Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd. Reviews 643

It's a vanity press, no getting away from that fact! Also they will hound you for years wanting you to sign with them, £1700 is your cheapest option.
They will send you a review of your manuscript telling you how great it is and how they would love to blah blah blah then it's oh but we need a contribution from you to cover costs!
Bolt ya con artists

My experience with the prestigious Austin Macauley Publisher is in a respectful manner, cooperative and professional. I personally believe that their business services are best in the market presently. Moreover, they are focused on publishing such books that are helpful for the societies, have messages for the nations and make a positive impact worldwide in order to serve humanity.

My experience with Austin Macauley has been very positive.
From the beginning of the publishing process, communication was clear, professional, and supportive. The team guided me through each stage with patience and transparency, which made the journey both reassuring and enjoyable.

I especially appreciated their responsiveness and willingness to answer questions along the way. As an author, feeling heard and respected is very important, and Austin Macauley provided that sense of trust.

Overall, it has been a smooth and encouraging experience, and I am grateful for the opportunity to work with a professional and international publishing team.

The process for review of the manuscript and the publisher's decision making is well structured and informative. I found the initial steps were timely and efficient. The editorial process was painless and thorough and professional. I found every step of the way easy to navigate and at no stage did I feel confused or misinformed.

Austin Macauley Publishers is the reason a family member has put out into the world a generational treasure of Italian recipes. The layout of this book is a huge credit to our Author and the incredible publishers as mentioned above. This gathering of rustic recipes in honour of our beloved ancestors is heart warming and a wonder to share with the world. "La Mia Passegiata" by Prof.Rocky Scopelliti is a must in all homes that celebrate foods of true Italian origin. A huge gratitude of thanks to the amazing publisher Austin Macauley for the graphics and layout of this spectacular compiled book.

I signed a hybrid contract with Austin Macauley (AM) when I first started out and didn't know any better. I paid £2500 which is A LOT of money to me. Here's what I got:

SUBMISSION
Easy submission, nice feedback, very helpful department, answered all of my questions.

After I signed the contract and transferred the money:

PRODUCTION
Proofreading: Mediocre (The worst in any of my books so far)
Editorial feedback: None
Blurb feedback (which I requested because I'd never written one before): None
Cover design: Had a friend finish it because the person working on it at AM had no sense of what they were doing. And clearly didn't care either.
Email response time: A week MINIMUM (most often longer and up to a month)
Questions in general: Unanswered
Updates on production: None, and when I asked about it I got a pissy response that "according to the contract they had 270 working days to finish it" – basically I should stop wasting their time. I've since learned that a year is a ridiculously long time for publishing a book, when all you do is (supposedly) proofread, ISBN-register, and (not) make a cover.

MARKETING AND MARKETING MATERIAL
Postcard: Copy of the cover (AM didn't make)
Bookmark: Copy of the book cover (AM didn't make) and the blurb (AM didn't write)
Poster: Extremely tacky, threw them out 
Author website: So cringe I never told anyone it even exsisted
Press release: Word-document with the cover (AM didn't make) and the blurb (AM didn't write). Nothing else. No sales pitch, nothing.
Book trailer: The entire blurb in writing (before I objected). No illustrations, no animation, or video clip – but hey, at least they spent the first ten seconds displaying their own logo. Format was 16:9 which makes it practically useless on SoMe.
Advice for promotion: None (since I'm writing under a pen name and don't live in an English-speaking country)
Book featured on bookfairs: Only if I paid an(other) obscene amount
Questions regarding their sales effort: Standard answer was: "We're reaching out to our contacts". Another one was: "Ooops, I see there hasn't been a follow-up on your book for a few months." 

SOME
Promotion post I was promised: Didn't happen (not that it would do much good since the interactions they get on IG are mostly SINGLE DIGITS)   
AM's response to being tagged because my book got publicity elsewhere: None (Until I wrote them an email)

All in all, this was practically the equivalent to self-publishing – except it was far more expensive and an overall terrible experience. Since then I've learned that you can get far better royalties, better service, better everything, and more professional handling for far less money elsewhere.

Honestly, if they didn't like or want the book and didn't want to work for it, they could just have rejected it. I actually would have preferred it if they did!

Fortunately, the contract has expired now and it was one of the worst experiences I've had so far publishing. They made ZERO effort as soon as they got their money. 

I'm extremely disappointed with the lack of professionalism and so angry that I've wasted all that time and money, but now, I'm also happy it's over with!

Do I recommend? Hell f**king no. 

I loved getting my book published and I think the company took care in their process of publishing. They were thoughtful and polite in their dealings with me while at the same time, offering me advice that I can learn from.

