Founded in 1997, AuthorHouse has helped 70,000 authors publish 96,000 books, and, like iUniverse and Xlibris, it is owned by the Author Solutions brand. AuthorHouse has the privilege of claiming a few renowned novels, such as Amanda Brown’s classic Legally Blonde. 

The company claims to have been founded by “an aspiring author who recognized the need for a simple and effective self-publishing process.” Relatable, right? But who this aspiring author is or was, neither AuthorHouse nor the internet can tell. This was the first red flag.

Who is the AuthorHouse Team?

Another presumably promising AuthorHouse quality comes from the “Meet Our Team” page on their website. 

For many businesses, the team is a great asset. Names to faces can invoke feelings of comfort. 

For AuthorHouse? Not so much. There is no real “team” to meet – just a handful of stock images next to job descriptions. While it’s helpful to understand who you will be working with at each tier of the publishing process, it builds expectations of a personal approach that ultimately falls short. 

Paying for a painful process

AuthorHouse advertises a straightforward process that is perfectly catered to the author’s goal, but we’ll see how true that is. With a 1.28-star average rating on the BBB, AuthorHouse is obviously failing somewhere along the way. 

One customer reported that, following their decision to sign up for the basic package (valued at $999), AuthorHouse called them three to four times a week to convince them to purchase an upgrade. This testimony is the tame version of what others have experienced. For instance, one reviewer claimed to have received three to four calls daily from AuthorHouse “marketing consultants” persuading them to purchase additional services. 

Terms like “harassment” and “predatory” are used to describe interactions with AuthorHouse personnel. To make matters worse, it appears that this harassment only occurs during the publishing process. Once the book is published, customers often experience radio silence. In other words, once the money is in AuthorHouse’s hands, they lose interest in helping the client who put it there in the first place. 

Ironically, most of the top reviews were from customers who had gone to AuthorHouse repeatedly for their publishing needs, so perhaps only those who can promise a big payday are worth the time and energy. 

However, every cloud has a silver lining, right? One five-star reviewer seemed incredibly happy with their experience, stating that it only took two weeks for their book to get published… That said, they say good things take time, so is two weeks enough to edit, design and publish an entire novel with care and precision? It doesn’t sound like it. 

Buyer beware

Overall, AuthorHouse is not the kind of company to give your business to, and they are certainly not one of the best self-publishing companies. The number of complaints on various customer review websites is endless and brutal. Multiple lawsuits have been filed against them. Someone even wrote a book about AuthorHouse titled “The AuthorHouse Scam.” Everything about this company screams “stay away,” so it is best to heed the warning signs seriously. 

Fear Not: There’s a good option for you!

If you’re looking for a company that does right by the customers, I recommend MindStir Media. MindStir is the top-rated self-publisher in the world for a reason: it cares about its writers.  

This post is written by Jesse Haynes, an independent reviewer, not J.J. Hebert.

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