olympiapublishers.com

Big dissapointment

Unfortunately, my experience with Olympia has been extremely frustrating, and I cannot recommend them.The editing felt like little more than an automated spellcheck, which still missed several spelling mistakes. It did not seem like anyone actually reviewed the layout or visual presentation of the book. Headlines, chapters, fonts, and formatting were changed automatically in ways that often made the book worse. I had to request corrections multiple times, clearly marking changes and adding notes, yet errors kept returning. The first layout suggestion after their automated check was shocking, and I ended up doing much of the visual review myself.Overall, there was a clear lack of human oversight, and I had to take responsibility for much of the book’s visual presentation inside the book.There was no proactive marketing from Olympia. I was told that if I posted on social media and tagged them, they might share it, but nothing was initiated by them. I recorded multiple promotional videos as requested. None were used. I was told one was “too edited,” so I resent the original plus two more, yet still nothing happened.I was asked early on to provide lists of bookstores, bloggers, podcasters, and magazines for press outreach. I spent considerable time compiling detailed contacts, only to discover that less than a quarter of them were used, with no clear logic behind the selection. If I knew about this, I could have done the work myself in time for the release. In practice, there was no meaningful marketing for my book.Once the book was released, issues multiplied. Customers reported delays or cancelled orders claiming the book was “sold out,” which was untrue. Pre-orders were delayed by months. Each time I contacted Olympia, I received little practical help and had to resolve problems myself with bookstores and distributors. Even pre-paid books was not delivered due to distributers saying they didn’t have the book. Around the launch period, this caused lost sales and significant disappointment.Suddenly, my book description disappeared from several online stores. Olympia told me to contact the shops myself. After investigating, I discovered one of their two distributor had not received the necessary information from Olympia. I was stuck between parties with no one taking responsibility. Even today, many sites list the book without a description, which of course negatively impacts sales. No on buys a book simply from a cover.I later learned Olympia does not have a full contract with Nielsen, a major cataloguing system used by most bookstores and libraries, limiting visibility in both online and physical stores. This was never clearly explained. The e-book was released nearly two months after the physical book, after I had to ask several times.When attempting to arrange release events, I discovered that many bookstores would not stock the book because they do not work with Olympia’s limited (2) distributors. I was not informed of this restriction beforehand. My royalty statement is incorrect. Amazon sales are missing, and the reported numbers are lower than earlier summaries I’ve been sent. I’ve asked for a detailed accounting and at this point not getting it, with the explanation that we don’t do that anymore. The staff have always been polite, but politeness does not solve problems. Most replies were “we can’t do anything about that,” while distributors or bookstores said the issue was Olympia’s responsibility.I understood this was a hybrid publishing model and expected to do some work myself. What I did not expect was this level of disorganization, lack of support, and poor handling of editing, layout, marketing, distribution and visibilities of royalites. All my concerns have been communicated to Olympia along the way. Overall rating: 2 out of 10. I would not recommend this route if you were looking for a professional publishing partner.Maria

Date of experience: Jun 12, 2025