Long Review from Author of "The Sin and the Boy"
I apologize for the long review, but I highly reccomend reading through everything.
I have used Frontline Publishing to produce an audiobook for my novel, "The Sin and the Boy." My first comment: any person you speak to at Frontline Publishing is a salesperson--and their first and foremost purpose is for their clients to spend the most money as possible, even when it is not disclosed in the original production plan.
I talked with Tony Garcia first, who provided a base cost sheet for my project, established a timeline, and listed the details of what was included in the original plan. All of which I budgeted for, and had prepared to cover the cost, as I knew what I was expecting.
After I met my first project manager, Eva Millars, I quickly discovered how pushy they could be. There would be times when I felt like every call was meant as a sale pitch about a feature that they offer. While I see the value in providing the most exposure for an indie author, the prices Frontline offered were far too expensive for me to consider--and at times, I was haggled down with zip code based "discount" to see if I would buy what they were offering, even after I said no a million times.
My new project manager, Emma Brown, has been a bit more lenient with the offers, but has convinced me to buy a few more promotional concepts after not understanding the concept of "no." Again, never mentioned in the original budget or plan, because Frontline Publishing tells you one amount, and then charges a dozen times over with details that were never mentioned.
Overall, the quality of the work across the board has been fine. My book narrator is very professional, and while I do not communicate with her directly, she does a decent job at the pronunciation of hard fantasy language. The only problem I have with some of the readings are usually fixed per Frontline's policy "edits until 100% satisfied", so there are no complaints there.
For the website creation, I wish, again, that Frontline Publishing disclosed how much the entire website, plus the addition of merchants and security, would have cost upfront, since it too was expensive and came as a shock that I had to cough up more money in order to secure these features separately. Had I been aware of the payments ahead of time, I would have been more insistient about saying no to the website, rather than giving in.
Overall, Frontline Publishing is a business. They look to take as much money as possible and leave indie authors blindsided by additional payments and features after promising them a (decently good) package. For anyone looking to use their services, I highly suggest that you either have a strong backbone for their insistent offers, or find a different publishing company that details out everything before you agree to a partnership.
2 September 2026
Unprompted review