A military veteran claims he paid a publishing house £14K to bring out his book - which they printed full of mistakes. Granddad Joseph Hentosz, 79, says AuthorHouse promised his novel would get the 'Hollywood treatment' and promoted around the world.
He had spent nine years writing his autobiographical story ‘From the Brink of Death and the Gates of Hell’. It tells the incredible story of how in 1947 his mother met a Polish soldier in Blackpool and took her two young sons to live with him in Poland - but forced to live in a cellar.
Joseph says he paid the publishers 14K over three years - who said the money was for 'scriptwriting services', promotion and exhibits. He says the self-publishing firm also promised him it would be shown to TV producers and movie executives.
But when the book came out Joseph says they had published his rough manuscript which was full of incorrect dates and spelling and grammar errors. He says he only discovered the mistakes when he spotted the book for sale on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Waterstones.
The book then only generated $79 in sales - and Joe claims the publishers told him it was too small amount to pay him. The Royal Air Force vet of Bridlington, Yorkshire, says he has been left in debt and with a stress-related illness as a result.
Joseph, a granddad-of-20, said: “I'm hurt, I feel terrible, I can't believe what I've had to go through just trying to write a book. 'I spent all that time to make sure the book was understandable, and they've destroyed it.
“It’s made me feel terrible, I feel like I've been used, and I feel like this should have been something positive. 'I just wanted to tell my story but I have handed over 14K and they published a book full of mistakes. 'They said they'd promote it, but you can't promote or sell a book that is full of errors, it's embarrassing.''
Joseph lost his first wife of 35 years to terminal cancer in 2001 and hoped his book would help him find some positivity. The budding author first sent it to AuthorHouse in 2018.
The book covers Joseph's experiences as a young boy in Poland after his mother Edith fell in love with a Polish soldier. She met him in Blackpool and moved her family - Joseph and his brother - to Treblinka to live with him.
Subscribe here for the latest news where you live
But the soldier's mother didn't approve and they had to live in a cellar before eventually escaping back to England. Joseph said his first manuscript was returned to him for edits with the publishers citing ‘copyright issues’.
He resubmitted the book in July 2019 and says that AuthorHouse said they would publish it and assign a ‘marketing manager’. Joseph said he was then told he would have to pay between £250-£350 - and sometimes more - per month for his book to be promoted to bookshops, movie studios and TV executives.
He continued making these payments from 2019 to 2022 - and other lump sums - and says he paid the publishers at least £14k in total. Joseph says he was charged for 'scriptwriting services', a promotional video on YouTube, and £8000 for it to be shown in book exhibits across the world.
He says each month, the AuthorHouse payment plan centre, based in America, would call him and ask for the payments to be made. But when the budding author received a copy of his book he says he discovered it had been published by the company without edits.
He says the text had not been split into paragraphs and was littered with typos and spelling errors making it unreadable. He was later told his book had generated $79 in sales – but says the publishers have refused to pay him the money, allegedly claiming the amount is too low to be worth paying out.
The author had hoped to donate the funds raised from the book to charities such as Red Cross and Save the Children. He said: “When I added the money up, I realised it came to £14k. I thought the book would make that money back but never did.
"I can't count hours I spent emailing and phoning my marketing manager, it was like chasing a ghost, he was supposed to be my marketing advisor but wouldn't talk to me. A script writer friend of mine who read the book and said they hadn't proofread it.
“AuthorHouse never checked for grammar errors or mistakes, they didn’t add paragraphs. The story was not readable, no one had explained how the process works.
“I asked time and time again how many books sold – they said we'd only sold a few even though we'd sent it to book exhibits and sent to famous publishers and buyers. Thousands or possibly millions of people were supposed to have seen it. They sent me a form and an email saying the book would get the ‘Hollywood treatment’.
“They didn't say anything about the total amount I would pay, in my mind part of the payment would be for the publishing of the book and then the marketing on their side. I've now cancelled my contract with them, but they say they can't pull the book from the bookstores they say they have sold it to.''
A spokesperson for AuthorHouse claimed Joseph did know the version being published and it would pay the money owed - but said he still owes them cash. They said: "We have helped nearly 100,000 authors in the UK and US bring their books to market and are always delighted when authors can impact the lives of others with their books "Because we are a self-publishing services provider, the author maintains control, ownership and approval of all content.
"In this case we did offer Joseph our editorial assessment service where we evaluate a portion of the manuscript and make recommendations as to what editing might be needed for his manuscript. Joseph chose to bypass the service, which is his option.
"In addition, because he is the owner of the content we would not publish his book without his approval. So anything that went to publication was approved by him.
"As for the services he mentioned, we have fulfilled everything that he has paid in full. 'However, there are some services for which he has not fully paid. As is standard with any business, we have paused fulfilment until those payments are completed.
"With regard to his royalty payments, we did attempt to send him a check, but we did not have a correct address in our records so the check was returned. However, since then, he has been set up for Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) and he will be paid in May utilizing this method."
Joseph has now found a new publisher.
