Troubador Publishing Avis 

As a debut author with no prior experience in the publishing industry, I began my journey with Troubador with very limited knowledge. This was remedied quite quickly, with plenty of relevant information provided at each stage of the publishing process, alongside the fact that the process itself was straightforwards and efficient, in that each department got in touch in a timely manner as and when the development of the book had progressed enough for them.
After around seven months or so putting it all together, I am very pleased that Troubador has helped make my debut work (The Key to Avalon) available - both as a printed version and an ebook. From the page design to the illustration that was arranged for the front cover, the quality of the printed book is professional and of an excellent standard. The only thing that remains to be seen, however, is how well the book sells.

Troubador Publishing provided me an exceptional service from start to finish. They were efficient, supportive and responded to every detail during the publishing process. The quality of my books is of the highest standard and I can recommend Troubador Publishing to any author looking to get their manuscript published. A huge thank you to the team starting with Lauren Alexander - Production Controller, Andrea Johnson - Senior Digital Production Controller and the rest of team who all contributed to making my publishing experience run as smoothly as it could.

Sandy Howarth
Silence Speaks

I have been so impressed with Troubador Publishing. Before I contacted them, self-publishing had seemed like a daunting task. But Troubador allayed my fears after my initial contact with the company. It quickly becomes apparent that they are experts at what they do. The staff have been so friendly and helpful. They respond to all queries (no matter how silly) promptly and with clarity. If I knew someone was planning to self-publish a book, I would not hesitate to recommend Troubador.

A very professional service with good communication and prompt responses. The finished book written by my late father looks excellent and I would recommend Troubador to anyone looking to get their book published.

Everyone at Troubador we worked with took time to share their knowledge and expertise, guiding us smoothly through the process to reach publication day in good time. During the editing and design process, we really appreciated their patience as we worked towards realising our vision. We would definitely use Troubador for future publications as we're thrilled by the appearance and feel of the final product.

Everyone at Troubador was friendly, efficient, reliable and willing to do everything possible to make the self-publishing experience as smooth and enjoyable as possible. I also learned a great deal during the process, which will stand me in good stead for the future. I can't praise them highly enough.

Everyone was so helpful. They replied to my Emails promptly.

I was especially impressed by Troubadour’s professional and balanced approach when advertising its services. Unlike many of its rivals and competitors, it allows authors to reflect on their choice of publisher without adopting high pressure sales techniques, and without invading their ‚cyberspace.’
The publishing process is arduous but proceeds efficiently, with plenty of guidance provided along the way to the finished product. If and when difficulties arise, they are quickly resolved to the client’s satisfaction.
My only criticisms concern the relatively late payment of royalties and the lack of genuine assistance in producing a book cover. Advising the author to submit suggestions for illustrations is, I believe, the wrong approach.

Very efficient and helpful throughout the process. The various options to produce and sell the book were clearly explained and I didn't feel pressured in any way to spend more than I wanted. The book cover and presentation was outstanding as well as the website created for me and the team were always ready with sensible advice. Having attempted to self-publish without professional help, I do feel it was worth spending the money to make my book a really attractive product that might (hopefully!) actually sell a few copies.

To set the scene, I arrived at Troubador Publishing with my book, The Derelicts, after having a nightmare with another now defunct publisher who took my money, was deceitful to deal with and finally ran away. I was left extremely wary of all self publishing firms.

The difference in experience at Troubador was stark and very reassuring. Everybody I dealt with from the moment I first called was friendly, efficient and professional. The process and charges, though not the cheapest out there, were clear and unambiguous.

I knew what was happening or about to happen at every stage of the process and any calls I made to clarify what was required were dealt with patiently, any reminders I needed were polite and encouraging. The editing and proofreading stage I paid for made a big difference to the final quality of book but involved a number of changes, all were handled well. I could not have asked for a better process or outcome.

Now the book is published and the first print run is almost sold out. I've ordered a second printing. I'm told it will be ready in about two weeks which means I can continue to publicise the book without fear of there being a lack of stock. And the Troubador staff remain as helpful now as they were at the start.

By the way, the book looks excellent and the cover, suggested by the in-house designer, is really something, much better than I'd hoped for.

Troubador can't decide for you how many copies you need to print, but they were happy to spell out what risks I faced. And the expected revenue... or lack of it. You will only get back maybe 25-30% of the cover price from online sales.

And then it's a waiting game for the copies sold online to gradually become evident so that a decision can be made on how well the book is doing and how many more may need to be printed. But that, of course, is out of Troubador's hands.

I have just published my fifth book with Troubador and once again everything has been perfect. Their team is a joy to work with, and my boxes of books have just arrived. It is always such a pleasure to publish with Troubador... an incredible team, with an amazing range of options, great value for money and a quality end product.
MIKE KENT

The final production of my book is outstanding. I am very very pleased with it. So far one review of the book itself is a five stars review. No doubt helped by the book’s excellent production

From the first moment, I felt that the staff really cared about me and 'MY BOOK. They never gave the impression that it was 'just a job' !
All, without exception, explained each step clearly, as it came along, and had infinite patience if I didn't quite understand immediately.
I knew very little about the modern day publishing process before I started on this journey even though my daughter has had two books published. She published with Troubador in 2024 and had such a great experience and was so impressed that she strongly recommended that I approach Troubador as well when I wrote my book. She was SO right to do so!
I came to feel part of a team even though I was having my hand held very respectfully and gently along the road to publication!
Each department produced just what I saw in my mind and what I wanted the book to be - the way the old photographs and original letters were formatted and displayed; the format of the whole book; the cover image which turned out just the way I had designed it!
THANK YOU EVERYONE at TROUBADOR.
Our journey isn't completely over yet but I will miss you when it is!
Marian

I was genuinely impressed by the expertise and care shown by everyone involved in taking my book from manuscript to finished product. Communication was excellent throughout, and as a new author I really appreciated the clarity, patience, and structured approach — each stage was fully wrapped up before the next began. I always knew exactly where I stood in the production process, and the final book looks and feels like a quality piece of work.

