I began with Online Book Writers (OBW) in early November 2020. I was hesitant to use their service because I had concerns about how long the project would take to complete. However, I was assured by Bruno R. That they could meet my 6 to 8 month expectation. That was nearly 2 1/2 years ago.
I have also spent $10,750 with this company. The initial quote was $2000; however, they didn't inform me of all the aspects of book development, marketing and publishing they would later insist were important for success. Nearly every month or so there was an upsell: I needed illustrations; I needed a better book trailer video (which has been in production for over 5 months and still isn't completed); ISBNs; Copywriting; social media followers (they provided fake followers from foreign countries). There isn't an end to what they say you need.
Over the course of the first 19 months, the main writer quit the OBW company at the 5 month mark (she explained it was because of unreasonable expectations for assembly line production). Only about 30% of the book had been roughed out. They assigned a second writer who resumed writing the book with no correlation to what had already been written. It was painful. The direction was so bad that I took back over the writing myself and completed the book. I wrote most of the novel. The editing was unbelievably poor. I had to re-edit myself as well.
(I had a complete manuscript when I came to them. However, the feedback that I received on my manuscript before coming to OBW was less than stellar. So, I decided I needed professional help with the story development. However, OBW was never interested in my manuscript. I have found out that this doesn't fit neatly into their production constructs. Bruno R. Wasn't interested. Anna J. Wasn't interested. And the writers were not interested either. No one has the time.)
I have also been through 6 "managers' or coordinators. (Anna J., Samuel M., Aaron K., Daniel T., Brian M. And Kevin P.) The manager is the person who interacts with you. They take your feedback on the various aspects of the project and feed it back into the OBW machine of many dispersed departments and partners. The usual weekly scenario is that they say they will be back to you later in the week; however, when you do not hear from them and you poke at them… then many of the departments/partners still haven't gotten back to them. It is not unusual to NOT hear from anyone for many weeks. The sands of the hourglass just keep pouring out. Excuses are plentiful. Progress happens at a glacial pace.
Dysfunction abounds with OBW. Errors are very frequent. I wish there was a rating less than 1 Star. As of this writing, all I have from OBW is a profound disappointment. I am still waiting for services to be fulfilled. If I could rewind the past 2 1/2 years, I would NOT have chosen OBW.