My experience working with Austin Macauley Publishers has been one of the most exciting times.
The team were professional, having them guide me through my first book. I felt like I was part of a team and not a client.
I would thoroughly recommend Austin Macauley Publishers to anyone who would like to have their book considered for publication.

Everyone I dealt with was helpful, polite, accommodating, encouraging and competent. As a first time author I was nervous about the process but every experience put my mind at ease. I was delighted to receive my copies this morning.

An absolute scam, Gave me all the speal to get me to sign and the 7 days to pay them- designed to not let you think about it to long - Every email was misread and the illustrations given were cap cut or some cheap AI generated rubbish. I asked them to stop sending me illustrations 6 times and they just kept sending them unsolicited, nothing close to my idea, I asked 7 times to stop because i wished to cancel - ignored and number 8 hit home only for them to say the 7odd illustrations will cost me 60% of my £2500! The fact I kept telling them to stop didn't matter cos they had done the work. They will not listen and will just take your money. An absolute scam

Austin Macauley produced a beautiful book for me. Unfortunately, their contact with authors is quite impersonal. You can’t talk to anyone, because they insist on emailing. And responses are often slow in coming. If you’re an experienced author and can do all your own marketing, then they might be fine, but don’t expect any hand holding from them if you’re new to publishing a book.

In September 2025, I sent the manuscript of a novel I had written to Austin Macauley, publishers, online. They acknowledged receiving it and six weeks later, they sent me an email saying my story was charming and heart-warming, very well-written and sure to captivate a wide audience. There were other compliments in the email, then an offer to publish on a partner basis, i.e. I had to contribute to the publishing costs. In my case, the invoice was just short of $7,000 Australian.
As a pensioner, this was a large outlay for me, I had to think about this for a while. After a few weeks, I decided to proceed. I signed a contract, and an agreement, completed the Questionnaire, (seventeen pages long,) and sent a photo for promotion posters.
Finally, I went to my bank and proceeded to make an international payment of the above amount in full. The bank clerk told me that Austin and Macauley had not given enough details on the invoice. The swift code wasn’t there, neither was the branch and address of the bank into which the money was to be deposited. (There are a multitude of Lloyds banks in London.) Finally, she told me the name of the account for the money to be deposited in, wasn’t coming up as Austin Macauley. She urged me to contact the company and ask for the missing information before completing the transfer.
I went home and emailed them straightaway requesting the necessary information for the transfer of money to proceed. Ten days on, I still haven’t had a reply.
Having said that I don’t know whether the company as a whole is an issue, or whether the issue lies with staff within the company. Either way, I urge extreme caution if you are thinking of sending manuscripts to this firm.
Update 1/12/25: Five days ago, I received an email from Austin Macauley asking when I intended to pay the Invoice they had sent. I explained to them about my experience at the bank and how they didn't send the required information for me to complete the transaction. They replied that they had never received that email and promptly gave me all the information I had asked for. After more thought, I decided to take their word for it. I've now paid them and hopefully all will go well from here on.

With the fact I had no idea what I needed to do, Austin Publishers were considerate and patient with the entire process, even when I asked the dumb questions.

I was pleased to have to have my book accepted for publication, I have spent many months correcting it and it is now announced for publication on 5 December, it is exciting.

The kindness of the staff and finance. I was kept abreast of all things happening with my manuscript. When I was wasn't being paid over the summer, I was able to defer payments and that helped. In the end I was never nervous, but always excited about this process.

So far, it’s been great from customer service to being a client/writer. Very communicative, professional, responsive, friendly, helpful, polite, understandable, patient, and very supportive in reaching our common goals. Thank You 🙂

The process of getting into the publishing of the book was smooth and easy. Very collaborative!
We are moving to the next stage of the marketing and this is one of the main reasons why I preferred a publishing house rather than going on self-publishing! That's yet to be seen, but so far so good!

I have been with this publishing company in London for 10 years . Took all my money in the beginning , thousands of pounds, and absolutely no push or interest in marketing as per contract. My book was priced out the market. I paid for 12 of my own copies to be sent to me a few months ago and they were completely faulty. You couldn't open the book without all the pages falling out. Very poor quality. Still waiting for the replacements to be sent out but now im getting no reply to my emails. Nobody you can contact to complain either. What an absolute disgrace of a company.

I submitted a proposal for a book which has a section with a physically split page format. I enclosed a large photo in my covering letter and the first page of the synopsis as many people apparently find the concept hard to visualise. The photo could not have been missed.
They quickly replied that they would be interested in publishing my book and enclosed a contract.
I phoned to check that they really were able to print the split age format and was told immediately that they could not.
It was clear that they had in fact not even opened my submission, let alone read it.
I am forced to conclude that they are undiscriminating in who they publish and interested only in obtaining the authors money.