Hawes & Jenkins publishing
This-self described-publishing company- failed to follow through on most of what was outlined/listed in the contract agreement I signed. They were not responsive to a number of(at least 3) my requests for follow. up telephone calls and/or email responses. Their attention to detail was poor overall, and the endless excuses for things not getting done, has been infuriating -to say the least. While I signed up and paid -in full- in November 2025, by the second week in February, almost nothing has been done. All updates/edits were done either by me, or by a local Content/Design Company - I also enlisted for much of the books overall creation - including overall book layout, graphics and images (including Dust Jacket and other covers) . When I asked to project manager to add one image to the manuscript, she responded in a few days - saying that “there wasn’t enough room on the page” to fit the image, so they left it out. I called and responded, how can a large publishing company, not know how to add and image to a manuscript. Yes you are going to move some of the text-down -some wrapping to the next page- but that is normal-expected.
She Finally agreed-saying they should have gotten that handled. I proceeded to have the local design team, add the image, and adjust the text accordingly - which they did later that same day. I sent the updated file onto this company. No response at all.
Recently I was sent another file- saying it was ready to go and needed my approval. Upon opening the file I immediately saw that it was an older file=which had already been updated (by me and the local Design team) and forwarded to them (Project Mgr specifically)
All of the edits/updates were documented on a “Galley Sheet” (Similar to Excel doc) as they requested. The Galley sheet listed all the updates, including the ones =most recently not included. So again, no attention to detail really at all.
So I have numerous email exchanges, further illustrating what I did- and provided to this company, vs their responses -which have been minimal at best.
I also asked- more than once- why we could not get to other items on the “to do” list spelled out in contract, while other aspects were being addressed. The answer was invariably, “we cannot move to the next item/step until this first one is complete. Almost 3 months into this exchange, and we are still stuck on step one.
I can only assume, this lack of follow through wrapped in excuses will be the “norm” and not the “exception."
I’ve asked for a full refund, and so far have been told “that has been denied” (surprise, surprise) . So far @$3 thousand already paid, and really nothing credible to show.