Author Solutions Reviews

Former Employee – worked at Author Solutions full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Ability to make unlimited income. Nice atmosphere.

Cons – Competitive to get leads. Lots of turnover

Advice to Senior Management – Look to talent within to promote .

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Author Solutions full-time for less than a year

Pros – The work is relatively easy; somewhat relaxed atmosphere and liberal attitudes towards hours; good benefits.

Cons – Where do I begin? The majority of your time will be spent calling leads who don't want to speak with you, have no money, or who don't want anything to do with ASI or its imprints. Every day starts with a team meeting where managers go over sales tactics and harp on call times and dials; that gets old quickly. Managers send out daily and weekly spiffs that are almost impossible to achieve. Nasty and belligerent email blasts by management are common, and speaking up about certain policies and procedures is a surefire way to get yourself into a whole lot of trouble. Would-be customers know the games ASI plays because they go online and write about them; ASI doesn't seem to know this yet. There are also myriad negative reviews about ASI brands, much of it false and misleading, but because ASI refuses to take legal action they wonder why sales are down. Morale is low and turn-over is very high. A publishing consultant can have a huge month followed by a month of nothing but returns. There is no lounge to eat lunch, just a break room, so everyone either eat at their desks or go out to lunch. Management seems to think that making people work longer hours, and sometimes weekends, during the last week of the month will help sales. The ROI on this is dreadful. There's an unwritten expectation to work late and on weekends even though management says to work only 40 hour per week.

Advice to Senior Management – Hire managers with people skills.
Get a lounge with a seating area.
Go after the negative reviews online or at least know that they're eating into your bottom line.
Know that customers know your bag of tricks and respond accordingly.
The CEO needs to get out of his MBA mindset and read a few books. His ignorance of writers, editors, and the artistic process is staggering.
Introduce affordable a la carte products and services the consultants can sell easily; this increases revenues for the company while enhancing morale.
Stop sending negative and threatening emails; that's such a juvenile and petty thing to do.
Introduce spiffs that are easily achieved to build and maintain morale.
Rethink your end of the month hours because you're not getting solid ROI. Your employees hate it and customers don't like being badgered, which is what you're doing.
Seek out and hire English majors who know what they're talking about on the phones. Much of the information ASI says is correct is either only half-true or flat out false. It's very hard to come across as an authority on publishing when a rep doesn't know who James Joyce was or that he self-published Ulysses.
The atmosphere is toxic in Indianapolis. What are you doing to change that?

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Author Solutions full-time for less than a year

Pros – The best reason to work at ASI is that they were purchased by Penquin so that could open to some possibilities. If you sell a lot, you can make good money.

Cons – The way this company is run is pathetic. Almost all of the actual work they do is outsourced. The employees could care less about the actual authors. In most companies, there's a general motto that "the customer is always right." We'll, at ASI it seems they believe the customer is always wrong. Management and employees are constantly making fun of authors and their books. Sales reps will regularly lie to make a sale, and they're commended for it. Sales reps know that what they're trying to sell to an author won't make them any money back, but they could care less- all they want is to hit quota. You can expect at least one derogatory, harassing email per day from management telling you to "step it up. We need sales. Today has been pathetic. Etc."

You're constantly hounded to make at least 80 phone calls per day and over 4 hours of talk time. This is hard to do when almost every author you talk to is either pissed that you keep calling them, or pissed because they can't get a hold of anyone at the company, their being lied to, etc.

You also get no training.

Advice to Senior Management – Quit worrying so much about selling marketing services to make a profit... The services you're selling are not any good. Focus on creating a better service/product, then it will sell itself. Also, start treating your authors with respect and actually catering to them as if "they are always right," even when they're not. Too many authors have had awful experiences with your company. I spoke to about 10-20 per day.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Author Solutions full-time for less than a year

Pros – There are none. Stay Away!

Cons – 1. Unreasonable quota expectations.
2. Low Quality leads
3. First Line management is rude and unhelpful
4. NO EFFECTIVE TRAINING

Advice to Senior Management – Do you actually train any of your employees?

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Author Solutions full-time

Pros – - Self publishing is an interesting market space
- Ample opportunity to advance given their high rate of attrition

Cons – - Low salary
- Horrible benefits unless you are single
- Chaotic work environment
- No true leadership
- Questionable ethics

Advice to Senior Management – Hire a real leader to run the company and realize your true value is in your employees. Deal more truthfully with your customers.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Author Solutions full-time for more than a year

Pros – Coworkers were great, CEO is great, customers were fun...never a dull moment with them! Decent benefits. Enjoyed my experience with ASI.

Cons – Pay could've been better, dealing with the reps in cebu(dreadful)!! Wish the upper management would've been more personable, with the exception of the CEO.

