Anonymous

Something All Indie Authors Need to Know

All indie book authors need to understand how most indie book printing/publishing companies work. Try to find one that does not work this way: 1. In order to get your book printed, they want your credit card number first. 2. They almost all have "cancellation fees" so even if you cancel, your card will get charged, sometimes A LOT. 3. Once they have your card, they will most likely charge you for "additional services" however they define this and it can be arbitrary and expensive. 4. Either way, once they get your credit card #, you are destined to be charged for something. You can dispute it through your credit card company and hope this works. To avoid this, you need to find a company to who you can send your files FIRST, they tell you all the costs UP FRONT, including additional charges for formatting, etc. THEN once you know, you provide your card number. Surrendering your credit card number to these companies needs to be the LAST thing you do and if they do not work this way, find another one that does.
View full review
6 comments
Guest

Ummmm.... have you actually ordered from DiggyPOD?!?!

They do not require a credit card before submitting files.

Once you save a quote you can upload as many files as you want and have them reviewed without paying a fee. Maybe you should actually use the company before you review it!!

Guest

Your review is good except for one thing: I was not asked to provide my credit card information before I uploaded my files and had them looked at by someone on their staff.

Guest

My friend had a great experience with DiggyPod, and she is really picky. All these negative reviews make me wonder whether the large publishers are planting these negative reviews.

Talk to somebody who has published a book, listen to their opinion, and look at their finished product. I have a copy of hers, and it I see no fault with it.

The cover is high quality and the colors look great. The whole volume looks very professional, and I plan to use DiggyPod when I finish my book of stories.

Ronell Axo

Hi I just used DiggyPod they did my front cover of my book.They also checked my files I uploaded to them.I watched all the video's on their page and made sure I followed the format they needed.I love my book and they did not add any extra charges at all.The book looks so professional and I am so happy that my book is on Amazon.com Diggypod ROCKS!!

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Ronell Axo

This sounds like someone from Diggy! The most glaring omission from your rave review was the NAME OF YOUR BOOK.

99% of all authors would have noted the name of their book thats on Amazon angel53697... Not a genuine review...

Not knocking Diggy but this review seemed colluded. :cry

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-775307

Perhaps she published her book for her family, not for the general public. Not everyone who writes is commerce-ridden.

View more comments (5)
Anonymous
map-marker Knoxville, Tennessee

Great Service

I read the complaints made by others. I surmize that they are either ignorant or cannot read. Everything was up-front. I expected some charges added to the services I asked for. When one orders fries with the burger, there is usually an added charge.

People who want to self-publish need to understand that this is not a free government program. Either come prepared or stay at home and pretend that you are a writer.

Go get another $8.00 cup of coffee.

The world is filled with wanna-bes waiting for Mamma Bama or someone in Washington handing them something. This silliness just illustrates the lack of real backbone our current crop of writers seem to have. This is my opinion, of course. And, no one paid me to write any of this.

Good Luck.

View full review
2 comments
Guest

Love it! Very well expressed. Thanks!

Guest

Best review I've ever read!!! The person is absolutely right!!!

We are becoming a nation of freeloaders with a sense of entitlement.

Nobody owes you anything, certainly not their time and energy and expertise without any compensation. Earn it and pay for it!!