My experience was good as i was listened to and not bamboozled with 'Publishing speak' even though it is the first time i have self published a book. All members of staff answered questions quickly and efficiently. They even picked up when i had paid an invoice twice.

I started with a manuscript of my first book "Another Gingerbread Man!" and a had a clear vision of how I would like to do the illustrations. They took my manuscript and my vision and not only fulfilled them, they enriched it in ways I hadn`t even imagined.
They did a fantastic job on the book and I`m very pleased with it, it truly is a work of art throughout!
Would I work with these people again? 100% yes.

Although Troubadour Publishing is a business venture and therefore, sensibly, in it for profit, they are in fact very much more than that. The care, patience and expertise they committed to the delivery of my book into the marketplace would make a midwife proud. I certainly am, and grateful indeed. My next book has found a home. Thank you for being there, Troubadour, and by the way, great name!

Self-publishing The Other Führer had nothing to do with vanity. I am an established author of educational books, so I am used to seeing my name in print. But this book is not an educational work and therefore not of interest to my usual publishers.

I wanted to publish the book because it throws new light on the history of Germany, and I wanted to share the results of my research with academics as well as general readers of history.

Choosing Troubador
Choosing Troubador was an easy decision. The quantity and quality of information on its website far outstrips its competitors.

After studying all the information on the website I decided to choose almost the full range of services - a copy edit, ebook creation, sales marketing and trade representation, media marketing campaign, website creation and digital marketing.

Start of the process
A very efficient Customer Services Adviser took me through the first stages - generating a quotation and establishing technical parameters such as page size, paper weight, pictures, price, print run, etc. She was quick to answer all my questions - with two exceptions. How many authors, I asked, sold enough books to recover their outlay? When she said she did not have that information, I put the question in another way: how many authors sell more than a thousand copies? Again, she had no answer. I now wish I had pursued this.
Rating 4/5

Production
The Production Controller was excellent. Despite working on up to 80 books at any one time (according to Troubador's website), she was efficient and thorough at every stage of the process.
Rating 5/5

Copy-editing
The copy-editor was also thorough, making a huge number of amendments to the text. However, most were very minor. I felt I could have pre-empted many of them if there had been a style sheet to use while preparing my final MS.
Rating 4/5

Cover design
I submitted a mock-up for the cover design that I created on my basic Pages app. I assumed that the designer would take this to another level. So I was surprised when the cover she proposed was very little different from my mock-up. She was then resistant to my suggestion to experiment with different fonts for the typeface. I also had to intervene in the layout of the text on the spine. So the finalised cover was essentially my own design.
Rating 1/5

Book Trade marketing
This makes the book visible to the book trade - retail set-up, metadata etc. It’s essential technical stuff that would be difficult to arrange for yourself. All done quietly and efficiently in the background.
Rating 5/5

Ebook
Conversion of the text to ebook format was done quickly and efficiently. The resulting ebook looks very good.
Rating 5/5

Digital Marketing
This is a service for marketing the ebook version. It is done by posting it on Netgalley, an ebook review site with 200,000 members who browse new titles and can review them. The posting is live for one month, after which Troubador provides a statistical analysis of the ebook’s reception. Analysis of my ebook showed that just 19 of the 200,000 subscribers downloaded a copy, with only one of them posting a review. This was actually a brief summary of the book rather than an review and therefore useless for publicity purposes.
Rating 0/5

Website
After asking what I wanted the website to look like, the designer very quickly produced an excellent design. The website looks good and works well, with better functionality than another website that I run for my business. My only criticism is that there is no way of finding out how many hits the website has, so I have no idea whether it is having any effect on sales.
Rating 4/5

Publicity
This is the most important link in the chain - getting awareness of the book's existence out into the world. Sadly, it proved to be the weakest link. The publicity campaign consisted of sending a one-page press release to media outlets such as newspapers and magazines. There was very little response. A radio station in Spain requested an interview, and the London Review of Books asked for a review copy. The radio interview went ahead but no review appeared in the LRB.

When I asked the publicist for advice on how else to publicise the book, she recommended using social media. This is something that is also advised in several areas of Troubador's website. However, the kind of readers who might be interested in my book - academics, teachers, older general readers - mostly aren't engaged with social media. My attempts to promote the book on Instagram came to nothing.
Rating 1/5

Conclusion
I was delighted by the book itself - well produced and attractive. However, sales have been very disappointing.
Although it is available to order through Amazon et al, it hasn't been taken up by Waterstones or any other retailer. Doesn't stand a chance against the competition.

My experience with everyone at Troubador Publishing was first class. In the many encounters I have had with various members of their team, in bringing my book from an idea into actuality, they have shown patience and guidance beyond expectation.
The end product is of genuine quality. They retain traditional values and have acted quickly to eliminate many potential pitfalls.
I would not hesitate to recommend them.

David Rankin

From start to publishing it has been a great pleasure to work with the team at Troubador. Efficient, helpful, clear and outstanding at what they do. From proof-read to bookshop they were expert in all the moving parts on the path to publication.
Staff are brilliant - they guided a novice like me. Top quality for example they got my book cover in one go.