Complaint Review: Green Ivy Publishing - Oakbrook Illinois

I spent a little more than a year and a half writing a novel about a hero named John Reed. He was an army private in the Afghan war, but transferred to a secret project facility of the army. I had been writing all night long before getting writers block. Unable to write I decided to look on the Internet to see how hard it would be to find a publisher. There were lots of them, and only a small chance that they might look at my manuscript. However I did find a webpage that promised publishers would call me, if I left information about my book and myself. I did just that and it wasn’t more than a couple of days before they started calling. I had gotten calls from big publishing companies wanting to publish my manuscript. When the calls finally tapered off, I had gotten calls from about 10 different publishing companies all wanting big $$$ to publish my book. It seemed they would publish anyone’s book for the right amount of money as long as it wasn’t plagiarized. About a week later I got a call from Jason Miksek, he worked at a little known small hybrid publishing company called Green Ivy. Jason ask me about my book and told me about the company. He said I had little chance of getting my book published at Green Ivy, that they only accepted about 12 to 15% of the books that came their way, and having an unfinished manuscript would probably means that I would have to finish it before they would accept it, but that it was in a popular genre. I was happy to hear that they didn’t except just anyone. I thought this would be a true test whether my book was good or not. So… while they looked at my manuscript, I looked on the Internet for information about them. There was little to no information about Green Ivy on the Internet, not even in the Better Business Bureau. The only information I found about them were a few people that had been turned down by them but were happy with the way they were treated. So… when I was accepted by David Rodriguez and  Jason Miksek, I was ecstatic this meant my book WAS good and they had accepted it unfinished telling me to take my time finishing it. On top of all that, they were less expensive than the rest. Jason and David critiqued my manuscript, only mentioning a couple of things that needed to be edited. They did mention the book was too big for a first time author and might need to be cut in half. I signed a contract for Ordinary to Hero in One fall and finished it about four to months later. At the same time I was finishing the book, I would get emails from my manager at the time, Taylor Jones, she asked for things like a photo of myself, an autobiography and a synopsis of my manuscript, it was very exciting. Before I could finish the book, I had been switched from one manager to another the next was Caryn Rohde. When I finished the book I emailed the work to my manager, who sent it to the SENIOR editor (which by the way was the nicest person I’d met at Green Ivy, she was always helpful and kind) she emailed me to let me know she would be starting on MY manuscript very soon. Two weeks later I got an email with the work she had done on my manuscript. She had only done 20 pages but she had taken over 5000 words from those 20 pages. I sent an email asking her why she had taken so many words from just 20 pages. She said the publisher wanted it to be small enough to fit in a first time authors slot and that she was trimming the fat. I asked her, what a first time author’s slot is. She said 90 to 120,000 words. Since my book is over 220,000 words, that meant she was going to cut away over half my book. Since the contract says they can’t take anything out of my book without my permission, I asked her to cut it in half if she had to cut half the book away to make it fit in a first time author’s slot. She said she would have to ask the powers that be and she would get back with me. Almost a week later she emailed me saying I would have to find a place to cut it in half and write an ending for it. It took me a couple of weeks, but when I turned it in they were happy with the end. It took months to get the editing finished, by the time we were done I had been appointed three more managers losing the one before each time. I asked my editor when we were going to start on the second half of the book. She said, it would cost me more money if I wanted to publish it before I’d sold 10,000 copies of the first book. I started to complain but she said, it wasn’t up to her that she was very sorry. We were almost done with the first half so I let it go for the time being. About two months before we finished the editing, my manager told me I needed to start working with a digital designer to get the cover done for the book. I was so happy, it had been a long time but we were almost done. Again the guy I was given to was the SENIOR digital designer Tyler J. Geiwitz. He couldn’t seem to grasp what I was looking for so Tyler passed me off to one of his subordinates. Things were going good and we were almost done with the hero’s armor but I was losing my patience, he kept making the same mistakes over and over again. I had sent him over 30 emails with very descriptive details telling him exactly what I was looking for, along with 25 or 30 pics. I also mentioned that we were almost finished with the editing and need to get the cover done soon. After me and my editor finished editing the book on ‎Thursday‎, ‎January‎ ‎28‎, ‎2016 ‎3‎:‎18‎ ‎PM. On Monday‎, ‎February‎ ‎8‎, ‎2016 ‎12‎:‎17‎ ‎PM Almost four months after he started the work on my cover art. I finally told the digital designer Tyler that I was tired of waiting and that I was going to look for someone close by me so we could get the cover finished. I told him that I hadn’t found anyone yet, so if he finished before I found someone or before the guy I’m looking for finishes his cover design, he could still have the cover. That was more than two months ago and I haven’t heard a word from Tyler or Green Ivy since. I did call a guy that is supposed to be a manager or something, I think his name was Jay. He didn’t seem like he wanted to help me at all, as a matter of fact he seemed angry that I bothered him and basically told me very bluntly he didn’t care that the contract said Ordinary to Hero in One fall, as in the whole book. They were NOT going to publish the other half of the book unless the first half sells more than 10,000 copies. I’m not worried about the book selling 10,000 copies, I know it will, it’s just the point that he is trying to push me around because he knows I don’t have the money to take him or Green Ivy to court. When I told him that it had been over a month since I’d heard from the digital designer he again showed his apathy for caring and said work it out with your cover designer. It has now been over two months since I’ve heard from anyone at Green Ivy. I tried to call one of the guys that talked me into signing with Green Ivy, his name was Jason Miksek however Doug at Green Ivy has his number now. I asked Doug if he could get me the number to someone above Jay’s head, he said he would have to ask Jay to fix the problems first. The next day Doug called saying Jay wouldn’t do anything to fix the problems. So I ask Doug if he would give me the number to SOMEONE above Jays head. Doug promptly told me, if he gave me the number to someone above Jays head he would be in fear for his job. I said OK, then can you please tell me how to get my money back or give me the number to someone that can give me that information. Doug said if he did that he would be in fear for his job. Sooo, it’s looking very much like they don’t care about the problems there authors are having with their company and they threaten their employees with being fired if they give out the number to anyone above Jays head or if they give the authors a way to get their money back. Look I just want to get my cover finished and the whole book published like the contract says. No more, no less!!! If they don’t intend to publish my manuscript, they owe me $2,495.00. What I payed them to publish my book. I guess the wasted months I’ll never get back, too bad, time IS money!!!!