Theodora

View more comments (1)
Anonymous

Cow Going To Slaughter

This is going to be a giant scam people--those of you publishing your own books and when they say "it's SO easy, blah blah" this is a bunch of b.s. EVERY little thing is a charge. $40 here, $35 there and you feel like a cow going to slaughter as they rack up the charges on your credit card. It's disgusting. What a professional and classy book printing company would do (not Diggy Pod) is accept files from people then format them FOR YOU without gouging you. You send your cover as a JPG image and they use it to print your cover without an extra $100 to "reformat it" (this where these companies make all their money). We all know there is a TON of software that can work with other programs ("save as" jpg, pdf, doc, etc) and they CAN convert files easily but they will gouge you anyway. I got into a formatting nightmare with these people and no matter what I did, the file was rejected to the point I thought I was going to lose my mind. It bordered almost on being sadistic with one of the women there who continually rejected my files over and over...she seemed to enjoy it. You have to understand that it is an assembly line operation and they feed your book on to the conveyer belt. This is IT. This is the approach. AND if your book is not PERFECT in every way, formatting right, margins right, right program, etc. they want more money and it seems arbitrary when they are finally happy with what you submit. I did not complete this order because I just could not take it anymore. Buyers Beware. This is going to be a very ugly business for the consumer. Be ready to get ripped off.
View full review
Loss:
$100
8 comments
Guest

I dont know if I should really trust this

Guest

Follow the directions, people. It's not that hard. If you don't know much about files and formatting, get someone smarter to help you first.

Guest

If it's so terrible then why did you still give them 4 stars??

Guest

Funny, I never had that problem. They provided me with free templates and free software to imbed the fonts so that it would print correctly.

Although I could have chosen to pay the $99 for them to design my cover, I chose not to.

I designed the front and back myself and they created the connecting spine for free. I was not charged any fees at all other than the price that I was quoted from the start.

Guest

There are companies that will do what you want at about three times the price of Diggypod. You should know how to format before you send in for printing

Guest

:upset "Cow Going To Slaughter"? I LIKE THAT!

Your review is sort of what I have. Except they DID send two shipments, and it was beyond words!! I had three "screw ups" that were "MY fault" ($115). Still, they managed to TOTALLY screw it up!

I'll throw in the towel, and take my business elsewhere. I thought it was weird that they have SO MANY positive reviews. Then a "light" switched on. Many (most?) of the "positive" reviews were set-up.

Like the person right below me. There are pretty cheap, but alas, you get what you pay for...

Guest

Simply follow the directions provided on their website and you can avoid any additional charges.... And if that's not enough, they have customer service representatives available M-F 9-5pm to assist you as well. There isn't another book printing company out there that offers that!

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-760427

i agree

View more comments (7)
Anonymous

They love to say/type $40 over and over...

When the FIRST thing any company says to you within minutes of hiring them to perform a service is you will have to pay additional money, run for your lives. Within an hour of submitting my order, I got a reply that I would have to pay an additional $40 then maybe more fees after this. You might as well give them your credit card number then they can just have at it. Open season. Like I said, run for your life. And the SAG in Minnesota better get ready for complaints because they're going to come about this company. Soon.
View full review
1 comment
Guest

Did you follow their instructions and use their templates? I followed their instructions to the letter and had no problems. It sounds to me like maybe you are upset because of your own errors and not theirs.

jay Nmf
map-marker Detroit, Michigan

Diggypod review

I am not a individual that ordered books from Diggypod but have done business with the company. The owner is a stand up family man and was even a past Chamber of Commerce president.

I would find it hard for anyone doing business with this company to have an issue.

In fact, if you look at the reviews on Google, they are almost unbelievable! 5 stars with out any real complaints.

I only wish these complaint boards would incorporate all other reviews from more reputable systems, such as, Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

I guess no matter how hard we all try in life, not everyone will be pleased. But over 100 reviews all great quality are sitting in Google reviews and those persons had to buy from Diggypod to be able to review them.

View full review
4 comments
Guest

You were lucky and thus happy to pay the additional charge because you were charged just once. It could have been multiple times. DiggyPod is a bit cheaper than Lulu but the staff was very rude and had a cheap attitude, too.

They charge you more for many unforeseen things to cover the gap.

That being said, you may want to try only if you know of publishing process very very well.

Guest

DiggyPod is a bit cheaper than Lulu but the staff was very rude and had a cheap attitude, too.

They charge you more for many unforeseen things to cover the gap.

That being said, you may want to try only if you know of publishing process very very well.

Guest

My last month dealing with DiggyPOD has been one of the worst experiences of my life. I have self-published and printed a large and complex book before using InDesign CS4. The book I tried to work with DiggyPOD on is extremely simple by comparison.

