u/Gotscrwedbyjenny7211

I am posting this because I wish someone had warned me before I trusted a paid publishing company with my work and my granddaughter's name.

I dealt with Oxford Book Writers, and I have spent months going back through my contracts, emails, payments, book files, refund records, and communications.

Here is what I can document.

I paid for professional publishing services. Their written agreement promised professional proofreading and editing, formatting and typesetting, publishing, ISBN and barcode services, a dedicated project manager, and other services.

What I received was a children's book containing serious mistakes. The book carried my name and the full legal name of my seven year old granddaughter.

This was not simply a draft sitting on someone's computer.

The book was published. A physical copy was purchased.

I have the original files I provided. I have the book that was published. I have the emails where I complained about the problems. I have the payment records. I have the refund communications.

I eventually had to remove the book.

I was also told things during the sales and publishing process that I later began questioning.

One of the biggest issues for me involved the ISBN. I understood from my initial telephone conversation that a Bowker ISBN would be obtained. What I later found was an ISBN associated with Amazon's publishing system instead. Because the original representation was made verbally, I am describing this as what I was told and understood, not pretending I have a written promise that I do not have.

Then there is the money.

The company I believed I was paying was Oxford Book Writers.

But when I later examined my financial records, the merchant descriptions did not simply say Oxford Book Writers.

That made me start asking a very basic question:

Who did I actually pay?

I am still investigating that question.

I also discovered inconsistencies in the public information surrounding the business, including different locations, business history information, and other publishing brands appearing to share contact information.

Again, I am not going to call those companies the same company unless I can prove it.

But I am asking questions.

Then something happened that made this much bigger for me.

The daughter of an elderly Canadian author contacted me after seeing a discussion about vanity publishing. She told me about her father's experience with Oxford and mentioned David Reeds.

I recognized the name.

I went back through my own old records.

David Reeds was also someone I had dealt with at Oxford.

That is when I started documenting everything.

I later called Oxford and recorded the conversation with their knowledge. During that conversation, Oxford confirmed that David Reeds worked there. I also heard statements that I considered inconsistent enough that I preserved the entire recording.

I am not asking Reddit to decide whether anyone committed fraud.

I am not claiming that every allegation another family has made is true.

I am saying that authors need to be extremely careful.

Do not accept a sales representative's statements without getting important promises in writing.

Do not assume the name on a website is necessarily the legal business receiving your payment.

Check your credit card statement.

Verify who owns your ISBN.

Keep the manuscript you originally submitted.

Keep every version they return to you.

Keep your contract.

Keep every email.

Keep every invoice.

Keep every refund promise.

And when someone tells you that you need another service, another marketing package, another registration, or another upgrade before your book can succeed, stop and investigate before paying again.

I learned that lesson the hard way.

This is no longer about the remaining money for me.

It is about what happens when someone takes an author's dream, gains their trust, and then the author discovers that things were not what they believed they were buying.

If you have personally dealt with Oxford Book Writers, I want to hear from you.

Good experience or bad experience.

I especially want to hear from people who still have original contracts, invoices, emails, payment records, ISBN information, refund communications, or communications with David Reeds, Mark J. Cooper, Daniel Hayes, or Jake Austin.

Please do not post account numbers or private financial information.

I am looking for documents and facts, not rumors.

Because the more I have gone back through my own records, the more I have realized something very important:

Authors need to know who they are actually doing business with before they hand over their money, their manuscript, their name, and sometimes even their family's name.

I am posting this because I wish someone had warned me before I trusted a paid publishing company with my work and my granddaughter's name.

I dealt with Oxford Book Writers, and I have spent months going back through my contracts, emails, payments, book files, refund records, and communications.

Here is what I can document.

I paid for professional publishing services. Their written agreement promised professional proofreading and editing, formatting and typesetting, publishing, ISBN and barcode services, a dedicated project manager, and other services.

What I received was a children's book containing serious mistakes. The book carried my name and the full legal name of my seven year old granddaughter.

This was not simply a draft sitting on someone's computer.

The book was published. A physical copy was purchased.

I have the original files I provided. I have the book that was published. I have the emails where I complained about the problems. I have the payment records. I have the refund communications.

I eventually had to remove the book.

I was also told things during the sales and publishing process that I later began questioning.

One of the biggest issues for me involved the ISBN. I understood from my initial telephone conversation that a Bowker ISBN would be obtained. What I later found was an ISBN associated with Amazon's publishing system instead. Because the original representation was made verbally, I am describing this as what I was told and understood, not pretending I have a written promise that I do not have.

Then there is the money.

The company I believed I was paying was Oxford Book Writers.

But when I later examined my financial records, the merchant descriptions did not simply say Oxford Book Writers.

That made me start asking a very basic question:

Who did I actually pay?

I am still investigating that question.

I also discovered inconsistencies in the public information surrounding the business, including different locations, business history information, and other publishing brands appearing to share contact information.

Again, I am not going to call those companies the same company unless I can prove it.

But I am asking questions.

Then something happened that made this much bigger for me.

The daughter of an elderly Canadian author contacted me after seeing a discussion about vanity publishing. She told me about her father's experience with Oxford and mentioned David Reeds.

I recognized the name.

I went back through my own old records.

David Reeds was also someone I had dealt with at Oxford.

That is when I started documenting everything.

I later called Oxford and recorded the conversation with their knowledge. During that conversation, Oxford confirmed that David Reeds worked there. I also heard statements that I considered inconsistent enough that I preserved the entire recording.

I am not asking Reddit to decide whether anyone committed fraud.

I am not claiming that every allegation another family has made is true.

I am saying that authors need to be extremely careful.

Do not accept a sales representative's statements without getting important promises in writing.

Do not assume the name on a website is necessarily the legal business receiving your payment.

Check your credit card statement.

Verify who owns your ISBN.

Keep the manuscript you originally submitted.

Keep every version they return to you.

Keep your contract.

Keep every email.

Keep every invoice.

Keep every refund promise.

And when someone tells you that you need another service, another marketing package, another registration, or another upgrade before your book can succeed, stop and investigate before paying again.

I learned that lesson the hard way.

This is no longer about the remaining money for me.

It is about what happens when someone takes an author's dream, gains their trust, and then the author discovers that things were not what they believed they were buying.

If you have personally dealt with Oxford Book Writers, I want to hear from you.

Good experience or bad experience.

I especially want to hear from people who still have original contracts, invoices, emails, payment records, ISBN information, refund communications, or communications with David Reeds, Mark J. Cooper, Daniel Hayes, or Jake Austin.

Please do not post account numbers or private financial information.

I am looking for documents and facts, not rumors.

Because the more I have gone back through my own records, the more I have realized something very important:

Authors need to know who they are actually doing business with before they hand over their money, their manuscript, their name, and sometimes even their family's name.