Advice to Senior Management – Make sure your management team is leaders! Not all are, and people need someone that leads by example.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Author Solutions full-time

Pros – Many of the best aspects of the company are the intangible benefits that one might not recognize or appreciate until those benefits aren't there.

Top Perks:
- Independence to manage/organize one's day based on personal preference & business needs
- Employee Health Clinic (no charge office visits; no charge for many common prescriptions)
- Flexible Schedule (within reason and with notice) to accommodate for family/personal matters
- Fully Vested 401(k) after 6 months. Other companies can take years to become fully vested
- Bereavement leave (40 hours for certain relatives)
- Established Weekly/Monthly/Quarterly Employee Recognition
- Opportunities to take initiative and put solutions directly into action
- Available/approachable front line supervisors/managers
- Great Coworkers

There have been only a handful of days when I've been bored and felt the minutes drag on until it was time to leave. There's always something to do and usually additional responsibilities can be tailored towards one's interests.

The largest factor in my satisfaction has been my direct supervisor. For a period of time, I had the great fortune to report to one of the most amazing individuals I've ever met; and as a result of that, I had a very successful and enjoyable experience. That period of time has been the best of my working career.

Cons – On a day to day basis, these frustrations don't influence my overall satisfaction with the company, but they identify the main points as to why it is a job and not a career.

Top Frustrations:
- Wages/Salary. Most entry level employees have college degrees but don't make 30K per year.
- Compensation is not commensurate with performance. While raises are given each year based on a high level performance appraisal, the low base pay rate makes the percentage increase less appealing than it might initially seem.
- High Burnout Potential. There is no direct incentive (monetary or otherwise) to be better than average at one's job. High performers get additional tasks and responsibilities without adequate appreciation (other than the verbal acknowledgment of gratitude).
- Band-Aid "fixes" to systemic problems. When systemic problems arise, there is insufficient support to fully resolve the issues. Rather, the quickest and cheapest way to triage the situation is enacted, often times leaving the root cause of the issue unaddressed.
- Valuing Quantity Over Quality. A series of performance metrics forms the core basis of how "successful" an employee is, regardless of the quality of work.
- Few Opportunities for Advancement. When an individual leaves the company, that person's work shouldn't be delegated among others who already have more than a full workload. That position should be filled which will allow individuals opportunity for advancement while not overloading current employees.

The company can be very shortsighted. They cut corners to save a few dollars today, even though it will result in significant losses/problems in the future.

The company has experienced growing pains in the past few years as it has attempted to use globalization to augment/supplement the organization's growth.

The company allows a "good enough" mindset to prevail instead of striving for and achieving excellence. While this subtly could be difficult to identify, any client or employee that isn't "wowed" by the experience serves as an example.

Advice to Senior Management – I actually think almost all of my frustrations could be addressed if the company was more proactive about thinking long-term instead of reactive to the short-term.

- Invest in employees. To paraphrase a coworker, if we were a baseball team, we'd have a lot of statisticians, but no actual coaches helping us get better. Ensure that everybody has the best resources available and are properly qualified/trained to do their jobs exceptionally. Slow computers not only decrease the maximum potential of work that can be done, but also decrease morale as the employee does not feel valued enough to have modern equipment. Focus on professional development.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Author Solutions full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – The tasks that you work on day to day will change frequently. The company is growing which is exciting. It lends itself well to those who are starting out trying to get their foot in the door. There are always new advancement opportunities as the company continues to boom.

Cons – Because of the rapid growth, sometimes there are unexpected changes in tasks which can be stressful. One day you have quite a bit more work to do than the last. This comes in phases, and is just to accommodate a transition for the better.

Advice to Senior Management – Continue to listen to your employees suggestions about areas of growth for the company.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Author Solutions full-time for less than a year

Pros – The company is obviously doing well because it is opening a whole new office to accommodate its growth. The job is very fast paced and because it is inside sales, the customers who you are talking to are very interested in your product. The benefits are good and the commission structure can be very lucrative. Also almost all of middle management was promoted from within, which bodes well for career advancement.

Cons – This is a face paced sales job which is not for everyone. You need to be able to learn new things on the fly and be extremely flexible when overcoming obstacles. If you can handle these things, you'll do well, but if not it may not be for you. In fairness, there is a ramp up period of three months to allow the consultants to get things figured out.

Advice to Senior Management – They are aware of the growing pains of opening a new office and they are actively addressing them. I would encourage them to keep that up.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Author Solutions full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Author Solutions is a very good business model and fits a very real need.

Cons – Unfortunately, I think there is too much wringing every last dollar from employees and customers. Very little effort seems to go into delighting those that work for them and do business with them. HR is extremely ineffective and detrimental.

Advice to Senior Management – Too much of management is condescending and not good with dealing with people.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company