The DiggyPOD people, at various times, told me that I either did or did not need bleeds in the bind area for full page photos. I sent PDFs both ways. No matter what the PDF looked like on my side, and no matter what maneuvers I performed to create the bleeds, usually following their varying instructions, invariably I was told the PDF had either no bleeds, improper bleeds or double bleeds (that appeared (to them) in greyscale???).

They also provided the "service" of putting a spine on the cover: Their first effort, strangely, tried to hideously cram the entire subtitle on the small, narrow spine. Their second effort misspelled the title . . . . consisting of two common English words. Truly amateur hour stuff.

Each PDF submitted cost me $40 a pop. I finally simply gave up and went to another company. I asked several times, BTW, to have the CEO call me about this disastrous experience, but the CEO - surprise, surprise - never did.

Guest

I have used DiggyPod twice and have been satisfied. I'd been using Office Depot to print and bind my training materials, but switched to DiggyPod because I could pay less (even with shipping). To give you an idea of the savings, I paid about $100 less for 50 books that are about 163 b&w pages (vs Office Depot) and that included 50# paper vs 20% paper, plus, an actual printed cover vs a transparent cover at OD.

On the negative side, I didn't like having to pay $40 on my first order because all my fonts weren't embedded. I'm no adobe expert, and had tried to follow instructions I found via Google to embed fonts, but guess the instructions I found weren't great. In my opinion, DiggyPod should clearly provide a document telling the customer HOW to embed all fonts, and maybe even make a first-time exception to help them get this technical aspect figured out before charging $40. Seriously, it was apparently only one font and once I figured out how to do it, it took 2 minutes to fix, so I can't see why they had to charge me $40 to allow me to upload the corrected copy. If this were my company, I'd skip the $40 to have more goodwill with my customers.

View more comments (3)
Anonymous
map-marker Tucson, Arizona

Don't be poor and call Diggypod

Everything was going well, until I reached the amount of money I had. I realized I had to pay more when I had to change the margins and formatting to fit the 5.5x8.5" page. No problem. The very kind lady helping me told me that I needed to submit the cover pictures separate. The book had to be in PDF format, I understand. I sent the cover pics in jpg, like a fool, I guess. Regardless, they were somehow able to know those pics would need a "bleed over" to fit properly. Okay, so I sent a bigger pic in PDF not realizing she meant a non-content size increase - in other words, the "t" at the end of my title would be cut-off. I made a tiny mistake. In order to send new cover-pictures, I needed to pay an extra $35. Not the whole book, just two pictures. I don't have the money for it, so I cancelled the order. $80 cancel fee. I understand the $80 is teaching me a lesson (sorry if that sounds sarcastic). So, I gave away $80. I don't think I'll be able to publish. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe this is how they *** out the garbage. I should just relax, right?
View full review
Loss:
$80
6 comments
Guest

They are heartless, when it come to the ones who answer the phone, however i ask to speak to the Manager concerning the same problem and he wave the fees, the are a good company but not perfect

Guest

I am doing my book right now with Piggypod. At first I was very proud of the company until a $40 fee showed up on my account.

I am going to talk with the manager tomorrow because I think they are taking advantage of their customers.... I hope that I can get them to understand that they are going to lose business by trying to be greedy up front.

Guest

You wouldn't have had to pay more to adjust the margins to 5.5x8.5 if you had followed directions and used the templates that they provide. As for sending the pictures in jpg, their website says is several places that it must be in PDF.

They even provide a free software to make it work. If you had used their software, or even talked to them before you went ahead ***-nilly and did things your own way, it would have been fast and easy. Also, they specifically tell you to leave a 3/8" margin for lettering on the cover. So, if you didn't do that, it is your fault that the T was cut.

It makes sense that if you messed up and they had to fix it, they should charge you for their time. That's why they have so many videos showing you how to do it. I have read that other people were able to call customer service and get instructions but I didn't need to do that.

