 25. Today is NOVEMBER 19 and nothing has happened since. This is just typical of what I've experienced.

DECEMBER 1 and still being ghosted by WestBow. They promise, but they do not deliver.

JANUARY 7, 2026: Westbow did not “reach out again” as they promised, and I still have no website. The book was published early June, 2024. I think it’s time for an attorney.

June 20, 2026: Two years after publication and I have no website. This is not my fault. I have done everything asked. Quite simply, I have been scammed.

Update: Westbow is corresponding with me now. Thank the Lord. I have a receipt from a customer that is not noted in my sales data from Amazon. Hopefully Westbow will be able to figure out why I am not getting credit for sales.

The actual book was great (hence the 2 stars). What came afterword was horrific...unanswered email after unanswered email. I have proof from my Author Central account that my book was selling (moving on the best sellers list SIGNIFICANTLY), but sales were not reported. I asked for someone to reach out to Amazon or for verification reports because I had many people reach out and say that they had purchased a paperback copy, but that wasn't reflective in Westbow's report. I have concrete evidence that I qualified for the Lighthouse award (that cost me money in my package) and would help my sales incredibly, but Harper Collins flat out refused to honor it and Westbow did nothing to help. I am absolutely helpless... I'm just so disappointed in a so called Christian company. All I am asking for are answers and no one will call or email me or give me the time of day...I paid 10K for this...

The first printing of my illustrated children’s book had color washed out and pages sized I correctly. I paid again to get these corrected but still had sizing slightly off. They set the price and wanted even more money for me just to lower the price. Nice people to talk to on the phone but don’t seem interested in anything but getting more “ investment”.

The best publisher i have ever used. Honest helpful and guided me thru each step. No complaints only thankfulness. Go westbow press and don't look back. Keep up the good work Westbow Press! God Bless Westbow Press!

I researched this company on TrustPilot and I read the less-than-stellar reviews but still gave them the benefit of the doubt because: 1) they were or were affiliated with a Christian company so I presumed they would have ethics; 2) I thought that given the lackluster reviews they would maybe redeem themselves with a new customer willing to give them a chance. Neither of these things was true. I signed an agreement with Westbow Press and paid an initial deposit of $1258.58 on May 1, 2025. I submitted my manuscript on May 6, 2025. I was told by Representative Luther Blackwell that it would take 4-6 weeks to review the manuscript. I emailed on June 2nd asking if there were any updates and received a response on June 3 stating they "were still working on it." I received a payment request on June 1 asking for another installment payment of $445.67. Having been scammed by a fake publisher just prior to signing on with Westbow, I emailed Mr. Blackwell on June 3, requesting that I please get some sort of update on the manuscript review progress before I sent another payment to which he responded "no problem." On Wednesday June 11, I still had not received an update and I requested my contract be withdrawn. Amanda Shoaf reached out the same day and stated I could receive my refund less a $400 termination fee. Reluctant to just loose $400 for nothing, I gave them more time. On June 16, I received the message: "...reviewer got back with us over the weekend. I wanted to let you know that your content edit that you were waiting on has passed." Ok, great! What is the next step? On June 27, I emailed Amanda to let her know I still had not heard from anyone and that the the time it took to process the manuscript was not acceptable and that I would like a refund. On 7/6/2025 I was informed a refund was processed for $428.53. I had resigned myself to the $400 hit, but I guess they felt entitled to the second installment payment for the nothing they did as well. So essentially, Westbow got $830.05 and I got absolutely nothing but disappointment.

Update 7/15/2025: Today I received a check in the mail from Author Solutions which operates Westbow Publishing for $862.40. Thank you.

This is an unsolicited review. I was very pleased with Westbow. They are professional and the final product was great. Sometimes slow at responding to questions but sometimes I was slow at responding to their questions. I would use them again in a minute. Actually I was surprised at how much I got for the money I paid.

The bottom line ... WestBow is a reputable publisher. There are a lot of scammers doing this .... My book looks great and sales have been good. Plan on using them for my next Hebrew textbook.

I trusted that this Christian company would have at least 1 person communicating/editing with my husband before his book went to publication. Sadly it did not happen. The lack of support ended with his first ever book published with so many errors, he is deeply disappointed and humiliated..so sad.
My husband's name is Charles Clint Hittle. The name of his book is "Stories From Behind The Curtain" ISBN # 979-8-3850-3636-3
WesBow rev. Date 10/21/2024

The continue to not pay royalties and they wont release my website.