The videos were sufficient. I can understand your frustration, but it is aimed in the wrong direction!!!

Guest

ok so where did you go instead?

Guest

I worked in quick print for too many years, and we always went the extra mile in prepress, to make the customers files work, whatever it took, even a little extra effort and time loss on our end. At least half our clients lacked the technical know-how to create files correctly.

Companies like DiggyPOD or CopyCraft have a zero tolerance for incorrectly formatted files. Rather than help you, they would prefer to penalize the customer, which only ensures a loss of business, exponentially.

Guest

Exact same thing happened to me. I spent hours and hours formatting my *** cover to perfection and it was rejected over and over with a threat of having to pay another $40 if it isn't perfect according to them, of course and even after that, it could be another $40.

It was like being in a meat grinder. You would think THEY would get tired of putting people through this but maybe this is how they make their money--by "fixing" your file. Yea.

Ok. Not going back.

View more comments (5)
John Tio
map-marker Plymouth, Michigan

DiggyPOD exceeds my expectations

I am a new author and have never tried to print a book, nor anything about how to go about printing a book. I searched the internet high and low to find a book printer; I eventually choose DiggyPOD, because when I called, someone answered the phone and also answered all of my questions. My main contact was Karen, and she was very professional and took the time to explain everything I needed to know. When I submitted my files, they took the time to point a couple of formatting issues and offered to correct the issues for $30.00, which I was more than happy to pay for. To be honest, I was actually happy that they found the issues, the margins of the text look much better after they fixed them. Once I approved the online proof, I kept getting emails from them letting me know the progress of my book. I became more excited each time I got the email stating what the progress of my book was, I felt like a little kid counting down the days to Christmas. On Friday, I got the email with my tracking number, which was a day earlier then I thought my book was going to ship. I tracked the shipment every day, until my books finally arrived. When the books arrived at my home, I kept telling myself not to be disappointed if my book wasn't what I was expecting, I finally got the courage and opened one of the boxes, and I could not believe how great the books looked, they looked better than I could ever imagined. The cover colors were vibrant and the lamination on the covers made everything pop. The inside pages looked great and I loved the binding as well. Diggypod went well above my expectations and made my dream of publishing my book a reality, I will continue to use them, and give suggest anyone else use them if you are going to print a book.
View full review
2 comments
Guest

I have to admit, even with all of the positive things I have written myself, this one does sound fake.

Guest

Like I said... Any writer with glowing reviews who does not name the book works for Diggy..

View more comments (1)
Quality M
map-marker Dallas, Texas

DiggyPOD Full of Excuses

I purchased 200 books from DiggyPOD, and they arrived on time as they promised. However, the book quality was lacking. The glue in the spine is clumpy and visible on the first 5 pages. In addition, the covers stick way up as opposed to staying flat. When you read the book and then close it, the cover on top is still sticking way up, no matter how hard you press it down, and no matter how long you keep a heavier object on top of it! When I called about the problems, I was told that the glue was clumpy because of the "Hinged" binding process they use, and the covers were likely raising up be because of the WEATHER, which can make pages expand and contract! DiggyPOD offered excuses, and no compensation. Beware.
View full review
3 comments
Guest

These are confusing times for those wanting to get published, self-publish or even just get professionally printed long/bound documents. You need to use a professional and it won't cost you any more than muddling through yourself and making costly mistakes.

I use Rotolo Media (google search them).

Mike walks me through every project and this guy is awesome-- he's been doing this for 25 years and he knows it all. He also has relationships with manufacturers that you don't and you'll get the best price you can find.

Guest

Are you serious? Your only complaint is that the cover on a PAPERBACK book isn't stiff? Why didn't you just print a hard cover?

Guest

Thanks Claudia, Shawn, Karen and all the DiggyPOD Staff for two printings totaling 714 books! We all worked together to make this 300-page digital photography and poetry book a success, and get them to Maui.

View more comments (2)